“I don’t know that we’ve been playing at a high level the last couple of weeks, in other words in the first half of Miami we didn’t play at a very high level, and there were times last week where we didn’t play at a high level. We turned the ball over four times,” said head coach Sean Payton Wednesday after practice. “We’ve given up some big plays. Good news is we were able to come away with the win but you’re not going to do that very often when you have four turnovers offensively. I think we can play a lot better.”
The victories and undefeated streak have perhaps overshadowed the fact that Saints have not played sound football and it’s something players say they are focusing on this week. “You look at it, four turnovers against Miami, four again against Atlanta, and you know those are good football teams we played and we were able to overcome them because of great defensive play, and making some big plays offensively when we had to, but the fact of the matter is that stuff gets you beat,” said quarterback Drew Brees on Wednesday. ” At some point it catches up to you and we need to fix it. It’s sloppy football. It’s not what we preach around here. It’s not what we teach. It’s not how we work, so it’s a bad reflection on us and we don’t like that so we need to fix it.”
Another focus this week for the team, more specifically the defense, will be on improving their tackling. Falcons running backer Michael Turner rushed for a 151 yards, many times breaking several tackles. “Obviously Michael does a good job with his pad level and he’s someone that presents problems with his speed. Credit Atlanta with the way they’re able to run the football and certainly there are times that we could have tackled better though.”
“A lot about tackling is just attitude. Got have a better attitude, better fits, better understanding of where we need to be on some of those run fits, and getting in our gap and just being able to get him down.” says safety Roman Harper. “Turner is a great runner, but we made him look even better that what he was, I’m not trying to take anything from him he breaks a lot of tackles, but he broke more than normal against us.”
Saints defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis missed his first game due to a sprained MCL, and linebacker Scott Fujita missed his second straight game with a calf strain, both likely contributors to a not so stellar Saints run defense.
Carolina has won three of four, mainly going back to the running game and their feeding their duo back field of DeAngelo Williams and James Stewart. Williams has 619 yards and 5 touchdowns, Stewart has rushed for 360 yards and scored four times.
“They’re great backs. They’ve been playing pretty good this year,” says Saints defensive end Will Smith. “It looks as if they’re going to focus more on the running game for the rest of the season, that’s the way they approached their win against the Cardinals. We got to expect for them to come in, want to pound the ball on us, and hit us with some play action passes. We got to be prepared for that.”
“It tough to shut those guys down, because they’re both real good backs,” Saints linebacker Scott Schanle says of the Panther running game. “DeAngelo Williams, he’s so quick, and so fast he’ll get to the sidelines, but he also is strong and brake a lot of tackles, and they’ll stay committed to the running game so we definitely have to team tackle this week.”
BUMPS AND BRUISES
LB Scott Fujita (calf), DT SEdrick Ellis (knee), WR Lance Moore (ankle), C Jonathan Goodwin (knee), DT Kendrick Clancy (knee) all did not practice.
CB Malcom Jenkins (ankle), and LB Marvin Mitchell (foot) practiced on a limited basis.
With the short week, Payton shortened practice today by about a half hour, and put the team through the workout with out pads.
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