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Houston – New Orleans learned against Houston on Sunday exactly what it probably wanted to learn in Reliant Stadium, against the two-time, defending AFC South Division champions.

Namely, that the Saints’ jaw appears to be sturdy enough to take a flush punch or two, and their own counter punches pack a force that can be pretty formidable.

In their third preseason game – the one that traditionally, most-closely has approximated a regular-season game – the Saints’ front-liners spotted the Texans a 10-0 lead, then clawed back to take a 17-16 lead into halftime of New Orleans’ 31-23 victory over Houston.

The Saints, in fact, stretched their halftime lead to 24-16 on the first drive of the third quarter when backup quarterback Luke McCown, who replaced Drew Brees on the Saints’ second series of the second quarter, led his second consecutive touchdown drive.

“There’s some encouraging things,” Coach Sean Payton said. “There are also some things we’ve got to get cleaned up.

“There’s still a number of things we’re going to have to work on and improve on.”

The improvement and work are ongoing, and the trajectory appears to be upward.

By the time McCown connected with Andy Tanner for an 8-yard score and the eight-point lead, the Saints had seen all they needed to see. With the Texans providing a measuring stick, New Orleans couldn’t have been displeased with how it sized up against a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

Houston zipped to a 7-0 lead after the first quarter, as it piled up 164 yards, 136 more than the Saints. And the Texans added a field goal to open the second quarter, completing a drive that ended the first period.

But even though Houston’s drive ended on Randy Bullock’s 48-yarder, it was a harbinger of New Orleans turning the momentum in its favor. Because in the three plays the Texans ran to open the quarter, they lost eight yards – defensive end Cam Jordan sacked Matt Schaub for a 9-yard loss on third-and-9 from the Saints’ 21-yard line.

From there, the Saints more than held their own in their first road game of the preseason.

The next offensive possession, and the final one for Brees, was a 3-play, 80-yard, 94-second bolt of lightning – a 29-yard screen pass to Mark Ingram, a run for no gain by Ingram, and a bullet pass to running back Pierre Thomas, who lined up in the slot right and beat his defender inside, dodged a couple of more and sprinted down the middle of the field to the end zone.

“The play to Pierre kind of sparked us a little bit,” Payton said.

Read more: John DeShazier: New Orleans Saints learned they can take a punch, bounce back

homerj07

Overall we played well. Yes there are some things to work on but it looked ok

jeanpierre

Well, it's a matter of time before we're attacked at the Outside Linebacking Spots, but then again, we've got to see Martez and Junior start playing together...

Rugby Saint II

I'd like to see that too.

saintfan

I thought we played well. Well, well enough.

I watched the game distracted. My son wanted to set up his Thomas The Train tent in the living room, and so we did, and I watched the game from inside the tent, listening mostly, and peeking out when I could, so I'm not commenting as though I watched with an eagle eye...

But is it just me, or were their WRs WIDE open WAY too much?

SmashMouth

Johnson was way too open. But he did push off on one play.

Crusader

It looked like a football game usually does with momentum swinging back and forth. We held them to field goals a bunch of times and stopped that 4th down try near the goalline. Defence started out slow but got better. I still think RR is holding back a lot.

dizzle88

Thats the sad thing about it smash, there was absolutely no push off, Lewis just couldn't make a play on the ball all night - watch at 1:17

TheOak

I was in the stands, there was push off.. I even said something to my wife just as he caught the ball, i expected a flag but nothing was dropped. It was not much but it was enough to get separation.. Watch the video, he puts his hands on him and makes a small movement.... Johnson has been playing long enough to know how to do it with out getting caught.. He is no Roddy White.

If there was not push off then a mystical force caused Lewis to go in a different direction than he was running very quickly.

Seer1

Defense was porous, we were down by three when Drew left the field. The OL looked like they were playing on old school roller skates. We weren't winning with the first team out there. Just sayin'...