Halo

Winning ugly doesn’t matter as long as New Orleans is injury-depleted.

If the Saints had struggled to put away the Rams with a healthy secondary, an alarm warning would have sounded. But they played the entire game without Jabari Greer (injured groin), the best cornerback in franchise history, and free safety Darren Sharper (sprained right knee), a leading candidate for NFL Defensive Player of the Year. They played all but one down of the second half without cornerback Tracy Porter, who suffered a strained MCL when he was unintentionally leg-whipped by teammate Usama Young.

The results were predictable. St. Louis quarterback Mark Bulger threw for a season-high 298 yards and completed 65 percent of his passes. Donny Avery burned cornerback Randall Gay for a pair of touchdowns when Gay never located the ball, matching the total of scoring catches for the Rams’ active wide receivers as a group in the first eight games.

As valuable as new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is for New Orleans Saints, he benefited from a terrific talent upgrade. With three fourths of the starting lineup gone, the Saints defensive backs looked just as lousy as they were last year.

Greer and Sharper are due back soon, maybe even this Sunday against Tampa Bay. Porter is expected to return before the end of the season.

As long as they are out, the Saints will struggle to stop the pass.

Attached Thumbnails