SmashMouth

They would never admit it, but the New Orleans Saints needed a better performance against Oakland than they had gotten in the previous week against Houston.

Ted Jackson/The Times-Picayune
New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram slams the football into the railings after scoring a touchdown in the Saints win against Oakland at O.co Coliseum.
By beating the Raiders 40-20, they got it.
The offense looked sharp in the early going with quarterback Drew Brees and the first team carving up the Raiders defense. Brees was 15-of-23 for 189 yards. He led them to within scoring position three times and three times they scored.
Rookie running back Mark Ingram scored his third touchdown in as many preseason games with a 1-yard plunge at the 10:45 mark of the first quarter. Pierre Thomas got on the board with a diving 1-yarder with 0:33 in the quarter.
Another bright spot was the running of Joique Bell, who gained 50 yards on six carries and 92 yards on six catches. He turned a short pass from Chase Daniel into a 60-yard gain, running over and around would-be tacklers. He was rewarded with a TD run a few plays later.
The Saints defense still has some question marks, but after giving up a pretty methodical drive to the Raiders on their opening series, they settled down some and held the Raiders to a couple field goals --one a 58-yarder -- by Sebastian Janikowski.
The Saints will come back to the Superdome on Thursday to take on the Tennessee Titans at 7 p.m. in the final preseason game. They will open the season at defending Super Bowl champs Green Bay at Lambeau Field on Sept. 8.

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