National Football League

Saints focus on limiting long runs from scrimmage

Published Aug. 4, 2010 9:27 p.m. ET

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The defense stuffed the running game in the New Orleans Saints' first live tackling drill of training camp. The next step is translating that success into the season.

Getting tougher against the run is one of the top priorities - if not the No. 1 priority - for New Orleans.

The Saints finished 21st in rushing defense on their way to winning the Super Bowl.

And the number of big plays they gave up were ugly. Counting the playoffs, they allowed four runs of 65 or more yards. They gave up runs of 20 or more yards in 11 games.

Baltimore, which had the NFL's No. 1 rushing defense, allowed one run of 30 yards or longer.

New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams scoffed at the suggestion he could live with the long runs as a byproduct of his aggressive scheme.

''You've got to be kidding me,'' he said incredulously. ''I'm not correcting it? I'm not answering that.''

He didn't have to, the answer has come in practice.

During the opening tackling drill, linebackers coach Joe Vitt screamed before almost every snap that the offensive players considered the defense soft against the run. He kept telling his guys to ''look them in the eye.''

The defense followed by locking the running game down, an infrequent occurrence last year.

''We looked at it real hard this offseason,'' defensive line coach Bill Johnson said. ''Everybody had his fingerprints on (the run-stopping issues). It's not one position. It's that linebacker and that defensive line playing together, that linebacker and that secondary playing together and learning to fit off each other.''

The problem may have been growing pains in Williams' new multiple scheme. If one player overran his gap, a gaping hole developed.

That's what happened on the first snap of the Saints divisional round playoff game against Arizona. On a counter, Cardinals' running back Tim Hightower ran past defensive end Bobby McCray, cut back as free safety Darren Sharper slipped and raced untouched for a 70-yard score.

The Saints limited the Cardinals to 31 yards on 14 carries the rest of the way.

''It was a junior high play and a misalignment,'' Johnson said. ''They came back and ran that play maybe five or six more times and got nothing.''

Johnson expects the defense to make far fewer mistakes in the second year of the system. The Saints also tweaked their personnel on the line, releasing end Charles Grant, signing end Alex Brown and versatile lineman Jimmy Wilkerson as free agents and trading up in the draft to get big LSU tackle Al Woods (6-4, 307) in the fourth round.

Brown has a reputation as a pass-rushing specialist, but his 48 tackles for the Chicago Bears last year (Wilkerson had 48 tackles for Tampa Bay as well) would have been the second-highest total on the Saints behind Pro Bowl end Will Smiths 49.

''You have to earn the right to rush the passer,'' Brown said. ''Thats what's stopping the run does.''

The solution may be as simple as defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis staying healthy. He missed six games with a knee injury last season, and the run defense suffered without him.

In the first five games he sat out, the Saints surrendered an average of 149.6 rushing yards. Before he got hurt, they held six of eight opponents below 100 yards on the ground.

''We're already leaps and bounds ahead of where we were last year at this time,'' Ellis said. ''I definitely plan on the long runs being a thing of the past. I need to stay healthy and help my teammates as much as possible.''

Notes: Running back Pierre Thomas returned to practice in the afternoon sessions Wednesday after X-ray were negative on the left wrist he injured Tuesday. Following the morning practice, coach Sean Payton said Thomas would be back Friday. Said Thomas: ''Coach Payton said it might be a couple of days. I told myself, no, it's going to be a couple of hours. I shook it off.'' ... The Saints plan to bring in running back Ladell Betts for a tryout Thursday. Betts, 31, was released by the Washington Redskins this spring after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament last season. ... Tight end Jeremy Shockey (sore left knee) missed his third consecutive day. ... Linebacker Scott Shanle missed his second consecutive day with a sprained left knee. ... Cornerback Tracy Porter sat out the second half of the morning practice and the entire afternoon workout with back spasms. ... Rookie first-round cornerback Patrick Robinson tweaked a hamstring in the morning practice and did not return. Payton said he did not consider the injury serious.

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