Someone asked Sean Payton how high his blood pressure after Monday night's loss to the Minnesota Vikings?
"I'm fine," replied the Saints coach, who had just watched his team's record fall to 2-3, good for last place in the NFC South.
"I'm disappointed for the players," said the coach. "It's tough losing. It's tough losing when there are parts of your plan and guys play that well. It's tough putting in an effort like we did defensively and not coming away with a win. I'm as much disappointed for them as anything.
"It's frustrating and you want to as best you can turn over all the leaves and rocks to make sure that you're doing the best job possible and that's why I think it always has to start internally. What can I do better? We can as a staff as we prepare this week for Oakland to help our team? That's the approach we have to take."
In losing 30-27 to the Vikings, the Saints committed four turnovers and 11 penalties as well as a combination of dropped passes, blown coverage and blocking assignments and missed field goal attempts. There were five false-start penalties, some against receivers, which is not acceptable.
Payton made a reference after the game about repeat offenders. "We're not talking about first-year players, we're talking about a home game and not being able to go on the right snap count." said the coach. "That bothers me."
Payton said he couldn't announce any lineup changes at this time.
Kicker Martin Gramatica should play with airport plugs in his ears if he misses another field goal attempt. His two misses could have cost the Saints two victories. Payton said he didn't plan on bringing in any other kickers for tryouts this week. "I don't think we're in a position where we're going to bring in kickers for tryouts," said Payton. "We have a pretty good idea about who else is available. Saints draft choice Taylor Mehlhaff was cut. Was there any thought of bringing him back in on the practice squad?
"Yes," replied the coach. "But it's hard to hold a practice squad spot for a kicker."
Former Saints kicker John Carney, 44, was released by the club because his kickoffs didn't travel for enough. He was 23-of 25 on field goal attempts for the Saints in 2006 and is 12-for-12 for the Giants this season. There is a possibility he could return to the Saints let him go when their regular kicker Lawrence Tynes returns from an injury.
Reggie Bush kept the Saints in the game with two punt returns for touchdowns. He got tripped on his own feet and stumbled to the ground which cost him another punt return for a touchdown. His rushing average against the Vikings was about the same as his GPA average at USC.
Is Bush playing at a faster speed this season? "He was nicked up a year ago," said Payton. But he's been pretty healthy and effective this season.I think you're seeing a guy who is playing real well. In each of these games we have played, he has made a difference in someway, shape or form. His speed on the field, his balance. He single-handedly turned the game around against the Vikings and that was great to see. It's great to see the work that he has put in paying off. I think he is playing outstanding right now. We have to keep finding ways to get him the football."
Is there any other reason for his improved play? "It's everything that we have talked about to date." said Payton. "I think he has a great grasp of his role and where he's at. He has worked extremely hard in the offseason to prove himself -- not just to other people, but to himself -- and he has been real effective."
How disappointed was the coach for seeing rookie wide receiver Robert Meachem line up incorrectly? :When you look at the scope of things in the game, there were about 25 other things that fall ahead of Meachem aligning on or off the ball," said Payton. "He needs to be able to line up the correct way. I would have liked to seem him catch the ball on the third down before the blocked field goal.It was a good throw in the window of the coverage, but there's enough of this to go around in that loss."
Was last season’s 0-4 start worse than this? "I think so," said the coach. "Losing is tough -- 2-3 is 2-3 and it's disappointing in that the losses all came real close, but nonetheless it is what it is. The quickest way I know to get rid of that feeling and to get going again is to put some wins together. You can't put wins together without getting the first one, so it starts well with playing well in the Oakland game.
"It starts with eliminating the turnovers and the penalties. You'd think we were playing on the road when you watched the film and the way the guys were moving and that's frustrating."
Goes Payton feel his team will be in better shape health-wise going into the Oakland game?
"It's too early to speculate where we're at. Our goal with some of these players is Carolina, so we'll see how it pertains to Oakland."
Will Payton try to get Jemery Shockey out there on Sunday?
"We'll see," said the coach "It's too early. We''ll have to see where we are with him."
Tracy Porter's rookie season ended against the Vikings when he suffered a dislocated wrist that required surgery. He was placed of the injured reserve list for the remainder of the season.
With two of the Saints' 2008 draft picks -- defensive tackle DeMario Pressley and receiver Adrian Arrington --already on injured reserve, the Saint has only two draft picks from that class who can play this season: defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis and guard Carl Nicks..
SOME HITHER, OTHERS YON: Sean Payton's Play It Forward Foundation Black & Tie Gala is Friday in the Superdome. ESPN's Chris Berman is he master of ceremonies and Drew Brees is a featured guest. The charity event will draw a large crowd. For info contact Melissa Stoltx at (504) 669-2091... If you make a list of the best coaches in the SEC, where does Les Miles rate? He usually is ranked fifth or sixth, yet this is a guy who has the best winning percentage Ianthe conference over the last three-plus years. Mikes is 38-6, which is three games better than Florida's Urban Meyer and four better than Georgia's Mark Richt. Where does this come from? Maybe it's the square-brimmed cap that got him the nickname of "The Mad Hatter." Maybe it;s all those bizarre calls he made last season. Maybe it's the way a simple question gets a convoluted answer on the SEC conference calls. Maybe it's because he once pronounced Arkansas "Our-Kansas." Maybe it's because of the bizarre news conference he called two hours before the SEC Championship Game last season...
"Les is a little bit quirky,: said ESPN GameDay host Chris Fowler. "How he acts around people is amusing. It's very different.\, very colorful. Les is who he is. But his notion that teams win championships despite a head coach is off base. Les clearly can recruit, he can inspire guys, he can assemble a staff and he can coach. I know there are schools in the SEC where the fans are saying, "How can we be losing to a team coached by this guy?'Les is unguarded. He lets us in a little more to what he's thinking. It's refreshing.LSU under Miles never lays an egg. His teams never get blown out. That;s hard to do.".SI.com's Stewart Mandel points to Miles' record in bowl games. LSU has outscored it s bowl opponents 119-41 in three games under Miles. "He knows what he's doing," said Mandel. :There's no question he's unorthodox. His soundbites make good fodder, Everyone wants to say he won with Nick Saban's players, but it's been four years and he still has them playing at a high level."...
JaMarcus Russell will be with us on Sunday and anyone who has seen him throw a pass knows how amazingly gifted that right throwing arm is. Raiders owner Al Davis has seen it, loves it, and knows the Raiders must protect it for what it is: the golden ticket to carry his team into the future. "The league is starting to balance out, and we'll get there," said Davis. "But we've got to keep him alive.. He's good, this kid from LSU. We;re going to make him great. We;ll get there."...Noting that O. J. Simpson had spent 13 years on the golf course rather than seek the :real killers" of his ex-wife and her friend as he had vowed to do. Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle said Simpson's recent robbery and kidnapping conviction might change things. "Once inside the joint, Simpson can work the room, use his charm and his cigarette allotment to change to buy friendships and get the low down on who killed whom," wrote Ostler. "If Simpson is sent to a prison like Lompoc -- which last time I visited, had good golf facilities for the inmates -- he can kill two birds with one stone. so to speak."...
Many pundits say the only way Barack Obama could lose is if he puts on a Cubs jersey...What were the Rams thinking when they named Jim Haslett their new head coach? The Rams allowed 36.7 points per game through their first four games, so they fired Scott Lineham and replaced him with the coordinator of the defense that allowed 36.7 points per game...Al Davis and his Raiders put the "fun" in dysfunctional, don't they?
Someone asked Sean Payton how high his blood pressure after Monday night's loss to the Minnesota Vikings?
