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Unless you were paying close attention the past two weeks, you might not have noticed that All-Pro pass rushers John Abraham and Julius Peppers visited the Superdome.
Peppers, who was limited somewhat by a hand injury, had just one tackle, one quarterback hurry and no sacks during the Saints' 30-20 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Six days earlier, Atlanta's Abraham had no sacks, no tackles and one QB hurry in a 35-27 loss to the Saints.
That's a great credit to New Orleans' third-year left tackle Jermon Bushrod, who has been growing into the role since replacing injured Pro Bowler Jammal Brown during the preseason.
But Bushrod stressed that he didn't get the job done by himself.
He said the coaching staff came up with great plans in each of the past two weeks to avoid pressure and use additional players to block or chip. He figured he only went up 1-on-1 against Peppers "a handful of times" Sunday.
"We knew the situation we were getting ourselves into," Bushrod said. "We're playing game-changing defensive ends, and I really don't care who you are, I don't think one person can successfully block Abraham or Peppers or (Philadelphia's) Trent Cole.
"You've got to have a good coaching scheme and good offensive balance and a quarterback that gets the ball out. (The staff) puts me in a position to have a little bit of success."
Bushrod admitted that he played one of his worst games at Miami three weeks ago, while the Saints were digging themselves into a 24-3 hole in the first half.
But he and the rest of the offensive line bounced back in the second half of that game and eventually began to dominate the game up front. Then they rallied back with outstanding performances against Atlanta and Carolina.
The Saints did give up a costly sack and forced fumble in the first quarter against the Panthers on Sunday, when defensive end Tyler Brayton got around right tackle Jon Stinchcomb and hit quarterback Drew Brees from behind.
But Brees blamed himself, and Saints Coach Sean Payton said that was more of a "coverage" sack. Stinchcomb held off Brayton for a few seconds, but Brees had nowhere to throw the ball and wound up holding on to it too long.
"Overall, I think we played pretty well. The protection was good and we did a good job of getting the ball out," said Payton, who stressed that the Saints made it a point to not allow Peppers to disrupt the game, especially after his dominant performance at Arizona last week that included an interception return for a touchdown and a forced fumble on a sack.
"If you watch the game the week before, you saw him almost single-handedly take over the Arizona game," Payton said.

New Orleans Saints left tackle Jermon Bushrod holds down the fort, with a little help | New Orleans Saints Central - - NOLA.com