Saints by the numbers: Overcoming mistakes yet again

In Sunday’s 30-10 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Saints finished with two turnovers to the Bucs’ one. For the 330th time in franchise history, New  Orleans had a negative turnover margin.

Sunday’s win was the 57th time the Saints have won on the wrong side of the turnover ledger, meaning that in its history, New Orleans has won about once every six times it loses the turnover margin.

Here’s where the unique part comes in. The Saints have lost the turnover margin each of the last three weeks and won each time. It’s the first time in franchise history the Saints have won three consecutive games with a negative turnover margin.

Despite a minus-1 margin each of the last three weeks, the Saints have overcome the mistakes by outgaining their opponents by a collective 512 total yards, including a 407-200 disparity in yardage on Sunday.

Five times before this season, the Saints had won back-to-back games when losing the turnover margin: Oct. 15 and 22, 2000; Oct. 25 and Nov. 2, 2009; Sept. 25 and Oct. 2, 2011; Dec. 18 and 26, 2011; and Nov. 10 and 17, 2013.

The good news? Each time it has occurred previously, it was in a season where the Saints made the playoffs.

Another interesting trend on the turnover list: Of the last 12 victories New Orleans has had when losing the turnover battle, dating back to the middle of the 2011 season, five have come against the Buccaneers.

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ESPN posted the note prior to Sunday’s game that a Saints win would make them the third team in the Super Bowl era to start 0-2 and immediately go on a six-game winning streak.

The good news? Both teams who previously achieved the feat – the 1993 Dallas Cowboys and the 2007 New York Giants – went on to win the Super Bowl.

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The Saints defense held Tampa Bay to exactly 200 total yards on Sunday, marking the ninth time in the Sean Payton era – but the second time this season – a New Orleans defense has allowed 200 or fewer yards in a game.

Interestingly, only three of those strong defensive efforts have come inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, and the previous two happened on back-to-back Sundays in 2013 against Dallas and San Francisco.

This year’s other sub-200 effort came in London, when Dennis Allen’s defense held Miami to 186 yards in pitching a 20-0 shutout.

The best defensive efforts since 2006:

(Research through Pro-Football-Reference.com)