New Orleans Saints: Three things we’ve learned so far without Drew Brees

1. When pressed, the defense has been far better than expected

One of the biggest reasons for concern when Brees went down with the thumb injury is how the team was going to be able to put up enough points to keep up with the defense. And while we will get to the points portion of this article later, the defense has stepped up for the team over these three games.

The numbers were not pretty in Seattle as Russell Wilson had a huge day in the box score but it was a very deceiving big yardage day for Wilson. Not only did the Saints defense record a touchdown in that game, but they held Seattle to just 14 points up until there were four minutes left in the game.

From there, the Seahawks were able to score two garbage-time touchdowns, one of which came at the very last second, which made the game appear much closer than it actually was.

The defense then put together it’s strongest showing of the year thus far the very next week. The defense held the Dallas Cowboys to just 10 points, helping an offense that only scored 12. The defense shut down both Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott, which was huge.

Finally, the Saints maintained a Tampa Bay offense that scored 55 points the week prior. While Chris Godwin had a big week, the Bucs really were never in control in the game and it was another garbage-time touchdown that made the game look close.

You can’t just take points off the board but Tampa Bay had 17 points up until the final 13 seconds of the game. Without the garbage-time scores, which again, we cannot take away, the defense has allowed 41 points in three games when it mattered.