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New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton
Media Availability
Monday, September 9, 2013

Opening Statement: “We just finished meeting with the team and went through this game. Players will be in meetings here for the next two and a half hours. I said this yesterday, I thought it was a big win for us yesterday. Any time in week one you start off with a home game against a divisional opponent, it obviously carries a lot of importance. I think there are a lot of things that we are going to have a chance to clean up when the players watch this tape. One thing always about your first game is, it’s the first time a player goes from 20 snaps maybe to 40 or plus snaps. You deal with some fatigue and you deal with some cramping. You deal with that transition into the regular season. I thought overall we handled that pretty well and yet there are a lot of little things and a lot of big things that we have to be better at.”

Can you talk about how your pressure came from the same four guys every time?

“Yes, that was the plan going in. I think that anytime you can have and create pressure with a four man surface (pass rush) it certainly benefits you because you are covered in the back end and we will do that in this game. It was part of the plan going in.”

Malcolm Jenkins said that you guys watched a lot of film on Matt Ryan’s tendencies when a team blitzed him and would send an extra man and how he would always find an open receiver, can you talk about that?

“He is a smart quarterback and so it’s hard to just stay in one look versus any of these quarterbacks that are experienced and as talented as he is. You are wanting to change the looks up. I think if they get a steady dose of one thing, they will have an area or idea of where you are weak, and certainly he is one of those players. And he has enough weapons (on the) outside that if he feels like he is getting pressure and a single coverage, generally with each pass play you know exactly where you are going with the football so we try to mix things up and not provide with a constant or same look. Fortunately, our guys handled that aspect well, and back with what you mentioned in the beginning, the four guys rushing were able to disrupt him enough.”

Are you happy with the new guys making an impression in the first game?

“We have a lot of young players. A lot of young guys in week one that you don’t know a whole lot about other than what you see in the preseason, but aside from guys playing on defense or on offense, you talk about Kenny Vaccaro, John Jenkins. Even the receivers, Nick Toon being someone although he is in his second year, he is really in his first year healthy and playing. A guy like Josh Hill stood out and played especially well on special teams as a backup tight end. We are going to count on those guys and quickly they are going to get up to speed and look to improve each week.”

Can you talk about your dedication to the run game?

“Yes, look there are some frustrating snaps that we are going to look at here this afternoon and there are some snaps where we are close and yet it takes all 11 guys. We were wanting to control the time of possession. I thought it was mostly significant in the fourth quarter. I thought we possessed the ball quite a bit. We had one series in the second half backed up, down to our three and I thought although it didn’t result in any points, that series was significant in that it changed the field position back in our favor. And then the final drive that led to a field goal took a lot of time off the clock. We will continue to work on that element, it needs to be better. We were close in some areas and yet we still have to work on and clean up a number of things to improve it.”

Read more: Sean Payton recaps win over the Atlanta Falcons

Rugby Saint II

Defense carried the day.

homerj07

You can see good & bad in both units.

triman

I saw a lot that I liked and a lot I didn't like. Pass rush was much improved. Still giving up huge plays and F falcons made it look easy in their final drive. A drop by S.Jackson and big play by Vaccaro saved the game. One game lead over the division. Pretty. Good way to start.

RailBoss

That game was a close call, not a dominating victory but a huge victory in itself.