Everyone knew the New Orleans Saints offensive line was going to be at a disadvantage against the Atlanta Falcons. They were working without two injured starters in Erik McCoy and Cesar Ruiz, and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak tried to coach around those absences by speeding up Derek Carr’s windup. It worked, for a time, but ultimately the backups blocking for him fell apart.
Here’s what Week 4’s newsletter from NFL Next Gen Stats and Zebra Technologies had to say about the game:
“The Falcons defense generated a season-high 28.9% pressure rate despite Derek Carr averaging just 2.39 seconds to throw. Entering Sunday, the Falcons generated pressure on only 20.0% of dropbacks, the lowest rate in the NFL.”
Carr averaged 2.64 seconds to throw in Week 3, 2.81 seconds in Week 2, and 2.83 seconds in Week 1. So he was taking the snap, dropping back, reading the field and winding up to throw almost half a second faster in Week 4 than in the season opener. No wonder he wasn’t able to get off his first or second read very often.
Everyone’s hands are dirty here. Carr needs to both make better decisions with the ball and throw better passes, even if he’s facing more pressure than usual. That’s why he’s paid the big bucks. At the same time his offensive line needs to do a better job keeping him clean, even if guys like Shane Lemieux and Landon Young are normally spectators on gameday, not starters. And inexperienced starters like Trevor Penning must keep improving, too. The unit did some things well as a whole on Sunday. Connecting those positive moments and sustaining success is going to be their challenge moving forward.
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