New Orleans Pelicans need to learn from New Orleans Saints
By Rick Stone
The New Orleans Pelicans could take a great lesson from the Week One loss the New Orleans Saints suffered this past Sunday.
Many New Orleans Pelicans fans are still frustrated in a loss that occurred this past Sunday.
No, not with the Pelicans. With the New Orleans Saints.
It seems odd to see Pelican Debrief talking about the Saints, however the Pelicans could take some big lessons from the New Orleans football team into their own season.
For those who do not know, the Saints lost a tough game to the Oakland Raiders on Sunday afternoon, 35-34. Saints quarterback Drew Brees had a fantastic game, scoring 4 touchdowns and 423 yards passing. He finished with a QBR of 131.3, which topped the entire NFL.
So how did the Saints lose and what can the Pelicans take out of this?
The obvious is simple: Defense is necessary to win in any sport.
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The New Orleans Saints should have won a game they raked up over 500 yards. The problem was they gave up nearly 500 yards as well. The Raiders were able to win due to their strong offensive performance. The Saints defense was non-existent, in a similar way to how invisible the Pelicans defense became in 2015-2016.
A fantastic offense can only take you so far. Brees is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. He has amazing weapons and they played well too. Without a defense, they could not win, even with Drew at his best. This is something Alvin Gentry needs to keep at heart. Offense can be electrifying, but alone it does not win games.
The other big keys are something New Orleans already takes into decent context, but should continue to focus in on. Mistakes and Opportunities.
The Saints could never close the game against the Raiders due to missed opportunities and one costly mistake. Although Brees was fantastic, he did lose a fumble in the first possession of the game. Though it only resulted in three Raider points, it ended up being enough to greatly effect the outcome.
The Pelicans did finish with just 13.4 turnovers a game last year, seventh best in the league. Still, it’s something fast, high powered offenses can take for granted. To succeed, the Pels must continue their strong focus.
The opportunities missed for both teams is a big place for improvement. For the Saints, they finished 4-11 on third downs. They gave up four scoring drives in a row to Oakland to end the game. They had two missed field goals. The biggest was the poor defense on the Raider’s gutsy two-point conversion. The Saints had all the chances in the world to win and fell short.
It’s something the Pelicans must focus on. In the final five minutes of games that had a five-point of less separation, the Pelicans finished tied for 24th in the NBA with a -0.8 score difference. When New Orleans were in a close contest, they crumbled.
For the Pelicans to reach their goals, that can not happen this campaign. This team’s focus in the offseason seem focused on exactly what cost the Saints this past weekend. New Orleans keyed in on free agents that could defend, have limited mistakes and can be clutch near the end of games.
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It’s still early for the New Orleans Saints, but it’s never too early to learn for the New Orleans Pelicans. When a team is so focused on one side of the equation, it becomes easy to lose games, even when played nearly flawless. Anthony Davis and the Pelicans have big aspirations for this upcoming season. The focus and energy will need to be high on both ends, in order to avoid a tough start to the 2016-2017 season, like the New Orleans Saints had in game one of their NFL grind.