“After looking at the tape, I was pleased with our effort. There are a number of things that we can do better and clean up,” said Saints head coach Sean Payton Monday morning. “The penalties were discouraging. Defensively, I thought we played real smart and as the game wore on, we got better and better and you could see that when you watched the game in person and you could certainly see it on film. It was a good win for us. Now we’ll get rested up for a day and a half and get ready to have a good practice on Wednesday for a good team coming into town this weekend.”
That team is the undefeated New York Jets, and it’ll be a game that no doubt will get tons of attention as the week goes on.
Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams received a game ball for his efforts in putting together a game plan that held the Bills offense out of the red zone all day. “I thought it was good; I thought it was effective. We came after them and gave them a variety of pressures. I thought it really handcuffed (QB Trent Edwards),” said Payton.
“It’s nice but again we’re not going to get to far ahead of ourselves,” said linebacker Scott Fujita. “We’re just keep saying this is just another step in the progression and it was a win that we wanted to get on the road, in kind of a hostile environment and it felt good to come out and play strong really in all areas of defense.”
The Saints secondary held receiver Terrell Owens without a catch, “We knew that he was a target that they were going for, him and Lee (Evans), so we just did our best to play every play, like it was the most important play,” said cornerback Jabari Greer.
Payton issued a challenge to the defensive line prior to the game and they responded. Charles Grant, Sedrick Ellis and Will Smith had four sacks combined and an interception. “It was a great team win,” Ellis says of the effort Sunday. “It was a lot of fun. We were really aggressive from start to finish. I had a blast.”
“We’re doing what we set out to do and that’s create turnovers, be physical and be an attacking front,” said Smith who snagged a tipped ball for an interception against the Bills.
Running back Pierre Thomas picked up the offensive side of things with 126 yards on 14 carries, all of it coming in the second half. A remarkable feat considering Thomas was suffering from Flu like symptoms over the weekend.
“Prior to the game, Pierre had some issues with dehydration; he had been sick the night before and had to get some IVs before the game started and was really unable to go through pregame warm-up,” said Payton. “That concerned me some, so I wanted to see how he handled the special teams snaps. At halftime, his response when I asked him how he felt was the one I wanted to hear so we began to give him the ball more in the second half and he did a good job with those carries.”
As for what Payton heard at the half form the back to let him back on the field, “I’m ready. I’m ready. He sent me out there and said go show me,” Thomas said of his chat with Payton at the half. “Before the game, honestly I didn’t think I was going to get a chance to play. I was feeling real bad. I could barely eat anything, could barely drink, stomach was killing me. I was still feeling a little sick, but I got a lot of fluid in me before the game, I had to fight through it.”
The Saints rushed for 222 yards as a team and had many on the offensive line smiling to start of the week. “I think everybody got excited. Coach kept calling the run plays and we kept having success,” said center Jonathan Goodwin. “I think our moral increased yesterday. It was fun.”
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