blacksaint

By SHELDON MICKLES
Advocate sportswriter
Published: Aug 13, 2007

JACKSON, Miss. — The New Orleans Saints were able to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel Sunday afternoon, even if it was an unforgiving mid-summer sun.

On what was the hottest day of their 2 1/2-week stay at Millsaps College, the Saints began their final week of training camp as temperatures climbed into triple digits and the heat index approached 110 degrees — a steamy pattern that has engulfed a large portion of the country.

There was some good news, however, that was divided equally among the coaches and players.

Saints coach Sean Payton said wide receiver Devery Henderson, who was injured late in the first quarter of Friday night’s 13-10 exhibition loss to the Buffalo Bills, has a Grade 2 strain of his left hamstring. Payton said there was no tear, which means Henderson will be out 1 1/2-to-2 weeks.

Also, strongside linebacker Scott Fujita, who bruised his right heel during a team outing to a water park Wednesday, is close to returning to practice after shedding his crutches Saturday and a walking cane Sunday. He hopes to resume running today.

Fujita said he awoke Sunday and was able to put his full weight on his heel, which was injured when he went down a 60-foot slide and crashed into a wooden fence when he couldn’t stop.

“It was all in the name of friendly competition,” he said with a laugh. “It was offense vs. defense and I was the defending champion, so I had to defend my belt. I guess I have good aerodynamics and I come down slides fast. It could have been a lot worse.”

The good news for the players was Payton trimmed 30 minutes off a practice that was to run 2 hours and 20 minutes and let the players work in helmets and shorts as they returned to the field.

“We tried to cut back a little,” Payton said. “We took a number of breaks. We’re in pretty good shape and we’re used to it. That being said, it’s still something you have to contend with and work around. But they seemed to handle it pretty well.”

The Saints have only five more training camp practices left. They’ll work twice today and Tuesday and once Wednesday morning before flying to Cincinnati for two practices Thursday with the Bengals, whom they face Saturday night in Paul Brown Stadium.

In their final week of camp, Payton said the Saints will continue to work on the little things and execution and said the work with the Bengals will help them do that because of the different looks they’ll get.

Payton said the Saints, who will also work on their own Friday, will continue to clean up mistakes they made in falling to the Bills. While the first-team offense and defense were sharp in the first half, the Saints had trouble finishing off drives and made too many special-teams mistakes.

Two drives engineered by quarterback Drew Brees produced only three points as Olindo Mare had a 37-yard field-goal attempt blocked to end the first threat. Reserve quarterback Tyler Palko also put together a good drive only to have it end with an interception.

“I thought the tempo was good and Drew was sharp,” Payton said of Brees, who was 12-of-14 for 118 yards. “The offensive line was good with their protection and in the run game.

“We got a lot of down safety looks and man in single safety zone, so we threw it a little bit,” he said. “By and large, that was pleasing. Again, you want to score and there’s some things we’ve got to eliminate so we’re not just attempting field goals. It’s mistakes we can correct, and we will.”

Payton said Mare’s blocked field goal was a result of a number of breakdowns on the play. He was also concerned about other aspects of special-teams play, including four penalties in the kicking game and the fact Lance Moore fielded a punt at his own 6 and lost 4 yards.

“We put ourselves in bad situations, whether it was catching a punt at the 6 where we shouldn’t, or there was a penalty that backed us up,” Payton said. “That aspect is specifically is something we want to work on and address.”

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