The New Orleans Saints host the Denver Broncos on Thursday Night Football in Sean Payton’s return to New Orleans.

I’m just going to be straight up honest; the Saints defense was awful on Sunday. They got completely exposed by Baker Mayfield, and despite forcing three interceptions, they gave up 51 points. It was an absolutely pathetic effort by everyone involved.

This week, they get a Broncos offense who isn’t performing at a very high level. They’re scoring just 18 points per game, which ranks 25th in the league, and are still going through some growing pains with rookie quarterback, Bo Nix. However, I will say Nix has looked better the past couple weeks.

I still believe the Saints have the playmakers on defense to be really good, but they just need to be more physical. In Sunday’s loss to Tampa, the Saints missed 15 tackles and gave up 242 yards after the catch. Mayfield threw for 315 yards, meaning that nearly 77% of his yards came after the catch. That is just unacceptable.

Unfortunately for the Saints, their tackling is going to be tested again this week against Denver. Bo Nix does not like to throw the ball downfield (just like in his college days), with over 60% of his attempts covering less than nine air yards and 50% of his yards coming after the catch. If they can’t get the Broncos receivers on the ground on first contact, it could be another long day for them defensively.

They are a bit fortunate, however, that the Broncos aren’t very super at rushing the football. They rank 23rd in the league in yards per game (107) and 18th in yards per attempt (4.3). Not horrible numbers, but nothing that’ll make you shake in your boots.

The Saints defense started the season off great against the run, but they’ve fallen off drastically since then. They now rank 20th in rushing yards allowed per game (133) and 30th in yards per attempt allowed (5.2). Those numbers are just unacceptable when your defense is supposed to be the strength of your team.

The Saints defense also ranked towards the top of the league in sacks through two weeks, but in their last three games, their 1.3 sacks per game put ranks 27th in the NFL. Things won’t get any easier in the sack department either, because the Broncos currently rank 5th in the NFL in sacks allowed, only giving up 1.5 per game.

This week is really going to tell us a lot about the Saints defense. Are they going to lay another egg and show us that maybe they’re not as good as we thought they were early in the season? Or are they going to bounce back with a big-time performance against Sean Payton’s offense and remind everyone that they’re still one of the premier units in the league?

I hope it’s the latter, but I’m not entirely sure to be honest.

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