New Orleans Linebackers Just Bedevil Everett : Football: They won’t admit it, but the Saints’ defense frustrates the Rams.

Boy, just try to compliment those New Orleans linebackers. Tell them they’re great. Tell them they dominate. Tell them they’re the premier unit in the NFL.

They’re liable to tell you off.

After spending a good portion of the day in Jim Everett’s face, Saint linebacker Renaldo Turnbull tried to share the credit. Sure, the Saints have quality linebackers, but Turnbull and Co. would rather bury the praise as they did the Rams on Sunday.

“Football is a team sport last I checked and it will always be a team sport,” Turnbull said. “The rest of the guys on this defense don’t get enough credit. All people say is ‘Renaldo got a sack,’ or ‘Renaldo made this play.’ Why? Because the rest of these guys are doing their jobs.”

It’s almost as if these guys don’t take responsibility for their actions. But they are guilty as charged.

New Orleans’ 37-6 victory Sunday over the Rams was another job completed by the Saint linebackers. The faces may have changed, but they keep beating the Rams.

Turnbull has replaced Pro Bowl linebacker Pat Swilling, who was traded to Detroit. James Williams played for the injured Sam Mills, another Pro Bowl performer. But there was hardly a drop off in performance. They, along with Rickey Jackson and Vaughan Johnson, stopped Everett and the Ram offense with one big play after another.

The group then went about trying to deny what 50,709 fans had witnessed.

“I wish the front line would get more credit,” Turnbull said. “They work harder than anyone else on this team. When I get a sack, it’s because those guys are in people’s faces.”

Even Coach Jim Mora got into the act.

“We don’t just depend on our linebackers,” Mora said. “We try to play good team defense. If we had four good linebackers and seven guys who were average, we wouldn’t be a very good defensive team.”

They can argue the chicken-and-the-egg stuff all they want. Sunday, it was the Saint linebackers who led the way.

Turnbull was particularly effective. He began the day tied for the NFL lead with seven sacks. He added only one Sunday--a big one.

With the Rams angling for field-goal position late in the first half, Turnbull surged around Ram tackle Irv Eatman and wrestled Everett to the ground with one arm. On the next play, Johnson sacked Everett to push the Rams out of field-goal range.

In the third quarter, the Rams got to the Saint 20. But on second down, Turnbull crashed on Everett, rushing his throw. His wobbly pass fell yards from Henry Ellard and the Rams had to settle for a field goal.

“You cannot allow Everett to stand back there and beat his feet, because he can hurt you,” Johnson said. “You have to get a little pressure and make him move around.”

Everett has been known to move around quite a bit with just a minimum amount of pressure. That is something most defensive coordinators, and linebackers, are well aware of.

“I think if you get in anyone’s head, you can make him jittery,” Turnbull said. “You hit a quarterback enough times, I don’t care who it is, he doesn’t want to be hit. No one wants sit back there and have someone just tee off on them. Anyone would get jittery.”

Anyone in particular?

“I’m not going to say what you’re trying to get me to say,” Johnson said. “You’re trying to get me in trouble.”

Well, trouble seems to follow Saint linebackers around.

The Rams were in the game, trailing, 16-6, at the start of the fourth quarter. Everett, 10 of 25 for 126 yards, got them as far as the Saint 34.

But on first and five, Jackson swooped in from the left and stripped the ball from Everett. Wayne Martin recovered and the Saints drove for another touchdown.

“I made that play because of the great coverage,” Jackson said. “Everett tried to throw the ball three or four times and couldn’t. So eventually, I got over there and stripped the ball. But the secondary was the reason.”

Once again, a Saint linebacker shirks responsibility.