First Take: New Orleans Saints offense runs over Houston Texans with ground game
 

NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton obviously went into the preseason game against Houston on Saturday night wanting to run the ball effectively.

He accomplished exactly what he set out to do in a 38-20 win. And the way the Saints ran the ball (200-plus yards) was the most encouraging thing witnessed by the first crowd to see the Super Bowl champions play in the Superdome since last season’s the NFC Championship.

As long as Payton is head coach/offensive coordinator and Drew Brees is the quarterback, New Orleans is going to have an elite passing offense. But one of the most important factors in this team’s championship run last season was the offense’s unprecedented balance thanks to a much-improved running game.

The Saints took the opening kickoff Saturday and drove 72 yards in 11 plays to a touchdown. Eight of the 11 plays were runs, equally divided between Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas, Bush carrying four times for 38 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown, and Thomas carrying four times for 16 yards.

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This is what i was hoping for. Us to established a good, solid ground pounding offense. The rest of the NFL will think that the New Orleans Saints is just an air attack offense. ,,wooooo hooooooo..have they got a surprise coming. (I'm practically drooling over this) whooaaa hahha hahaa!!!!

It was against the Texans...but i will take it...Im hearing Ivory was running hard...i hoping we can get a look at Betts soon..I still think he could be a good short yardage back for us..but its nice that the young guys are stepping up..

I'm with you on this D .... Hard to believe, but methinks the offense got better this year. And so did the Defense.

strato, the guy is solid it took 3 weeks of training camp and a couple of preseason games for me to be persuaded, but i think payton found another jewel. pj hill can run the ball also i think 1 will stay and 1 will get picked up after 1 go on practice squad. bush was a slash and dasher last night. it was and awesome outing..AA was something else. it will be a great 3rd preseason game next week to see who keeps up there game.

I gotta say, I'm coming around on Arrington. He looked really good the other night. The receiver core is going to be freaking amazing, if he keeps it up.

the "D" was ugly at times - whats with that??