SmashMouth

METAIRIE – New Orleans Saints special teams coordinator Greg McMahon is usually one of the more anonymous coaches on the team’s staff.

Head coach Sean Payton meets with reporters multiple times each week, and though defensive coordinator Gregg Williams usually talks just once a week he holds court and crams a week’s worth of quotable stuff into his sessions.

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But after Payton talked Tuesday and while Williams was having his usually well-attended exchange, a swarm of reporters broke off to surround McMahon, whose coverage units have been New Orleans’ weakest link in the first two preseason games.

The Saints yielded a 40-yard punt return and 50- and 52-yard kickoff returns in the 27-24 loss at New England on Aug. 12 and they gave up 55- and 63-yard kickoff returns in the 38-20 victory against Houston last Saturday in the Superdome.

Planet Who Dat wants to know what’s wrong with the coverage teams, and McMahon sounded like a guy who’s working overtime to fix the problems.

“The last two games we have not covered kicks very well at all. It’s obvious,” McMahon said. “I think when you put the film on and you look, it’d be easy if it was one guy. But we’ve had our share of inconsistencies. … The bottom line is there’s no excuses. We’ve got to get it fixed and we’ve just got to become more consistent. We’ve got to cover kicks at a higher level.”

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