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Head Coach Sean Payton Post Practice
David Lawrence, NewOrleansSaints.com
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 - 3:55 PM
Opening Statement:
“In regards to the roster, yesterday we put Brian Young on injured reserve and we signed Lance Moore/Orien Harris.aspx">Orien Harris as a defensive tackle, number 92, off the practice squad of Buffalo. I spoke with Brian last night and he’s getting better. He anticipates and it sounds like three, possibly four more days in the hospital. They have a pretty good handle on his treatment, it’s just taking time and the rest and all the things necessary to drain the fluid that they want before he’s cleared up and ready to come out of the hospital.
“For today’s practice, Renaldo Wynn did not participate with his turf toe – we’ll see where he is tomorrow. Eric Johnson was limited today with his groin and Reggie Bush was limited with his knee. It’s still got some swelling and it’s still not 100%, but both of those two took a limited amount of reps in our practice as well as the individual drills. In regards to the Pro Bowl, the following players were named alternates: Drew Brees is an alternate at quarterback, Mike McKenzie is an alternate at cornerback, Mike Karney is an alternate at fullback and Will Smith is an alternate at defensive end.”
Were you surprised that Marques Colston was left off the Pro Bowl roster?
“Every year at this time, it’s tough because there are obviously a handful of players that have had real good seasons that don’t have that opportunity. I think a guy like him is young and he’s going to keep battling. He’s having a very good season for us right now. I’m sure he’s disappointed to some degree and yet when I spoke to him last night a little bit about it, his main focus is our team and what we can accomplish with these remaining two games.
“It’s hard when you look at the rosters, and it’s always difficult. There are always half-a-dozen players that you look at and they’re left off the roster. You can look within our division at players – the safety at Tampa Bay is playing as good as any safety I’ve seen on film, (Jermaine) Phillips. It’s hard to think that a team that just won the division doesn’t have a representative. The team we’re playing this week – (RB Brian) Westbrook has gotten in and last year we were going to try to sneak a way to get him on but he wasn’t a long snapper. Each year it happens. Fred Taylor at Jacksonville is another great example. (They’re) a real good team right now and he’s had outstanding numbers. You feel for those guys, especially the ones who have gotten older in their careers, but it seems like that’s always a tough thing this time of the year.”
Are your alternates all first alternates?
“No.”
Did you use any alternates last year as the coach of the NFC team?
“Yes. I think generally there are more than a handful of alternates that end up going, just because of injuries. When we coached in it last year, I can think of two or three different examples where an alternate came in because of an injury. It’s not unusual that guys possibly are coming off of playoffs where something’s nicked and they can’t participate in the game. That’s pretty common, so we’ll see what happens.”
How do you feel about your depth at defensive tackle, given Brian Young going on IR and Renaldo Wynn having the injured toe?
“We’re a little thin there. Hopefully we can get a better indication of where Renaldo’s at tomorrow – I’m optimistic with him. But it’s that time of the year where you’re going to have to shore things up and possibly play some younger guys. It’s an area where we have (Antwan) Lake back and that’s big for us because he’s someone who has played a lot. We’ll see what these younger guys can do.”
How would you assess where Reggie’s at after this practice?
“Obviously he’s not full-speed yet, there’s still some swelling. I think there’s a little less pain than he’s had. He moved around pretty well in the individual work and got some team snaps. It’s not 100%. It’s hard to put a percentage on it, but I think he is making progress and that’s encouraging and he’s in good shape.”
Is his injury the kind of injury where if he does push it he could injure it further?
“I think it’s two-fold; it’s managing the pain and then making sure it’s stable enough to where there’s not a setback. I think to some degree what you just said is accurate. We want to be smart and judicious; we’ve always taken that approach with the player. We’ll see how the week progresses and how he’s feeling tomorrow after today’s work and then keep evaluating it day-to-day.”
In light of how Aaron Stecker has played, when Reggie does come back would he have a different role?
“We’ll see. I think one encouraging thing is that we’ve been able to run the ball in these last two games and it’s given us some balance which is something that we’re looking for. Certainly he can be a part of that when he plays. Aaron has done a good job and we’ve done a good job up front. Each week, depending on the team we’re playing and what we’re seeing defensively, we try to do what’s best to score points. But he can be a big factor for us if he’s healthy, so we’ll kind of take it day-to-day and probably make a game-time decision based on how he’s feeling.”
Drew Brees is in a really good groove right now. Do you get a feeling for when he’s on?
“He’s someone that is extremely accurate. He works extremely hard at the game plan and guys have done a good job outside of making plays for him. The balance obviously helps when you can have a threat and it not just be one-dimensional. I think we’ve done a real good job of protection. He has real high expectations of himself. He’s very decisive and a lot of that is through hard work and reps during the week and understanding what he’s seeing defensively and where his answers are in certain looks – be it pressure, coverage, or just down-safety defense. When that position – in our case, Drew Brees – is playing at that level, it gives you a chance and that’s been real encouraging and it’s one of the reasons that we’ve fought back into this thing.”
Has the offensive line graded out markedly better in the past two weeks?
“I think that in these past nine or ten weeks, we’ve played better football overall, I wouldn’t just say the offensive line. They certainly have played better, but we’ve stayed away from falling behind; defensively we’ve done a better job of keeping the ball in front of us. There’s a lot that goes into having success as a team and then obviously on either side of the ball or in the kicking game. But the offensive line is part of that and I’m pleased with the consistency we’ve gotten. Those guys have been together for going on their second year and the communication has been good. Doug (Marrone) has done a real good job with those guys. It usually starts up front. When you can win that battle on either side of the ball, generally you’re going to play well defensively or offensively.”
Are you surprised to see Philadelphia being out of the playoff picture?
“They’ve fought through some injuries and they’re a team that we have a ton of respect for. If there’s ever a blip where they’re not in the postseason, it’s followed up quickly with another good year. Andy (Reid) and his staff have done a great job there and really have done what we’re trying to accomplish here and become consistent and become a team that’s in the hunt each season and challenging to play for a championship and the Super Bowl. When you look at their last three weeks, they’ve played two of the better teams in the league – at least statistically and on paper, people would say that New England would be 1 and certainly Dallas would be up there in that top echelon. They’ve come close to winning both of those games – they beat Dallas last week and almost beat New England – so we have a lot of respect for who we’re playing. We know the type of team they are and the tradition that they’ve created there and really have been the most dominant team in the NFC over the past five or six years.”
Last week, Lito Sheppard shadowed Terrell Owens. Do you expect him to do the same against Marques Colston?
“They play some coverage where he’ll go ahead and match a certain receiver. Each week, one of the things we try to find out early is if a team is doing that to us. We play a lot of receivers, so sometimes it’s not always Colston to the left and Devery (Henderson) to the right; sometimes it’s Lance (Moore), sometimes it’s (David) Patten. But each week we try to early on pay attention to if we’re getting any star coverage – in other words, are we getting a corner to specifically to Marques Colston’s side? Last week, we got some of that with (Antrel) Rolle. We’ll pay attention to it and it’s something that’s part of a defensive game plan. We’ll do the same thing in our defense with Mike McKenzie at times. It just depends on the opponent. Early on, you try to pay attention to if that’s happening.”
Is too much made of that?
“No, I think it’s about matchups and trying to take away things that teams want to get to. I think that’s smart football if it fits within the scheme of what you’re trying to do. Sometimes you’re playing zone coverage, so you’re not necessarily responsible for that man the whole time and then in man coverages it’s a little easier.”
With the Pro Bowl, years ago it was used a lot in contract negotiations. Is it less important now because it’s become such a political thing?
“I don’t know if it’s as big as it was years ago in regards to money and what a player makes. I think the biggest thing is the respect and the honor of playing there for these guys. I think if you polled the players that felt like they had a good opportunity to play in this game and it didn’t work out, I think the disappointment wouldn’t be financially, the disappointment would be their competitive nature of wanting to play and be recognized with the elite level players in our league.”
Did you watch the Vikings-Bears game and did you find yourself openly rooting for the Bears?
“I saw part of it. It kind of went back and forth and both teams battled through some mistakes and Minnesota came out on top, but at this point of the season with two games left, everyone’s aware of the scenarios now and it involves two teams outside of the Saints. Our focus still stays at this game. What Minnesota does or what the Giants do can affect us – we understand that – but it only can affect us if we’re focused on our game and the task at hand, and that’s Philadelphia.”
You seemed to get a good amount of pressure on Kurt Warner last week. Do you expect more of the same against Donovan McNabb?
“You hopefully can disrupt the quarterback; I think that’s one of the objectives each week with any team you’re playing, as it would be with Philadelphia playing us. You hope to create a greater sense of urgency and disrupt any type of rhythm that the player wants to get into. I thought we had some snaps last week that weren’t directly resulting in sacks, but there were some holding calls and we did have a strip/fumble that set up a big score for us. If you can do that, it increases your chances of playing better defense, certainly.”
Do you feel like the chemistry is coming together on offense with the running game and passing game both going well?
“I think there’s a rhythm you get into and some of it is the opponents we’ve played. At this point of the season, there are some things that you do in the running game and in the passing game – you might window-dress them a little bit formationally or try to disguise your intentions – but we’ve been more consistent. I’m pleased that we haven’t been a highly-penalized team. Our red zone efficiency numbers have been good and our third down efficiency numbers have been good. Those things tend to then lead to good offensive output or good production. It’s still about scoring and for us the focus shifts to Philadelphia. We understand that it’s a different team; I think they’re a team that’s better on defense than the teams that we’ve been playing. They’re very well-coached. If you just watch the film from last week against one of the best offenses in our league, you can see how they’re playing with confidence.”
Last year in the playoff game you had the ball for 35 minutes. Is it possible to expect that kind of time of possession without a runner like Deuce McAllister in the backfield?
“I think that there’s a certain flow to games and the one thing about both of the games last year is that there were lead shifts, there were momentum swings, and it came down to the final two minutes of each of those games and pretty much who had the ball last. Those were hard-fought games that the result really could have gone either way and we expect the same type of game. It’s a good football team that has veteran leadership, a veteran quarterback that’s an exceptional player and one of the best running backs in our game right now. Defensively, they’re coming in with a lot of confidence. They just won a game against a very good offense. You hope to possess the ball and part of that is converting third downs, staying on the field, and establishing a balance. All of those things lead to a time of possession that you’re talking about. Most important is scoring and eliminating mistakes that can keep you from winning a game like this. We’ve talked a lot about the turnovers and the turnover margin, and again a game like this will come down to eliminating and minimizing the mistakes and taking care of the football like most of them do.”
How has Kevin Kaesviharn played in his starts?
“He’s done a good job; he was one of the guys who got a game ball last week on defense. He was involved in a lot of pass breakups and he did a good job tackling. He’ll be involved in this week’s plan – I think Josh Bullocks is going to be back close to 100% now – so all three of those guys will play. Having that depth and having a guy that can come in with someone being hurt and play at that level is big. It’s hard to expect to get through the season or that many games in a row without counting on some guys that have been in that position of stepping up and playing. Fortunately for us, he has prepared and really taken each week as if he was going to be starting. In the last two weeks, he has played a lot so it has paid off for him and it has paid off for our team.”
Why have he and Roman Harper been able to work so well together?
“He’s pretty intelligent and he understands exactly what we’re doing. He works extremely hard at it. There’s always some concern as to what type of transition you’re going to make when you lose a starter at any position and someone comes in to replace him. Fortunately for us, Kevin is someone that’s been prepared for that and has handled that well.”
Will Josh Bullocks start this week?
“I don’t know who will start, but I know both of them will play.”
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