Saints ready to end Texas upstart

By By Richard Dark/EMG staff writer
September 14, 2003
NEW ORLEANS Despite the deluge of negativity surrounding them this week, the New Orleans Saints will play another game this week.
Heck, they've got 15 more. And no matter how bad Saints fans perceive the situation to be with this team coming out of the 27-10 season-opening loss at Seattle, the fact remains, today they have to pull themselves up by the proverbial bootstraps and do something they have not been very good at during the Jim Haslett era, win at home.
But if there is a bright spot, it is the fact that when the Saints open up their 2003 Superdome slate today at noon by hosting the Houston Texans (1-0), there won't be any surprises.
A lackluster opening day performance in the Pacific Northwest, coupled with the Texans stunning 21-20 upset of the Miami Dolphins in the Southeast tip of the country, erases any hope that Dom Capers bunch, in only its second season of existence will be able to sneak up on the Saints, who desperately need a win about as bad as any team ever needed to win its second game of the season.
Saints defensive coordinator Rick Venturi uttered those words at practice this week. As it turns out, he was talking about the adverse effects of losing his best pass rusher, RDE Darren Howard to a severe wrist dislocation, but the fact is, he could have applied those words to just about any area of the team.
And to a man, the players all agreed Seattle caught them off guard, but now the focus is where it needs to be for an upstart opponent with plenty of weapons.
Maybe that is because in their minds, the majority of the problems the team encountered in the opener can be fixed. "Everything is fixable," said quarterback Aaron Brooks. "Fumbles, dropped passes, I threw an interception, a mishandled snap, a fumble for us. Everything. That's a good thing. Everything bad we take out of the (Seattle) game we can turn into a positive. Obviously we didn't play up to our capability as a team."
There are other positives, too. The Saints will be at home and crowd noise, won't be an aggravating circumstance, at least for them.
For second-year Texans qb David Carr, a raucous Dome may indeed pose a problem. Carr, who took snaps his entire rookie year, holds the Saints defense in high regard.
What they are is a bit more improved this week, with the reinstatement of starting OLB Derrick Rodgers. Rodgers had to sit out last week after the league benched him because of a non-drug related conduct violation. With him back in the fold and Willie Whitehead slipping into Howard's spot, look for this unit to improve on an output that allowed the opposition to score only once off of a punt or kickoff.
Beyond what Carr can make happen, (266 yards passing, 0 INTs last week) Smith and Co. will be charged with stopping the tandem of New Orleans native Jonathan Wells and Stacy Mack. Wells is the No. 1 back, but even without him in the lineup against a stiff Dolphins defense, Mack and former LSU star Domanick Davis posted 130 yards on the ground. That and the fact that Carr was not sacked in Miami, proves the deftness of the Texans' offensive line.
We've made a few changes there and worked extremely hard to do what we can do," Capers said. "I was pleased to come out of the game without giving up any sacks and I thought our guys for the most part did a pretty good job in our running game."
Venturi was a little less nonchalant. "Sunday, that win was no fluke," he gushed. "Their o-line was terrific; they should get a game ball. They blocked their tails off. They were on a mission."
The Saints will have to be in the same mindset to avoid another crushing letdown. The running game with Deuce McAllister and Ki-Jana Carter, who was re-signed Wednesday, have to have gaps and holes to establish the run against former Saint LB Charlie Clemons and their 3-4 defense, so that the hosts' top offensive weapon isn't taken out of their hands as it was a week ago.
And that same line must cut out the dreaded pre-snap penalties; the ones that drive Haslett insane.
One thing is certain to Saints fans, in this what has been called "Haslett's Money Year." Other things besides a slew of yellow flags don't make sense. Things like not protecting the football, mental errors and missed tackles are just the main causes for anxiety and the doom and gloom syndrome that has been prevalent here in the Gulf South this past week.
Disgusted fans barely salvaged a sellout of the game just before the Thursday blackout deadline. Distaste will grow ever stronger if the aforementioned problems aren't cleaned up today.
But safety Tebucky Jones, who has been criticized for his tackling technique, put a different spin on things this week in an effort to convince fans all is not lost after an 0-1 start.