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Column: Saints must work on fixing the defense before facing the Lions

Saints defensive coordinator Rob Ryan
(Jeff Haynes / Associated Press)
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There were no punts by the New Orleans Saints, but there was a swift kick on their way out of Detroit.

The year was 2008, and the Lions were one loss away from the inevitable — the only 0-16 season in NFL history. The Saints had just humiliated them, 42-7, a game in which New Orleans never punted. Still, Coach Sean Payton awarded punter Glenn Pakulak a game ball.

There was a hint of legitimacy buried in the hubris; Pakulak was from the Detroit area. But it was also a playful parting shot by a team that was 11 of 11 on third down before taking a clock-killing knee in the fourth quarter.

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Six years later, the situation is strikingly different for the Saints and Lions, who will reconvene at Ford Field on Sunday for the first time since that blowout.

The Lions are tied with Green Bay atop the NFC North, an unfamiliar spot for them this deep into the season, and they have the NFL’s top-ranked defense.

The Saints are hanging on for dear life. They were supposed to be a Super Bowl contender, yet so far have shown no signs of that. They are 2-3 — 0-3 on the road — and the defense is a shadow of the one that had made a remarkable turnaround last season. Their only saving grace is being in a feeble division.

The strengths of the Saints are familiar. They still have All-Pro quarterback Drew Brees and offensive mastermind Payton, a supporting cast talented enough to put lots of points on the scoreboard, and the benefits of playing in the rollicking Superdome. In fact, the Saints have the NFC’s top-ranked offense in terms of yards, second in the NFL to Indianapolis.

There haven’t been as many big plays for New Orleans, and there are some murmurs that the 35-year-old Brees might not have the arm strength he once did. But that simply might be frustration over a franchise once known for putting up gaudy numbers coming back to earth. The Saints are 13th in scoring at 26.4 points a game.

But what really has observers shaking their heads is the decline of the defense. A year ago, the hottest Halloween costume in New Orleans was dressing like Saints defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, he of the wavy, flowing silver locks and matching goatee and mustache. He was a rock star, having whipped a U-turn with a defense that was horrendous the year before.

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Much like Dallas has done this year, Ryan took a hodgepodge unit filled with no-name players and castoffs and turned them into a freewheeling and confident group of play-makers who exceeded all reasonable expectations.

The logical thought was that the unit would take a step forward this season. Instead, it has largely slid backward, going from fourth in yards allowed in 2013 to 23rd through the first five games of this season.

Some of it was personnel moves now under scrutiny. The Saints didn’t make an offer to safety Malcolm Jenkins, letting him leave in free agency. He plays for Philadelphia and is tied for the league lead with three interceptions. Former Saints safety Roman Harper has three too, but for Carolina.

New Orleans had high hopes for safety Jairus Byrd, an interception machine in Buffalo. They signed him to a deal that averages $9 million per year. He’s done for the season with a knee injury.

The Saints also rolled the dice on future Hall of Famer Champ Bailey, the 36-year-old cornerback who spent the past 10 years in Denver. It was a risky move, seeing as most corners have long since retired at that age. Bailey was released in training camp.

Then, there was the draft. New Orleans sorely needed a receiver and a cornerback. Payton opted for a receiver first, trading up to grab Oregon State speedster Brandin Cooks at 20. Some people questioned that move, because the Saints have seldom lacked for offensive playmakers, and last year’s class of receivers was far deeper than the crop of top-shelf corners.

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New Orleans took a cornerback in the second round, Nebraska’s Stanley Jean-Baptiste, after the most coveted ones were gone. A converted receiver, Jean-Baptiste is big and raw, and was activated only in the last two weeks. He might turn out to be a productive player, but at the moment he’s a project.

Like their home city, the Saints are shrouded in mystery. And there’s ample speculation swirling about the reasons they’ve gotten off to such a disappointing start.

Some people think Ryan’s system is too complicated, that his defenders are too often confused by elaborate and exotic schemes. There have been plenty of communication breakdowns.

Others say the Saints leaned so long on the big numbers of Brees & Co. that they seldom had to grit it out in down-to-the-wire games. For several years, they have had the luxury to coast.

Then, there’s the real luxury. The Saints held much of their training camp at the Greenbrier, a five-star resort in West Virginia. This is a franchise that historically has spent August in some of the hottest, muggiest, most Spartan surroundings of an NFL team. They went from pure country to a country club.

From 2006 to 2008, the Saints held training camp at Millsaps College, in Jackson, Miss. Tackle Zach Strief told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he received at least 15 IVs during one of those camps and that he’d routinely lose a dozen pounds per practice. After the first week of camp this summer, he told the newspaper he was losing 2 or 3 pounds per practice and had yet to receive an IV.

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Strief said every practice at Millsaps “not only was longer and hotter, but there was no way to fully rehydrate yourself, so every practice affected you more as camp went on. The training room after those practices at Millsaps, there would literally be a line to get an IV.”

Maybe that change matters now, and maybe it doesn’t, but it has sparked talk that the team might have gone soft.

Sunday’s game figures to be far more balanced than the Saints-Lions matchup six years ago. Detroit’s offensive coordinator, Joe Lombardi, is a former Saints assistant, and the Lions have a backfield filled with players who spent time in New Orleans — Reggie Bush, Joique Bell and fullback Jed Collins. So this team knows the Saints, along with their strengths and weaknesses.

Of course, the Saints certainly are capable of knocking off the Lions and getting back on track. After all, it’s not as if Detroit is a dynasty. But few could have predicted New Orleans would be in a predicament six weeks into the season.

And if the New Orleans punter gets the game ball on Sunday, you can bet it’s because he earned it.

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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Twitter: @LATimesfarmer

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