Saints Go Marching In With Defense

Saints alive.

A season after Ricky Williams was a rookie bust, Mike Ditka is working as a CBS analyst, former general manager Bill Kuharich works for the Kansas City Chiefs . . . and the New Orleans Saints are a .500 team.

It isn’t only because Williams, after rushing for more than 100 yards four games in a row, has begun to look as if he might one day actually be worth the eight draft picks Ditka traded to get him. (More on who those picks became later.)

The more unlikely development is the emergence of the Saints’ defense, a rather anonymous group that is leading the NFL in total defense.

Granted, there’s one major caveat--the Saints have yet to face the St. Louis Rams and must play them twice in the NFC West--but it’s worth a closer look.

The Saints are first in total defense at 220.7 yards a game and rank second in the NFL in sacks with 27, one fewer than Tampa Bay.

They haven’t given up an offensive touchdown in the last 10 quarters, and against Carolina, the Saints sacked Steve Beuerlein eight times and held the Panthers to eight first downs and 141 total yards, only 10 rushing.

The Saints hear what you’re saying. . . . Yeah, against Carolina.

New Orleans has built its defensive dossier against Detroit, San Diego, Seattle, Philadelphia, Chicago and Carolina--not exactly a murderers’ row among NFL offenses.

“You kind of hear things like that,” said Jim Haslett, the former defensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers who replaced Ditka as coach. “I tell [the players] not to worry about what people say.

“You’ve only got 31 teams in the National Football League. You didn’t put them there, you are just playing them. That can be said for a lot of teams. Baltimore plays Cincinnati and Cleveland twice.”

How are the Saints doing it? With a strong front four, and a bunch of players who know what it’s like to be discarded or injured.

Vastly underrated tackle La’Roi Glover, a former San Diego State player who was claimed off waivers from Oakland in 1997, has nine sacks, three in each of the last two games.

Tackle Norman Hand, a key off-season free-agent acquisition from the Chargers, was once waived by Miami.

Defensive end Joe Johnson, a former first-round pick, missed all of last season because of a knee injury.

Free safety Darren Perry, a former Pittsburgh Steeler standout, is back in the NFL after retiring last season because of a neck injury.

And cornerback Kevin Mathis, strong safety Sammy Knight, linebackers Phil Clarke and Keith Mitchell were never drafted.

One of the few players on the unit without that sort of history is defensive end Darren Howard, a second-round pick from Kansas State whose six sacks tie him with Chicago’s Brian Urlacher for first among NFL rookies.

After ranking 20th defensively last season, the Saints are getting good reviews in the NFC West, a rather sorry division except for the Rams.

Carolina Coach George Seifert likened the Saints’ defense to a buzz saw. Atlanta Falcon Coach Dan Reeves, who faces New Orleans on Sunday, praised the changes in approach under Haslett and defensive coordinator Ron Zook.

“I think the scheme is a whole lot different,” Reeves said. “Basically, they don’t put pressure on the corners all the time. You try to keep things in front of you and make plays. . . .

“They’re getting a lot of pressure from their front four. La’Roi Glover is playing well. . . . Norman Hand has also helped a lot. Of course having Joe Johnson back in the lineup is a huge deal. I think their linebackers are playing really, really well. The Howard kid is playing great. They’ve got some people playing really hard and their scheme is good.”

Of course, there’s plenty of reason not to get excited about the Saints’ early success. This is a franchise that has played only four playoff games in its history.

A three-game stretch against Oakland, St. Louis and Denver starting in mid-November figures to put the Saints in their place.

In the meantime, New Orleans has a chance to sneak above .500 during a stretch against Atlanta, Arizona, San Francisco and Carolina.

“We don’t want any recognition,” said quarterback Jeff Blake, the key offensive free-agent addition along with receiver Joe Horn. “We just want to sneak up on everybody, so all of you just keep it like it is.”

THE WILLIAMS FILE

It will take a while longer for the final assessment, but here’s the update on the players chosen with the eight picks the Saints traded to get Williams with the fifth pick of the 1999 draft:

1999 Draft

Round 1--Chicago starting quarterback Cade McNown.

Round 3--Chicago backup receiver D’Wayne Bates.

Round 4--Linebacker Nate Stimson, out of football.

Round 5--Chicago backup linebacker Khari Samuel.

Round 6--Denver backup tight end Desmond Clark.

Round 7--Denver backup receiver Billy Miller.

2000 Draft

Round 1--Washington starting linebacker LaVar Arrington.

Round 3--Washington backup cornerback Lloyd Harrison.

That’s two starters, five backups, and one player out of football for Williams, at the moment the seventh-leading rusher in the NFL.

NO GAME, NO HEADACHE

Let’s see, give Jim Harbaugh the first quarter, Moses Moreno the second, Ryan Leaf the third . . . Say, what’s Dan Fouts’ schedule?

San Diego Coach Mike Riley gets a break from making a decision on his sorry quarterback options this week because the Chargers don’t play.

He acknowledged he made the wrong choice last week, when the Harbaugh-plays-the-first-quarter- and-Moreno-plays-the-second rotation led to two Moreno fumbles and two Buffalo scores in a game the Chargers lost in overtime.

“I won’t commit to anything today. No quarters, no halves, no games,” Riley said this week.

He’ll have to face it next week. But the Chargers’ expectation that Leaf would be back from a sprained wrist Oct. 29 against Oakland took a twist when Leaf told reporters he was doubtful.

Riley had been looking at three bad choices--and a team that will interpret him as giving up on the season if he went with Leaf.

Now who knows?

Maybe Riley can finesse a compromise. The Chargers are already 0-7, and if they don’t eventually bite the bullet and see if Leaf can improve, they won’t know where they stand for next season.

MORE DEFENSE

There are Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, Mark Carrier . . .

But many of the Redskins are crediting another off-season acquisition for playing the key role in the team’s surge from next to last in total defense to eighth in the NFL: Defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes.

Sanders loves him. So does Marco Coleman, whose nine sacks tie him for third in the league.

“I would say the biggest difference right now is having Ray Rhodes on the team,” Coleman said.

The addition of Sanders and Carrier to strengthen the secondary has allowed the Redskins to focus more on the pass rush, but it’s rare to hear so many players so enthusiastic about a coach.

“He is just a brilliant defensive coordinator, but you have to have the people to go out and get done what it is that he wants to get done and execute what he wants,” Coleman said. “He definitely has some great plans, and I think he knows offenses like the back of his hand.”

YOU BET

Denver’s Terrell Davis and Atlanta’s Jamal Anderson had a friendly wager about who would gain more yards after both underwent season-ending knee surgery last year.

It hasn’t been the race they were hoping for: Anderson leads with 376 yards, and Davis, hobbled by other injuries, has only 99 in three games.