Deuce McAllister, Will Smith and Charles Grant, who tested positive for a diet pill, didn't take the Saints charter flight back to New Orleans after they defeated the Chiefs in Kansas City last Sunday.
The implicated players instead flew to New York and met with their attorney, David Cornwell, in advance of their Tuesday appeal at the NFL offices in Manhattan. The players probably will be suspended for four games for testing positive for banned supplements under the league's steroid and performance enhancement policy. The players face an uphill battle.
The Saints are preparing to lose McAllister and Smith (Grant is on the injured reserve list and would also be suspended and his suspension would be served while on IR) for games 12-15. The NFL will likely allow them to play on Monday night against Green Bay because it traditionally doesn't suspend players once their practice week.
Saints coach Sean Payton's take on the suspensions? "The only thing I know is what the media knows," said the coach. "It is really a league office matter with our players. As soon as we know something and we can comment on anything more than that, we'll bring it to you. Per the guidelines of the league, we really can't comment outside of that. We're just waiting like everyone else."
Somebody asked Payton if he was preparing for the suspensions? "I think you have to be mindful of your depth at those positions," replied Payton.
Payton will now take our questions.
Q: The Saints played a complete game against the Chiefs and won. Were there any other games this season that you would call complete games?
A: It was a good team win in London against San Diego. We played a team that was a little bit better offensively with a little bit more firepower and yet the game unfolded I felt we came up defensively with a big stop. It's easy to say that all of our wins were good team wins, but I think Sunday from a confidence standpoint and our guys being able to get on the next play and really get past the last play and understanding the importance of doing that. We handled that pretty well. There were some big conversions. -- they had a big third-and-15 they converted when Tyler Thigpen scrambled and made a big pass play and then the quarterback draw play that he made. Those are plays that can set you back. but defensively it's critical that you get on to the next stop and the next down and I thought we were able to that that fairly well.
Q: What's you position within the NFC South now with a 5-5 record?
A: There's a little wiggle room and there's a sense of urgency. Each week you're playing to stay in the hunt, to be in the conversation. With six weeks left in the season, that's still a lot of football, but for the teams that are on the bubble, it becomes that much more pressing.
Q: Would you call this week's game and elimination game?
A: I thought last week was a game we needed to win. When we went and played San Diego and both teams were 3-4, I think everyone felt a sense of urgency that the winner of that game going into the bye was going to have a better opportunity at a postseason run that the loser. There is a sense of urgency that this game is important and it's certainly important for Green Bay. I think that after this game there's going to be that same urgency because not only in the division, but the rest of of the NFC is playing pretty well. There are going to be a lot of games where we play each other here in the next three, four or five weeks and that always seems to clear things up, but again there's little wiggle room.
Q: Looking at your conference record of 2-4, do you think that could hurt you?
A: I think it's hard to look at tiebreaking scenarios with six weeks left. It's really wins and losses and understanding the importance of those opportunities as each week they become one less. There are six games left and we're sitting here at five wins. I think it's important that we have a good work week and study for a much different opponent than we had we just played and an opportunity for the first time to get a second win in a row, and see if we can't improve on some of the things that we didn't do well Sunday. That's the challenge.
Q: Do you remember who you played here last in a home game?
A: Was it Oakland?
Q: How do you sum up the lat four or five weeks away from the Superdome?
A: Thee have been some ups and downs, two tough division losses and then the other two which were wins. I'm sure all of our players and our staff are looking forward to playing a home game in front of our fans. It seems like it's been over a month and it has been. We're excited about it and we're excited to have the opportunity to play on Monday Night Football. Green Bay had a big win Sunday.
Q: What;s your assessment of Pierre Thomas' performance against the Chiefs?
A: He was one of the guys offensively, not only in the running game, but in the passing game, graded out well. He gave us some good yards after contact. He has good balance. It was a little unique this week in the game plan, in that we were out of some of our two back runs with Mike Karney being injured, so Billy Miller was able to step in some degree as a fullback. But by and large a lot of our runs were one back oriented and I thought he did a good job with the execution of those.
Q: Do you plan on giving Thomas more action?
A: We wee encouraged as a staff. I thought the screen play he gave us was a big play. He was able to make the defensive tackle miss and what looked like was going to be a yard or two gain, was a play that took us down to the one or two yard line. We scored later, so we'll continue to look at the depth there and continue to rotate he and Deuce and hope to get Reggie (Bush) back this week. That's the plan.
Q: Can you talk about what it would mean to the team psychologically to get on a roll with two straight wins?
A: It breeds confidence. When you see some teams that are playing winning football right now, you see them get confident and I think that aspect is very important. When you see teams that make it into the postseason and win the division, there's a stretch where they've won three games, four games. maybe five games in a row and that's not uncommon. That's pretty standard. All of a sudden the close game goes your way and it becomes harder to think about a loss. It's a game of momentum. It can carry from week to week and that's something we haven't done a good job with so far. This game on Monday night gives us a chance to put a second win together and that's important, especially from where we're at.
Q: Where did Jeff Charleston come from?
A: He did a good job, gave us a little bit of juice. He's in the rotation now. He's a guy that has done a good job in the course of the week. He's one of those guys that have a high motor and it's always going. The hustle play on the one yard line ended up being a sack and on the end side of a dropback pass, he ended up getting a sack. He plays with a lot of effort and energy. We were happy to see him come up with some of those plays. I thought defensively we did a pretty good job of rushing the passer as well as disrupting and getting to the football. We had a lot of pass breakups and we were encouraged with that.
Q: Are you surprised a guy like him who you signed off the street made the contribution he did?
A: One of the interesting things this week, there are a number of injured players on our roster and:our guys in the scouting department, starting with Ryan Pace, spent an inordinate amount of time watching film. Now, when you have to sign a Jeff Charleston, a Garrett Hartley at kicker, a punter and these corners, and they did the job. They've done a good job of sorting out the short list and really grading who would be at the top of the short list. In Jeff's case, it's someone we worked out a few weeks back. With Charles' injury, all of a sudden he moves into a position where he's playing more. It's good news for the player when he can come in and be effective. Our pro department has been good at finding those players.
Q: Is the rest of the NFL starting to notice who Lance Moore is?
A: He has been consistent. The players and the people that study the tape pay attention to who is getting the ball on third down and Lance has done a good job of being very consistent. He has strong hands in traffic and has real good athleticism. To his credit, he's a guy that really comes from first base, that it didn't come real easy to. He was a free agent that played in Europe and has had to earn each inch of the way so there's a little bit in all of us that roots for players like that. He has worked extremely hard to put himself in this position. There's a lot of confidence that Dre Brees has in him. He has been very important in the absence of Marques Colston and now it's hard to get him off the field.
Q: Is Colston struggling?
A: I was encouraged last week when he made some tough catches in traffic and he had a few against the Chiefs. I'm sure there are a play or two he would like to have back. You see a continued improvement in regards to him getting into the flow of things. When you're out as long as he was, there's usually a transition period coming back in. He's comfortable with the plastic brace on his hand, but it's not the same as if was completely healthy. He's gotten used to the brace he wears. He puts a glove over it.
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