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Day 19 Recap: Public portion of training camp closes with outdoor session
By Chris Pika, August 16, 2005; 10:00 pm, NewOrleansSaints.com
Aug 16, 2005 – 10:00 pm

The Saints completed the public portion of the 2005 Training Camp on Tuesday afternoon at the Metairie facility.

The team worked out for almost two hours in hot weather (96 degrees, 105 heat index at 3 pm) in shells in their final practice before Thursday's nationally-televised preseason game at New England (7 pm CT; FOX, WWL 870-AM, WFNO 830-AM [Spanish], Saints Radio Network).

The team will travel to Boston on Wednesday afternoon after lunch for their first road trip of the season and the first of two visits to the Patriots in 2005.

Here is selected excerpts of Coach Jim Haslett's post-practice press conference with the media, discussing Thursday's game.

Q: What do you hope for Thursday night?

A: "I hope for a better performance than we had the other day. I'd like to see consistency, not turning the ball over, play good defense, and stop the run. Really, I just want to get better and improve over what we played last week."

Q: I know the starters are going to play for three quarters, but is it still too early regardless of how they play to judge?

A: "Well, I think it will be a good gauge. We've done good work. We worked on tackling this week, and we did a number of different things. It was a short week. It will be fun to go up there and play this team."

Q: Why did you decide to play the first string three quarters this week?

A: "This was decided in the offseason. It was something we wanted to do to get a lot of work early in camp and back off as we go because of injuries and the people we were playing. We just feel like we have a new line, and we want to get Deuce (McAllister) a lot of work. We've got some new guys on defense, so we want to get the cohesiveness down as fast as we can."

Q: Given that you will play the Patriots in the regular season, will this be very vanilla and just sort of man to man and a good chance to see how people match up?

A: "Well, they do a good job of running the football, and I don't think that will change that much with what they are doing the rest of the year. Obviously, you game plan a little more, and you look at players. Injuries play an effect in it. It is going to be a good gauge for us. First of all, we are on the road and playing the world champs, so I think it's going to be a good gauge to see where we are at."

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