Tag: Turnovers

Numbers do lie: Saints lost the turnover battle vs. Falcons

The Saints and Falcons had an equal number of takeaways, but the Saints still lost the turnover battle due to not capitalizing off Atlanta’s mistakes:

If you simply look at the stats at the end of the game, you’ll see the New Orleans Saints forced two turnovers and gave up two turnovers to the Atlanta Falcons. Mathematically, that means each team tied in the turnover battle. Numbers do lie, or at least don’t tell the full story.

Despite having the same amount of turnovers, New Orleans’ turnovers were met with more consequences. Both of the Saints turnovers came in the red zone and took points off the board. Derek Carr’s interception to Jessie Bates III was returned for a touchdown, taking points away from the Saints and directly giving them to the Falcons. Atlanta then turned a Taysom Hill fumble into another touchdown after a nine-play, 95-yard drive.

While teams may have forced two turnovers (with Tyrann Mathieu twice intercepting Desmond Ridder), Atlanta turned those opportunities into 14 points. The Saints got zero points from their takeaways. The Saints get a slight pass on one turnover because it was at the end of the half.

Still, the point discrepancy was a major difference in the game. The battle can’t be equal when one team scored over half their points from turnovers and the other couldn’t capitalize on their opponent’s mistakes. The Saints were the latter on Sunday.

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Vikings turnover issues continue: Purple Access

The latest episode of Purple Access discusses the Vikings consistent turnover issues

The Minnesota Vikings continue to put themselves in poor situations. Against the Denver Broncos, they turned it over three times and it turned into nine Broncos points and that ended up being the deciding factor in a 21-20 loss.

It’s incredibly frustrating that the Vikings continue to turn the ball over. What can they do to fix it? Can the Vikings defense keep carrying the team by playing well when the offense continues to turn it over?

The playcalling has also come into question. How much is it the fault of playcalling versus the execution? The guys break that down along with a short preview of Monday night’s game.

All of that and more on the latest episode of Purple Access on the Purple Daily YouTube channel.

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Studs and duds from Broncos’ 21-20 win against Vikings

Here are the studs and duds from the Broncos’ win over the Vikings on Sunday night.

The Denver Broncos had a short turnaround from a Monday Night Football win over the Buffalo Bills in Week 10 to a Sunday Night Football matchup against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 11. Here are the studs and duds from the Broncos’ heart-stopping 21-20 win against the Vikings.

The Broncos’ defense has turned into a takeaway machine

The Broncos have forced nine turnovers in their last two games, the most in a two-game span since 1998.

This is not the same Denver Broncos defense that was blown out by the Miami Dolphins 70-20 in September.

Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph has made several key changes since that blowout loss and Denver’s defense has flipped from a weakness to a strength.

Two weeks ago, the Broncos forced five turnovers in a 24-9 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Last week, Denver forced four turnovers in a 24-22 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

That marked the first time since 1998 that the Broncos forced nine turnovers in a two-game span and the first time since 1991 that the club had consecutive games with at least four takeaways.

“It was the difference [in the game],” coach Sean Payton said of the takeaways in Buffalo. “Our defensive takeaways — and honestly, it’ll be the key for us as we move forward these next few weeks. It’s just hard  —the margins in our league are so close. Let’s say there are 12 possessions per team, on average. There might be a little more or less. I get a takeaway — that means I have 13 and you have 11.

“I get one more — I have 14, you have 10. You just start doing that math. We knew it was going to be really significant here. Josh [Allen] and Sean [McDermott] together are 33-1 when they win the turnover battle. That’s pretty significant, 33-1. But fortunately for us, we won that [Monday], and that had a lot to do — if not everything to do — with us winning the game.”

This week, Denver’s defense will face quarterback Josh Dobbs, who hasn’t thrown an interception through his first two games with the Minnesota Vikings. Earlier this season, Dobbs threw five interceptions in eight games with the Arizona Cardinals. Dobbs has also fumbled 11 times this year.

If the Broncos are continue to continue their three-game winning streak, forcing Dobbs into mistakes on Sunday could be a key to success.

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Is Steelers QB Kenny Pickett playing it too safe this season?

No quarterback has committed fewer turnovers this season than Kenny Pickett.

When it comes to turnovers, less is always better, right? That seems to be the perfectly logical approach when it comes to the NFL. When teams lose the turnover battle, they lose. It’s a metric as true as anything.

So when we see the stat below from CBS Sports, he is excited. No quarterback has committed fewer turnovers than Pickett this season. This is definitely a contributing factor as to why the Steelers are 6-3 this season. Pittsburgh is taking the football away, taking care of the football and gutting out close wins.

But maybe, just maybe, Pickett might be playing it too safe. Pickett relies heavily on his defense to pick him up and this helps him decide to not force throws opting to miss big, punt it away, and wait his turn.

As the season wears on, there are going to be situations when Pittsburgh needs Pickett to take some shots and risk it because teams are going to really focus on this new and improved rushing offense. We just hope Pickett is ready to take on that responsibility as the season progresses.

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5 things to watch for when Broncos face Bills on ‘Monday Night Football’

Here are five things to watch for when the Broncos go on the road to face the Bills on ‘Monday Night Football.’

The Denver Broncos are set to make a 1,500-mile journey to Orchard Park, New York to play the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football in Week 10. Here are five big things to watch in this big prime-time game.

Playmaking Saints secondary leads the NFL with 12 interceptions

Credit where it’s due: Dennis Allen’s secondary leads the NFL with 12 interceptions. Offseason coaching staff changes are paying off for the Saints defense

Credit where it’s due: Dennis Allen’s secondary leads the NFL with 12 interceptions through their first nine games. Offseason coaching staff changes are paying off for the New Orleans Saints defense. The decision to bring on coaches who shared Allen’s vision for the defensive backfield like coordinator Joe Woods and secondary coach Marcus Robertson have made a difference — and, we’ll admit, those were moves we questioned when Allen rolled out those changes in the spring.

But the numbers speak for themselves. Turnovers are one of the NFL’s most high-variance stats from one year to the next, but it’s not often you see a team go from ranking 30th in interceptions (7) to leading the league in just a single season. And it’s not like the Saints have different players out on the field.

Tyrann Mathieu, Paulson Adebo, Marcus Maye, Alontae Taylor, and Marshon Lattimore were all starters last year and they’ve all returned, albeit with some minor shakeups like Taylor moving to the slot. But whether it’s due to different coaching points like playing the ball differently or simple bounces going New Orleans’ way, the defense is doing a much greater job at creating opportunities for the offense this season. They need to keep that momentum going during the back half of the 2023 campaign.

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Saints defense must force turnovers to defeat the Jaguars

With the offense struggling, the Saints defense needs to force turnovers out of the Jaguars and maybe score points of their own:

Forcing turnovers will be pivotal for the New Orleans Saints in the matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Saints defense has forced a turnover in every game thus far and taken away an interception in all but one. This trend must continue in order to come away with a win on Thursday night. It’s their key to victory.

The Saints offense has had their struggles this season and can’t be trusted to put up points. They now have to deal with a hampered offensive line on top of their usual struggles. As conditions on that side of the ball worsen, the defense will have to continue to pick up the slack. This means limiting points and possibly scoring points of their own. Forcing turnovers can achieve both of these goals.

In the best game the Saints have played this year, the defense scored their first points. You might need that to happen again on Thursday night. The offense could benefit from short fields where they start in favorable field goal position. The Saints defense may need to be another form of offense against the Jaguars. That’s easier said than done, but this might be an area New Orleans has an edge. They rank 10th-best in ending defensive drives with takeaways (13.9%) while Jacksonville is right in line with the league average in possessions ending in turnovers (11.0%, which is 15th).

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Despite first takeaway of season, Raiders take sole possession of NFL-worst turnover differential

Despite first takeaway of season, Raiders take sole possession of NFL-worst turnover differential

Good news: The Raiders finally got a takeaway. No longer making team one of just two teams without one this season.

Bad news: Their three turnovers on offense now land them alone in last place for the NFL’s worst turnover differential.

After the first three weeks of the season, the Raiders were tied with the Minnesota Vikings with a -7 turnover differential.

Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Raiders would break the shutout in terms of takeaways by getting their first interception of the season. Tre’von Moehrig finally secured an interception.

Unfortunately, Aidan O’Connell fumbled three times and threw an interception. Two of those fumbles were recovered by the Chargers, giving them three turnovers on the day and a -2 turnover differential for the game.

This dropped them to a -9 turnover differential on the season.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the Vikings had two turnovers and one takeaway in a win over the Panthers, to give them a -1 turnover differential for the game and tied for 30th in the league with a -8 for the season.

The Chargers going +2 versus the Raiders moved them into a tie for 4th in the league with the Sehawks (+5).

The top three are the Cowboys (+9), Buccaneers (+7), and Bills (+6).

Raiders have NFL’s worst turnover differential through 3 weeks

No team in the NFL has a worse turnover differential right now than the Raiders.

You can find a lot of different ideas of what makes for a successful team and what doesn’t. But there’s one thing most everyone can agree upon as a major factor in wins and losses: turnovers.

In that regard, there is little question as to why the Raiders have just one win which they eeked out against a bad Broncos team.

The Raiders defense has yet to take the ball away from the opposing offense this season. Not by interception or by fumble.

The Raiders offense, on the other hand, has turned the ball over seven times. That’s six interceptions and one fumble.

That -7 turnover differential is tied for dead last in the NFL. But the Vikings, with whom the Raiders are tied, at least have two takeaways. The Raiders and Giants (-5) are the only two teams in the league without a takeaway through three games.

Sunday night, Marcus Peters gave the Raiders their best shot at changing that stat. He read a short pass perfectly and had what would have been a sure pick six, but dropped it.

Obviously, the Raiders six interceptions thrown were by Jimmy Garoppolo. Compared to five touchdown passes. While Garoppolo has one of the team’s three fumbles, just one of those fumbles was not recovered by the Raiders and that was Zamir White’s fumble in Buffalo in Week two.

In case you’re wondering, the best turnover differential belongs to the Dallas Cowboys with six. The Buccaneers come in second with five. Then a cluster of teams at four and so on.

Rounding out the worst teams are the Broncos (-4), Bears (-4), and Browns (-5).