The New Orleans Saints’ struggles stopping the Las Vegas Raiders’ rush attack is a perfect depiction of how far the Saints run defense has fallen.
New Orleans is a long way from holding on to a yearslong streak of not allowing a 100-yard rusher. Now, they’re allowing Ameer Abdullah to break the century mark for the first time in his 10-year career. Coming into the game, the Las Begas running back had a total of 196 rushing yards and nearly matched that total in a single game against the Saints.
Aidan O’Connell took two kneel downs, and Brock Bowers ran the ball for a loss of one. Even with that, the Raiders averaged 4.1 yards per carry. Abdullah, their lead back, averaged 5.8 per rush. He left the field with 115 rushing yards on the afternoon.
The Saints entered as the third-worst run defense, and the Raiders had the worst run offense in the league. Someone had to break, and that someone was the Saints.
A lot of the issues come down to poor tackling. This has troubled the Saints throughout the year. It’s one thing to be a bad run defense. It’s another thing to be bad against one of the league’s least-productive rushing offenses. Whoever is coaching them in 2025 must make fixing this a top priority.
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