If you were looking for the latest injury update from the team you’ll have to wait another day, as Payton declined to comment on injuries until Wednesday. “We’re getting there with our health. We had great participation today. We’re encouraged with the guys that we’ve been waiting on, again we’ll have another full day tomorrow,” said head coach Sean Payton Tuesday when asked about the overall health of his team. “We got a lot of time between now and when we play. I think that’s been a positive.”
There is definitely a different atmosphere around Saints camp as many more media members showed up for the first availability of the week. National outlets and reporters from all over the gulf south were present, asking about the team’s confidence, their take on the Cardinals win, and about the belief that Saturday will mark the return of a team that had the NFL and Who Dat nation buzzing.
While the weekend’s practices were more “training camp like”, where the offense battled the defense mostly, Tuesday marked the first practice were the full emphasis was on the Cardinals. “I’m excited, just because the last three weeks have really just been a lot of sitting, waiting, talking about what the scenarios are going to be. Who’s playing in that last game? How are we going to rest guys? How are we going to make sure that we’re ready to play, and establish the plan and kind of the process for where we want to be when this week comes around,” said Saints quarterback Drew Brees. “It’s nice to just have the plan in place and now we’re trusting the plan, trusting the process. We have an opponent now that we can study and game plan.”
That opponent made a run to the Super Bowl a season ago, something that is not lost on the minds of players. “They’re the NFC Champions. They played a great game. That shows they know how to win. They’re playoff tested, they know how to win on the road,” said Saints defensive tackle Anthony Hargrove.
Arizona knocked off the top seed in Carolina last year, and has the talent to make another run to the big game this season. The Saints however feel they’ll be up for the challenge. “We got talented guys also. We’ve been off this past week and they had a game and you know they’ve been clicking on all cylinders. You know going in we got our hands full, but we feel like we’ve played this game before and just got to go out and play our best effort.”
The Saints will take the field looking to pick their first win in 33 days. Naturally the question of whether or not the team can regain the rhythm the offense had earlier in the season is being asked by fans and media. Players on Tuesday repeatedly felt confident that they would be just fine. “That’s why we play the game I guess you can say it. We’ll see how good our rhythm is on Saturday. I know we’re practicing hard to reach our full potential,” says Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey. “I think everyone’s confident on both sides of the ball in this locker room.”
Message boards, phone lines and water cooler chatter has been laden with belief that after seeing Green Bay light up the Cardinals defense, than surely Drew Brees and the Saints offense will have a field day in the Superdome. “You get excited for a moment but then you know we’re not the same team as Green Bay. So they’re going to change their scheme up, and try to do what they can do to stop us,” says Saints receiver Robert Meachem. “So it’s on us to try to do what we do best, and do it well.”
Arizona’s defense has been up and down all season. One week they can be dominant, as they were against Minnesota in an impressive win a few weeks ago, or they get pummeled as we saw Sunday. Brees feels this past weekend’s performance may serve more as a motivational tool than as a sign of things to come Saturday afternoon. “I know they’re making corrections. I know that’s not their M.O., that’s not the type of defense they are. We know we got our work cut out for us.”
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