To make room on the roster for McKenzie, the Saints placed CB Leigh Torrence on the reserve/injured list.
McKenzie, played with the team from 2004-2008, has not played this season. A knee injury last season hampered McKenzie and he was not brought back, but injuries to Leigh Torrence and Randall Gay against Tampa on Sunday hurt an already thin secondary.
Starting cornerbacks Tracy Porter and Jabari Greer did not play against the Bucs. Porter has a sprained MCL in his knee, and while head coach Sean Payton has said he believes Porter will play again this season, it’s not known how long Porter will be out. Greer is recovering from a groin pull and is said to be progressing.
Last Tuesday, the Saints signed 11 year veteran Chris McAlister for added depth. McAlister was inactive for Sunday’s game however, Payton citing lack of practices and getting McAlister up to football shape as the reason.
PATRIOTS PRESENT MAJOR CHALLENGE
The Saints are 10-0 and have a one game lead for the top spot in the NFC playoff race, assuring them of home field advantage throughout the postseason. Minnesota is one game back at 9-1. Atlanta is 5 games back of the Saints in the NFC South, meaning that a Falcons loss, and Saints win this week would assure them a Divisional Championship. “The win yesterday was big and everything, divisional rivalry, but you got to move on to next week. You got a big one coming up,” safety Usama Young said Monday. “That’s the mindset we got to have. We can’t thing about going undefeated going 16-0 because that’s far and beyond. We started the season out with the goal finish strong and that’s what we’re going to do week in and week out.” That next game is a doozey.
New England improved to 7-3 with a 31-14 win over the Jets. The Patriots after a slow start are playing the type of football that has made them the model franchise this decade. Against the Jets, quarterback Tom Brady threw for 310 yards, connecting with receiver Randy Moss for a touchdown, and hooking up with receiver Wes Welker 15 times for 192 yards. Oh by the way, the Patriots defense forced five Jets turnovers.
The Saints secondary needs to heal up and get ready. “Anytime you play a team that throws the ball as effectively as they do and what they’re able to do, I mean the quarterback doesn’t take sacks, they’ve got a big challenge outside with speed in a guy like Randy Moss who’s got great big play ability and then inside with Wes Welker, all those things become challenging in regards to how you defend a team that is that good on offense, ” said Payton on Monday. “We’ve got a long week ahead of us here. We got a lot of work to do in getting some guys healthy, and putting a plan in place that gives us the best chance to win. That’s really the challenge week in seeing a quarterback as good as Tom, and the balance that they’re able to have.”
Fan and media hype for Monday night’s matchup will be at an all time high this season, some reporters already are saying this is the biggest regular game in franchise history because of the 10-0 record and the national prominence of the Patriots. The team however will at least try and keep it in perspective. “It would mean we’re 11-0. That’s about it. We’re not going to put any more or less into this game than what it is,” running back Reggie Bush answered when asked what a win over the Patriots would mean. “Obviously it’s going to be a big game because of who we’re playing. The Patriots have won multiple Super Bowls. Bill Belichik is one of the most renowned coaches in history. They have a great organization over there. They have where we’re trying to get to so we respect them, but at the same time it’s still a football game and we still got to take care of business.”
“It’s going to be a great game, can’t wait you know very excited, but New England is a tough team you know they have a lot of weapons,” said running back Pierre Thomas who mentioned the Pats defense isn’t too shabby. “We have our hands full this week and we’re going to be studying a whole lot.”
Keeping the team working seems to be how Payton feels he can keep his Saints focused on the task at hand ,and keeping them from looking forward, or getting caught up in the hype. “This goes back to Week 3 against the Jets or Week 4 against the Giants or whoever I mean we’re going to play in a lot of big games. This is a big because the 11th game on our schedule. It really is that. We know it’s a good team we’re playing. We’ve been on the road for a couple of weeks and come back home now. I think we’ve been able to do that and not just give that lip service so, we’ve got to improve a lot from this past week. We’ve got some things we got to clean up. We got to get healthy obviously and those are all the things we’re focusing on.”
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