Saints must reduce high number of penalties

When your favorite team is 10-2 and tied for the top spot in its conference, it is hard to find fault.

The 2019 New Orleans Saints have handled adversity quite well.

Starting linebacker Alex Anzalone went down before the season began.

Then came the injury to Drew Brees, which clearly cost them the game in Los Angeles against the Rams.

Then, Teddy Bridgewater stepped in and the defense stepped up as the Saints surprised many by going 5-0 without their future Hall of Fame quarterback.

There was an injury to Alvin Kamara which hurt. Jared Cook and Tre’Quan Smith missed time.

Most recently, New Orleans has had to deal with key injuries to Marshon Lattimore, Andrus Peat and Terron Armstead.

Through it all, the Saints have put themselves in prime position to have the NFC go through New Orleans for a second straight year.

New Orleans controls its own destiny.

Win the remaining games and earn the No. 1 seed.

The Saints will be favored in all of those games, although the game at Tennessee could be close in terms of oddsmakers.

The game with San Francisco this week is as close as it can get.

The Saints opened a 3-point favorite, an indication that oddsmakers rank these two teams dead even on a neutral field. The 49ers would be a 3-point favorite at home over the Saints, an illustration of how important home field advantage is.

The 49ers are terrific up front on defense and pretty good behind their excellent front. They are good up front on offense and run the ball as well as anyone, averaging 148 yards per game, second best in the NFL to Baltimore. The 49ers are No. 1 in the league in the fewest yards allowed per game at 250.9.

This game will be a huge testosterone test. The strong will survive.

The Saints are good against the run. Can New Orleans run it successfully on San Francisco.

The one thing that New Orleans must do better involves discipline and reducing the number of infractions it incurs.

In the last four games, the Saints have been penalized 42 times for 400 yards, an average of 10.5 penalties for 100 yards per game.

That is hard to overcome.

The fact that the Saints are 3-1 in those games speaks volumes.

The extraordinary number of hands-to-the-face penalties have really hurt.

Of course, the pass interference penalties have been front and center, providing the opponent with new life and huge, huge chunks of yardage.

New Orleans ranks 25th of 32 NFL teams in penalties, averaging 7.9 per contest and an average of 68.3 yards per game. Opponents have been awarded first downs by penalty nearly three times per game (2.8).

The teams behind the Saints at the bottom of the barrel that are penalized most are teams going nowhere in Arizona, Detroit, the Jets, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Oakland and Jacksonville. That also speaks volumes about what the Saints have overcome. That is not very good company to keep.

Of course, the flip side of the argument can be made about the teams at the top of the league in fewest penalties.

While Indianapolis, a fairly good team, is No. 1 with the fewest penalties, Cincinnati, Carolina, Miami and the Giants follow and none of those teams are going anywhere this season.

Then, there is the business of how opposing teams have been penalized against New Orleans.

By comparison, those opponents average just 5.3 penalties per game and 40.6 yards per game, the least in the NFL in both categories.

Digging deeper, Jeff Asher of USA Today has a very good read on the topic as well.

One more interesting note from that piece is this tidbit:

“On the whole, the Saints’ opponents have averaged 2.2 fewer penalties per game and 21.4 fewer penalty yards per game when playing against New Orleans than their typical outings.”

I can hear the Saints fans who are scoffers regarding fairness as I type these words. I hear you loud and clear.

While you do not expect receivers to have as many drops as last Thursday night, the Saints have to run the ball more. Michael Thomas will receive added attention the rest of the way. Alvin Kamara has to be elite. Perhaps Keith Kirkwood will return and provide some pop.

Then, the defense has to eliminate crucial penalties, regardless of what gets called against the opposition.

That is the one aspect, along with turnovers, that the Saints cannot afford many of if they want to remain a true threat to earn the No. 1 seed and a true threat to win the Super Bowl.

More penalties would be a red flag with regard to chances of reaching the promised land. Perhaps that is a bad choice of words. Now, let’s hope we see fewer yellow flags flying against the guys wearing white, black and gold. That is the challenge for Sean Payton as he hopes to keep the red flag firmly entrenched in his pocket while Brees enjoys good pocket protection.