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Saints-winning clean
10/13/08 - 05:00 PM
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METAIRIE, La. (AP) - Never mind all the time the New Orleans
Saints spent discussing foolish penalties and costly turnovers
during meetings and practices throughout the past week.
Drew Brees made a point to remind teammates during Sunday’s game
against Oakland - even in the huddle - to think about discipline as
they trotted up to the line of scrimmage.
“At some point you’ve just got to take a hold of the team and
say, ‘All right, this is our team and this is showing poorly upon
us and we need to get this stuff fixed,”’ Brees said on Monday,
reflecting on the Saints’ transformation from the error-prone squad
they were a week ago to the mistake-free unit that routed the
Raiders 34-3.
“It makes you say, ‘All right, quit acting like a bunch of high
school kids and let’s be professionals,”’ Brees continued. “If
we’re playing our best football, taking care of the football and
not having these stupid penalties like we’ve had in the past - if
we’re playing our best - I think we’re hard to beat.”
The proof is in the results. The Saints thought they cheated
themselves out of a victory in a 30-27 Monday night loss to
Minnesota on Oct. 6.
A missed field goal could have given New Orleans a lead with
about two minutes remaining in that game, but that was only one of
a slew of failures. A first-quarter field goal was blocked and
returned for a touchdown; the Saints fumbled five times, losing
two; Brees was intercepted deep in Vikings territory when a
receiver juggled a catchable pass; and the Saints committed 11
penalties for minus-102 yards.
Those mistakes nullified several statistical advantages the
Saints otherwise enjoyed, such as outgaining the Vikings 375 yards
to 270 and a time of possession edge of 32:09 to 27:51.
“I felt like we played well with the exception of turnovers and
penalties,” Brees said of the loss to Minnesota. “If you just
took everything else, I thought we played very well and that was
certainly a game we should have won.”
Against Oakland, the Saints drastically cut down on penalties
(four for minus-30 yards), eliminated turnovers altogether and -
viola - a palpable joie-de-vive permeated the Louisiana Superdome.
Granted, the Raiders (1-4) do not appear to be as tough an
opponent as the Vikings (3-3), but New Orleans’ victory on Sunday
wasn’t close in a number of areas.
The Saints’ advantage in total yards was 441-226. In time of
possession, it was 36:12 to 23:48. While the Saints did not turn
the ball over, they intercepted JaMarcus Russell and also forced
and recovered a fumble on Bobby McCray’s sack.
“Oakland caught us at a really bad time for them, coming off a
Monday night loss,” Brees said. “We just had a fire lit under us
all week.”
Saints coach Sean Payton praised his club for the way it
responded to what could have been a deflating home loss on Monday
night. They key going forward, he said, is to guard against
assuming what was wrong has been fixed, or the same self-inflicted
setbacks that cost New Orleans (3-3) earlier this season could
resurface.
The Saints cannot afford that when they play at NFC South
Division foe Carolina (4-2) on Sunday.
“It starts with me and starts with our staff - that we can
never grow tired of that lesson or that objective, because it’s so
telling,” Payton said. “I watched the statistics, like most of
you do, yesterday and yesterday evening. They come up time and
again in the games. ... If you went back yesterday, you’d find the
same thing. You’d find the teams that won the turnover battle and
didn’t make the mistakes probably won the game.”

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