Last season, the Saints' defense was torn apart, especially via the air and finished a 7-9 season with the 26th-ranked defense in the NFL while being torched for 245.2 yards per game through the air (30th). It was expected that the Saints would address the defensive side of the ball in the offseason. They did.
However, the Saints' defense looked bad in its 31-27 preseason loss to the Houston Texans last Saturday night in the Superdome.
Saints coach Sean Payton was furious with the defense, which allowed 405 yards and 17 plays longer than 10 yards and 6 longer than 20.
"You can say it's preseason and it's going to be OK, but I thought defensively we were poor, "judged Payton. "Starting with the coaches, myself and the people on that side of the ball."
The Saints offense was solid despite unable to score touchdowns on its first two drives.
"We didn't play with energy," said the coach. "We took a step backwards. We must play better if we want to be a playoff team.
"We put no pressure on the quarterback and missed assignments. We didn't do much on defense.
The Saints defense was garbage.
Saints cornerback Jason David, unpopular with the Who Dats after struggling last season, was picked on four times and was beaten on the Texans' first touchdown when Andre David caught a 14-yard pass in front of him and a third-and-eight. The crowd booed.
The crowd booed David again when he was beaten by Kevin Walter for a 17-yard gain, and then again by Walter for a 26-yard touchdown.
If the Saints best cornerback, Mike McKenzie, was healthy, David wouldn't still be on the roster. Until McKenzie returns, the Saints are allowing him to play himself off the team.
The Saints allowed Texans quarterback Matt Schaub to play like an All-Pro. He pretty much had his way in his three series, completing 14 of 16 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns. He finished with a 154.9 passer rating before handing the assignment over to Sage Rosenfels late in the first half.
Walter caught 6 passes for 100 yards against a Saints defense that seldom pressured Schaub in the pocket and put up little resistance in the secondary.
Drew Brees, in mid-season form, was 12-of-17 for 147 yards, including a 12-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Bush and a 5-yard scoring pass to Marques Colston for another. Colston leaped high into the air to beat cornerback Jagues Reeves and made the catch, narrowly getting both feet down before crashing out of bounds. Colston slapped the ball down from his right hand to his left to make the catch. Bush hurdled over the Texan defender to reach the end zone.
Bush was listed as out for this game, but he wanted to take the stage against Texans defensive end Mario Williams and told Payton he could play on his knee that had been swollen. Bush showed that he cannot run inside effectively by gaining 24 yards on 7 carries for a 3.7 average isn't good enough by NFL standards.
The good news for the Saints was that running back Deuce McAllister returned successfully and newcomers linebacker Jon Vilma and No. 1 draft choice Sedrick Ellis played well.
The Who Dats yelled "Deuce" for the first time since Week 3 of last season when McAllister went down with his second career ACL tear. He gained positive yards all six times he carried the ball and has several short gainers in a touchdown drive that helped the Saints to take a 20-27 lead at the half.
"I'm happy with the way this first game (for him) went," said McAllister. "I was average at best, but it's a start, and you have to start somewhere. I'll take a few four-yard carries like I had tonight. I ran with some toughness. I've had to stay patient through the whole process (rehab) and I'm still trying to make all the effort over the last year pay off."
McAllister carried 4 times for 16 yards and caught 2 passes for 10 yards.
Vilma played sideline to sideline and had two tackles. Ellis pressured Schaub to throw the ball away once, got into the backfield several times with his quick rush, and had one tackle.
Payton benched reserve guard Andy Alleman in the third quarter after Alleman committed two false starts in a span of five plays.
Running back Pierre Thomas was the Saints' first kickoff returner and averaged 25 yards on four first-half returns. Wide receiver Skyler Green returned a fourth-quarter kickoff for 26 yards.
Texans receiver Jacoby Jones.playing before a hometown crowd of relatives and friends, fumbled the first punt of the game and Saints linebacker Troy Evans recovered at the Houston 10. The Saints eventually scored on a field goal. Jones, who grew up here and played at Abramson, secured a second punt and returned it 19 yards. He also caught a 20-yard pass.
As poor as the Saints' defense played, it held the Texans' top two runners, Chris Brown and Chris Taylor, to an average of only 2.7 yards on 20 rushes. The Saints averaged 4.6 yards per carry.
Payton said, "We couldn't score in the red zone in the first half and over-all, we couldn't get off the field on third downs.
"It was very a very discouraging night."
The Saints are at Cincinnati on Saturday night, a team that for the past several years has owned one of the worst defenses in the NFL.
The NFL custom is for starters to play most of the third game and then rest them in the final exhibition game to avoid injuries for opening day.
SOME HITHER, OTHERS YON: The three practices during the week and the game on Saturday night went so well that the Saints and Texans owners want to make the preseason meeting an annual affair on a home-and-home basis. Tom Benson and Bob McNair have to get the league's approval to play an annual preseason game because the NFL makes the schedule. It tried to accommodate owners when possible, and the request makes so much sense the league is bound to approve it. "I think this is really good for both clubs," said Benson. "Bob and I think it's so good that we're going to try to get the league to approve to put us in preseason on a rotation basis. Then we can do this every year. Next year, we'd go to Houston, and the Texans would come back here the next year the year after that."
"I think it would be great for both teams," said McNair. "New Orleans and Houston have so much in common. So many people in Houston go to New Orleans for business, and people in New Orleans come to Houston on a a regular basis. We have a lot of friends here in New Orleans and a lot of people in New Orleans have friends in Houston. It's an opportunity to to develop a rivalry that can become meaningful over time." The Saints used to play the Oilers on a home-and home series. During the Jerry Glanville era (1986-89), the coach had a rookie linebacker Walter Johnson obliterate Saints kicker Morten Andersen after a kickoff. Saints coach Jim Mora was so angry he canceled the annual exhibition game. After the Texans were born as an expansion team, Benson said he wanted to schedule an annual preseason game against them. It took the NFL this long to do it. "It's a natural thing for the Saints," said Benson. "Atlanta is, too, but they're in our division, so that wouldn't work.Houston is ideal for what we want to accomplish at a time like this. We've got a lot of fans in the Houston area. We had a lot of them leave here after Katrina and now they're settled over there. It would be a good thing for both teams."
Is Michael Phelps, Secretariat in a Speedo, the greatest Olympian ever? Splash, yes. How do you argue with 16 medals, 14 of them gold? Speedo gave him $1 million for winning his seventh gold medal. LeBron James and Kobe Bryant were at the races, wanting to be a part of history. The Phelps race on Saturday night was shown on the big-screen TV in the Superdome during the Saints-Texans game. It crowd was captivated...Most of our great sports moments in recent years have been tainted. The Sammy Sosa-Mark McGwire home run summer was a fraud. The Barry Bonds assault on Hank Aaron was a joyless event. The Patriots' championship runs have been flawed by Spygate. Anything involving cycling or track and field is doomed to be obscured by the ever-present doping cloud. Phelps is the real deal. You can trust it....Quarterback Byron Leftwhich, who has been looking for a job since released by the Falcons, finally signed with the Steelers. I'm told he showed up at the Steel City and quickly bought Ben Roethlisberger a new motorcycle...Georgia has already had eight players arrested in 2008, challenging Alabama for the SEC lead...Bobby Bowden, Florida State coaching legend, said when asked if discipline was the most important component of a successful team. "If it was," Bobby said, "Army and Navy would be playing for the national championship every year."...Hey, I can believe somebody found "Bigfoot" just north of Atlanta the other day. When I traveled with the Saints so long ago, I ran into "Bigfoot" at about 2 a. m. at the bar inside the downtown Marriott in downtown Atlanta. He blended right in with the rest of us: Buddy D., Wayne Mack, Peter Finney, Bob Roesler. Al Wester and Hap Glaudi...My time is up. Ed Staton can be reached at edcoachstaton@yahoo.com.
