Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LeFleur praised Jordan Love for being, “one of the best I’ve ever been around at avoiding sacks and negative plays.” As the New Orleans Saints visit the Packers for Monday Night Football, the Saints must do what most have failed to do, take down Love consistently.
If New Orleans can get a few sacks on Love, it would help to take away the run game on that set of downs. Love and his band of wide receivers are extremely talented, but Josh Jacobs is the biggest threat to the Saints defense.
The Saints have the sixth-worst rushing defense in the NFL, and they allow the second-most yards per carry. If the Saints can bring down Love, the Packers could elect to pass to make up for lost yardage. The Saints must then capitalize on forcing Green Bay to be temporarily one-dimensional.
Bringing down the Packers quarterback is no easy task. LeFleur’s assertion on Love is backed up by numbers. In 12 games this season, Love has only been sacked 11 times. In his first year as a starter, he had the fifth-best sack to dropback percentage. He’s tough to bring down.
The Saints’ strides as a pass rush unit under Brian Young has been praised. Chase Young has 3.5 of his 5.5 sacks and Cameron Jordan recorded all three of his sacks since the change at defensive line coach. Bryan Bresee has seen an uptick in production, too. As they go against one of the most difficult quarterbacks to sack, those improvements will be put to the test.
New Orleans has recorded no fewer than two sacks in their last five games. They’ll need to do at least that on Monday to corral a dangerous offense. It’s easier said than done, but it may be the key for the Saints defense.
