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Saints Head Coach Sean Payton Discusses Week 11 Week Over Tampa Bay
By David Lawrence, NewOrleansSaints.com
Monday, November 23, 2009 - 3:15 PM
Opening Statement: “Like I said yesterday afterwards, there were a lot of things I was pleased with about the game, starting with the special teams. I thought we settled in after the first quarter and played better football. I was encouraged with that.”
What did you like from Zach Strief after watching the tape? What prompted the change to put him in the starting lineup?
“He’s a little different. It’s really more a matter of trying to get him some more playing time. He’s a little bit different than Jermon (Bushrod). He’s had experience at left tackle and we really came out of the St. Louis game wanting to get him some work and we were able to do it in this week’s game and we’ll continue to look at both of those players as options as we move forward.”
Can you discuss the defense’s performance despite missing three starters?
“We were a little banged up going in. Guys that substituted handled that well, transitioned well. That was a positive.”
Has Zach Strief overtaken Jermon Bushrod?
“Both of those guys are going to play. There’s no announcement there, but both have played earlier in the year. Jermon had gotten a lot of the work. I’m just trying to get Zach work as well.”
Has what New England accomplished over the past decade a model of what you might be trying to duplicate?
“I think it’s fairly common in business to look at groups or businesses that are having success and to pay attention to why teams are successful and I think that exists in a lot of areas, not just football. New England’s been one of those franchises. It’s been one of those organizations that have found the right formula. There’s a lot to that. That includes players. It includes what they’re looking for from a talent base, all of those things. When you play a team like that, you begin to observe from afar the things that they are able to do and how that really relates to or transcends to winning games.”
Are you satisfied in the improvement in ball security in the last game?
“Yes, it was one area we made a point of that is still a statistical face each week, the importance of turning the ball over and the additional possessions or lack thereof and something that we have to continue to work on. That was a plus.”
Can you talk about the matchup with your cornerbacks and Tom Brady?
“I don’t want to get into who’s starting and what the matchup is. I think it would be a little presumptuous to say we won’t have our starting cornerbacks in the game, so we’ll see where we’re at from a health standpoint, but anytime you play a team that throws the ball as effectively as they do and what they’re able to do. The quarterback doesn’t take sacks. They have a big challenge outside with speed, a guy like Randy Moss who has good big play ability and inside with Wes Welker. All of those things become challenging in terms of how you defend a team that is that good on offense. We have a long week ahead of us here. We have 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 this week in seeing a quarterback as good as Tom and the balance that they’re able to have.”
Is there a chance for Jabari Greer to play?
“We’ll see.”
How did you feel about Malcolm Jenkins’ performance?
“I thought he played pretty well. He tackled well. He’s smart. I thought he did a good job.”
Some people have said that both the Patriots and the Saints have been successful at exploiting matchups. Can you discuss that?
“I don’t know. It would be hard to draw a similarity. I think there are a lot of teams wanting to get to where the New England Patriots have been. I think each team in our league each week tries to look at matchups and attack defenses. I think that’s fairly common with a lot of teams. I don’t know that there’s an exact comparison with the New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints in that matter.”
It seems like a lot of teams want to do it, but wanting to and doing it it seems like these teams are more successful?
“If you’re just talking about offensive football, playing good offense, that’s one thing. They provide a challenge with a quarterback that locates the ball well. They do a great job with their screen game. They have the ability to get down the field with the passing game and throw the ball underneath. They force you to defend the whole field. You can see that on tape when you watch them. I think what you’re asking is (here) are teams that are playing good offense. Here are some of the similarities in what they do. They get the ball down the field. They’re able to run the football and generally you have a quarterback that’s playing pretty well.”
Is it safe to say that if a player was on the edge medically against Tampa Bay that you would want to hold him out to be healthy for the New England game?
“No. We haven’t held anyone. We try to play guys when they’re ready. That’s what we’re trying to do and last week you had some guys that were close. If a guy’s ready they’re going to play. We don’t look at a game and target a game because of a game. We hope to be as healthy as possible each week and this is certainly a game where it’s a real good opponent.”
Do you have any injury updates today?
“No updates on anyone today.”
How did the secondary play overall yesterday?
“I thought they played well. We did a good job of containing some threats – (Kellen) Winslow specifically, who I think is an exceptional player, and Antonio Bryant and those guys. We kept the ball in front of us. They had the touchdown on the long scramble where (Josh) Freeman made a real good play. It’s tough – when you extend a pocket three seconds or four seconds or five seconds – it becomes harder on a secondary, but I thought they played well.”
How do you use the excitement of the fans to your advantage in a game like the one coming up?
“This goes back to week three against the Jets or week four against the Giants. We’re going to play in a lot of big games, and this is a big game because it’s the 11th game on our schedule. We know it’s a good team that we’re playing. We’ve been on the road for a couple of weeks and are coming back home, but I think we’ve been able to do that and not just give that lip service. We have to improve a lot from this past week. We have some things we have to clean up. We have to get healthy, obviously. Those are all the things that we’re focusing on as we get ready for a Monday night game. The schedule is a little different, but it’s nothing that we haven’t done before in regards to a routine. We should be alright.”
How much will you adjust your defensive philosophy going against the Patriots?
“I don’t know that we’re going to adjust our defensive philosophy.”
What are the similarities you see between your offense and New England’s?
“When an offense is playing well and has balance, they’re usually getting good quarterback play. I think you’re getting good quarterback play in New England and you’re getting good quarterback play in New Orleans. You probably have an offensive line that has had some continuity that handles the protections and the varied looks that you get, and both teams would appear to have some experience there. There are differences when you look at the offenses, and yet there are probably some similarities. But it starts with that balance and being able to do certain things well.”
Do you see similarities between Drew Brees and Tom Brady?
“One of the things that all real good quarterbacks have is that they’re accurate. It’s hard to be good at that position and not be accurate. They’re obviously built differently; guys are wired differently and there are a lot of different characteristics, but generally if you’re getting good quarterback play, you’re getting a guy that is accurate throwing the ball. They’re generally good decision-makers and they generally can decide fairly quickly where they want to go with the football based on the looks they’re getting. Those are certainly traits that you would see with both of these quarterbacks.”
What did you see that helped you eliminate the turnovers on offense this week?
“It’s more than just giving it lip service. Physically trying to pull the ball away or physically challenging anyone who has the football, starting with the quarterback to the receivers to the running backs. It’s one thing to talk about wanting to reduce turnovers, but it’s an area that we have to continue to work on as coaches in regards to actually having drills that simulate what happens in a game. Trying to do that has been something that we did a little bit more of last week.”
What do you see when you take an overall look at roster and where some of these guys have come from?
“There’s a good mix. One of the things that we’ve tried to preach is that once a player gets here, it’s really unimportant to us how he got here. We really want to play the best players that give us a chance to win. There is a process involved in obtaining talent, whether it’s through free agency or the draft or after the draft, but once they’re here our job is to develop them and their job is to work and compete for playing time and compete to make the team. The stories are different and that makes it interesting and I think that’s fairly common when you look at rosters. But the depth is important; we’ve had to rely on the depth already in the last three or four weeks more than we had to early in the season with some injuries, but I think that’s fairly normal for a long season.”
What was the reasoning behind Reggie Bush and Sedrick Ellis not traveling to Tampa?
“It was really where they were at on Saturday; number one, they’re both leg-related injuries so if we’re not going to play a player and Saturday we come in and there’s still some swelling and some uncertainty, we typically will leave a player and let them rest and get the treatment at home as opposed to getting on a plane. We typically don’t take players that aren’t going to play. Sometimes if they’re questionable we take them and work them out there and we’ve done that before, but in their case, after working them out on Saturday morning and observing where they were at, we went ahead and did that. And then we obviously have to notify and change their status, which we were able to do.”
Is there extra pressure every week to remain undefeated?
“I don’t know. I think there’s pressure each week to play well and to improve. But I don’t think – and you could ask the players because each one of them might answer it differently – but I don’t think any one of us feels a sense of mounting pressure because of winning football games. I think there’s always that weight of wanting to be perfect, or that added charge of trying to play the best game or coach the best game, and I think that’s urgency. I think we all coach and play with a sense of urgency and that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
How do you deal with being 10-0?
“Each week it’s preparing and trying to improve and trying to really look at a game and get better the next week. That’s the approach we’re taking right now. We’ve been in the spot where you’re sitting at 4-4 and you lose the next game and you’re eliminated from the playoffs. Then there’s pressure. That’s different. I think right now it’s the focus of one game at a time and really working to improve each week. I know you pointed to a lot of statistics, but we’re not really interested in that. We’re interested in how do we beat New England. That’s the challenge in front of us.”
What happened on the flags that were picked up after being thrown yesterday?
“I can tell you that on the long interference call with Robert Meachem, when they convened, there was a feeling that maybe the feet got tangled up so they picked the flag up. That’s what I was told. You keep going, and they felt on the other play that the ball had been thrown before the contact was made illegally. If I’m constantly preaching to our players to get on to the next play, then I have to work to do that myself too.”
How have you been influenced in how you do things by watching the Patriots over the years?
“They’re a team that you study. I think that it’s fairly common that when seasons are over with, you pay attention to the teams that are good at something – good at red zone, good at third down, good at throwing or good at overall offense or defense. We have access to everyone games, so it’s important to look closely at what’s going on in the league to make sure that you’re not missing on something and certainly New England has been one of those teams that we’ve studied and looked a lot at.”
So you pull a lot of New England Patriots game film in the offseason?
“We pull all of the top teams in those specific areas. We look at the top five or top seven defenses, third down, red zone. We might be talking about 14 different teams – depending on the statistics that we’re looking to study. What I said at the beginning was that it’s fairly common in business to pay attention to who is doing what successfully and then really examine closely what they’re doing, and that’s something that I think is done a lot in our league.”
18 different players have scored touchdowns for your team. What does that say about the team?
“I wasn’t aware of that. One of the things that our quarterback does well is read defenses and recognizes the weaknesses of defenses. We’ve had to insert some players in because of injury, and some of those guys have stepped up. Obviously when you look at a David Thomas, whose role has changed a little bit with Heath Evans’ injury; a number of receivers have gotten their hands on balls. I wasn’t aware that the number was 18 though.”
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