Sean Payton takes offense to Saints' defense

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. -- The New Orleans Saints apparently were in dire need of a day off over the weekend to recharge their batteries.

After a week and a half of training camp, the Saints were sloppy during their annual intrasquad scrimmage on Friday. But they were more polished when they returned to work Sunday afternoon to begin preparing for Thursday night's exhibition opener with the Baltimore Ravens.

Saints head coach Sean Payton was visibly upset with his team's play in the scrimmage and was steaming after a series of mistakes, most of them on the defensive side of the ball, marred the two-hour workout.

That wasn't a good starting point for a defense that ranked 31st in the NFL in total yards allowed last season and has vowed to be better after defensive coordinator Rob Ryan simplified things in the offseason.

Most of the problems came from the second- and third-team defenses, as they struggled to line up correctly and were caught shuffling players off the field as the Saints' fast-paced offense lined up for the next play.

The defense had 12 players on the field on two plays and then lined up with only 10 on another. Another player was in the huddle when he wasn't supposed to be.

Payton wasn't happy when he was asked about the myriad problems that had apparently cropped up in practices earlier in the week, after Ryan noted he had seen few mistakes and mental errors in the first days of camp.

"Don't get me started," Payton said. "Listen, it is not a fine line, it is a wide bright line. It is obvious.

"It happened the other day in practice, we go three snaps in a row with 10 guys on the field. So we go out there we have 12, we have 12, we have 10. Listen, that has to be cleaned up."

But the Saints rebounded on Sunday, only two days after the defense had to do extra conditioning work following its error-filled performance in the scrimmage.

"That was clean," Payton said after the workout. "I said this to the staff the other day: There were a handful of things that were real good in that scrimmage.

"The substitution thing was kind of like a bug in someone's meal. It could be a great meal, yet you just come away from it a little frustrated. But I think we were able to clean some of that up today."