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The New Orleans Saints turnover problems are a nuisance

By Dean Mullen

Aug 20, 2016; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans strong safety Quintin Demps (27) breaks up a pass intended for New Orleans Saints wide receiver Brandon Coleman (16) in the first quarter at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 20, 2016; Houston, TX, USA; Houston Texans strong safety Quintin Demps (27) breaks up a pass intended for New Orleans Saints wide receiver Brandon Coleman (16) in the first quarter at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Saints are playing with fire in these first two weeks. There are so many issues that are going awry, but none of them won’t matter unless they fix the turnover issue.

The Saints will find it very difficult to win, when they are committing turnovers like there’s no tomorrow.  The fact of the matter, it’s irrelevant if it’s preseason, regular season, or backyard football. The turnovers are coming so fast and furious that this is already an emergency.

Here are the winners of the apple turnover awards: Drew Brees, Garrett Grayson, Marcus Murphy, and C.J. Spiller. There is no reason to go into how each one happened. There’s also no reason to start pointing the finger at certain players, because there are too many. The blame no doubt rides solely on the coaches. These are mistakes that keep happening. This is not counting everything else that surely is out of sorts.

But let’s look at the statistics from 2015. Six of the top seven teams that lead the turnover plus category were in the playoffs last year. The Carolina Panthers finished +20 which was first in the NFL. The other teams had a plus turnover ratio that ran from +7 to +14. The only team that didn’t make the playoffs were the New York Giants at a +7 ratio. If you add up the numbers though, about 86% of the top seven teams went to the playoffs.

So let’s look at the flip side. The teams that fell in the bottom ten of the turnover plus ratio at -5 all missed the playoffs. There is no doubt a clear correlation between turning the ball over and winning games. The Saints were +2 in the turnover ratio in 2015 and -13 in 2014. Their rankings were 16th in 2015 and 31st in 2014. This is not very good evidence.

If you want to just look at the Saints right now. The team is at a -5 turnover ratio. If the Saints continue the blazing trend of hot potato, they will be at -10 for the whole preseason. Personally, even if they tried that number would be unfathomable. Regardless, the coaches may want to have the players sleep with the footballs this week, because if they don’t the nightmare season may come in 2016.

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