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NEW ORLEANS — Starters. Backups. What’s the difference?

Playing with a pair of reserve linebackers on Saturday night, New Orleans’ first-team defense showed little improvement in a 34-27 preseason victory over the Houston Texans on Saturday night at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Middle linebacker Curtis Lofton (ankle) was replaced by Jonathan Casillas and Will Herring filled in for David Hawthorne (knee) on the weak side.

It was a particularly difficult transition for Casillas, an outside linebacker by trade who was forced into the middle just two days ago when Lofton’s expected backup, Roman Humber, hurt his hamstring and forced the Saints to formulate a contingency plan.

Casillas described his performance in the heart of the Saints defense as “average at best”, but interim coach Joe Vitt said he was impressed by what Casillas accomplished in such a short period of time.

“He did a nice job tonight,” Vitt said. “Jonathan Casillas has played that position for about 48 hours. He did a good job.

“We gave him about six-to-10 defenses he was going to run in the game.”

But Casillas said he felt “out of place” at times playing in a new position and the Texans took full advantage of those opportunities.

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The Dude

By looking,at,him i wouldnt have thought hed only played the position 24 hours. Smart kid.

Cruize

Herring is actually worse than Shanle. Anderson flashed on his sack and pass break up. Could be a diamond in the rough.

halloween 65

I thought Shanle played well!! I also noticed Anderson last night Cruize, he looked pretty good, I don't want to speculate but he looked like a sleeper??

Boutte

Casillas at middle LB is like Roman Harper at CB. Scary

Danno

Ruud looked pretty good considering he's had about 2 hours of practice.

SaintsRule11

Take away the bogus calls, and our defense looks a lot better.

Also, we outscored that team 34-13 after the first quarter. I was very impressed with our defense in the second half and we had six sacks and multiple turnovers.

blackangold

How dare you not have something bad to say... you should get the ban hammer for being so positive.

really, everyone needs to relax. We will have the starters back week 1 and wont have to call bland Defense.

Utah_Saint

Just my opinion, I was encouraged by what I saw on the defense.

The d-line was much better at gap control and containment than they have been. Foster had one big run of 18 yards but besides that one run, the d contained Foster and Tate to 2.4 yards/carry. The line got pressure on Shaub a few times. And Cam got a sack. That's as many as he had all last season. Hicks is playing great. I expected him to be a project this season, but he looks ready for the d-line rotation already.

I thought the Texans came out gunning for Casillias right off the bat. Jenkins was out of position on a few plays and got burned for it but he did have a couple good plays too. Patrick Robinson had a great game. Andre Johnson was pretty much held in check (by Andre Johnson standards) 2 completions on 5 targets.

Overall tackling was much better than it was last week against Jacksonville.

I know I'm a homer but I'm excited to see the d improve from week to week this season.

TheOak

Our LBs did exactly what they were supposed to.....


Sat on the sidelines and watched the second string. With out error.