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Transcript of Sean Payton's press conference following preseason opener

Coach Sean Payton reacts to the Saints 17-13 preseason win against the Kansas City Chiefs

"I thought there were some things that happened as the game went on that were positive. I didn't want to come in and be so negative, but there are a lot of things that I think we need to clean up. In the last game I coached it was a playoff game so you have this expectation and yet it's preseason, but we have 10 guys on the field and can't get the right personnel out there. There were a ton of little things that we have to be better at. We have to be better starting with the coaches, myself and everyone else. I just thought it was sloppy.

"Some positives came out of it. I thought after that first series we began to play better defense, affect the passer and got into the right down and distances. That was encouraging. I thought some guys stepped up offensively, I thought Preston (Parker) played pretty well. He obviously had some good plays. I thought the runners hung in there and played well. We played a defense tonight that played a run heavy front, a lot of eight-man boxing and some so it forced us a little more in to the passing game than we liked.

"From a penalty standpoint, I thought we were average. Our coverage teams were average to below average, we gave up some big returns and some ones that were near misses. The good news is we are early in camp; we are not halfway or close to halfway. We just finished a week and a half barely and that is encouraging because we have a lot of things that we are going to need that time to clean up. But we got a win and I think always when you put the film on there will be some things that really impress you and some things that get to know what you have and what it looks like you have so this is a good first start and the tape tomorrow will be important."

(on the defense progression from first to second series) "I thought we settled in. we knew we were going to get a little uptempo offense from them and I thought Andy (Reid), Alex (Smith) and those guys did a good job. They had a good pace. They ran a little bit of a no huddle, but kind of a muddle offense so that tempo was little bit unsettling, but then we settled in and played a little better. I thought we gave up some technique things where we lost leverage inside, we lost leverage to the flat a couple times, but I thought we settled down after that first series.

(on the offense progression from the first to second series) "You don't want to say it's going to take time to get into the flow of the game. That is something that we have to be better at. I think that it certainly became apparent that we were going to get a certain time of defense most of the game. It wasn't complicated and yet it was going to force us to throw a little bit more than run."

(on the pressure they got on the Chiefs' quarterbacks) "There are two things that happen there, as you start winning the down and distances early on you start getting the offense in predictable yardage situations and that began to work in our favor. Some guys really stepped up. I thought we had good energy to the ball; we got our hands on it. I thought that was certainly evident for everyone watching. That was good news."

(on giving Kenny Stills a good look) "We just didn't put him there by flipping a coin or rock, paper, scissors. He has been playing pretty well. He is smart, he has picked up things well and he runs well. There are going to be a number of good things for us to see and things that we need to correct from his play tonight, but we wanted to give him a good look with us resting (Marques) Colston. He is going to have to contribute, but he has shown enough early in this camp that we think he can. He has learned quickly. Some of the other guys need to pick up and figure out what they are doing. We are having trouble getting aligned in formations and because of it we are late getting set up, we are late getting the ball off and we don't know the formations or where we have to align so that has to change. That's the first thing you have to know how to do and if you don't, certainly in our offense, you are in trouble."

(on his first game back at head coach) "As I came in off the field I just wanted to measured and reacted to my first impression, and that's frustration, it just shows there is a lot of work to do. There are a lot of new faces and certainly as a play caller and getting the call in on offense I wasn't very good. It was slow and I've got to improve in that area, but I think that the challenge is just recognizing that it's still week one and pressing the right buttons and realizing that we are getting closer to the start of the season. We are going to be playing a real good football team week one and right now we have a lot of work to do. That is where we are."

(on the receivers tonight) "I thought Preston (Parker) played well. You saw him step up and the other guys had their flashes. I thought Preston played extremely well with the opportunities he was given tonight but I want to watch the tape on the rest of those guys. We had some alignment issues and some other problems. When you watch the tape, my experience is it is never quite as bad as you think or as good as you think as well. There are a lot of snaps for us to grade and we'll go from there."

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