The Saints Defense Was Given The Day Off, But Kenny Vaccaro Was NOT Having It

Coaches gave Monday off. Vaccaro said he said no and wants defense to come in to review game

— Nick Underhill (@nick_underhill) October 16, 2016

TheAdvocate- The coaching staff often rewards its players by giving them the day off after a win. This time, though, the defense turned down the offer. After it was announced following Sunday’s 41-38 victory that the players did not need to come in, safety Kenny Vaccaro told his teammates and coaches that he wants the defense in the building.

“I want the whole defense to meet tomorrow with the coaches and we’re going to go through this whole tape,” Vaccaro said. “I felt like we won the game but I don’t have a good taste in my mouth. I think there’s some things out there that I know that we didn’t do that we need to execute. Little things that are going to cost in the future.”

“When you watch it as a unit whether it’s the linebackers, d-line, everybody gets to see exactly what’s going on who is not doing it right,” the safety said. “Sometimes the younger guys don’t know what’s really going on upfront or in the second level. So I want those guys to see it and how everything meshes together.”



Not for nothing, but if we are judging on the "Get Cam Newton to huff, puff, and prematurely blow off his press conference" scale then the Saints defense absolutely deserves a day off to bask in their extremely relative success. After all, if the Super Bowl was any indication then it's only the most frustrating of units are able to elicit this reaction...

Unfortunately - as much as they had their own fans pinching themselves during the first half to make sure the sacks, pass breakups, and red zone turnovers were actually taking place in real life - this defense simple can't afford a day off. Not when yet another record setting offensive display from Drew Brees was damn near for naught. This year, as opposed to the last few, I don' have to question their will to win, but I'll be damned if their ability to isn't still very much up in the air.

I think many Saints fans would say that the secondary put forth an honorable effort yesterday.....and it still resulted in THIRTY-EIGHT points against. The cold hard truth is that this defense probably shouldn't take a night off either. With the amount of players that are in over their head due to injuries, sacrificing a single second of film study to get one wink of sleep could be detrimental to their chances come the following Sunday. That's not an indictment of their desire, but it is an indictment of their inexperience and general lack of available talent.

​Delvin Breaux should certainly help to cure what ails them when he (crosses fingers, knocks on wood) gets back on the field shortly, but this is strictly a "I'll believe it when I see it" situation. The only thing I have seen is a defense that - on a good day - struggles to keeps teams under 40 points, and I'm glad that I'm not the only one. Props to Kenny Vaccaro for taking a leadership role in hopes of helping this defense progress towards something that could maybe, someday be mistaken for respectable - even it's just an incremental improvement. He'll NEVER admit it, but I'm sure Drew Brees would appreciate even the slightest of increase in his margin for error. 

P.S. The 4th down pass interference call on Kenny Vaccaro in the end zone that ultimately kept Carolina in the game was maybe one of the most bogus, bailout flags I have ever seen thrown, and that's saying something.