Sports

Wednesday, Nov. 04, 2009

Despite an unblemished record, Saints have concerns

Injuries, turnovers starting to mount

METAIRIE, La. — Drew Brees sounds like a man who’s embarrassed, and not because of all the compliments he’s getting over the New Orleans Saints’ perfect record through seven games.

The Saints’ past two victories have been riddled with errors, starting with eight turnovers, six of which were committed by the quarterback with four interceptions and a pair of fumbles.

“You look at it — four turnovers against Miami, four again against Atlanta — and those were good football teams we played and we were able to overcome them because of great defensive play and making some big plays offensively when we had to,” Brees said. “But the fact of the matter is: That stuff gets you beat. At some point it catches up to you and we need to fix it. It’s sloppy football and it’s not what we preach around here. It’s not what we teach. It’s not how we work. So it’s a bad reflection on us and we don’t like that.”

Apparently, this 7-0 start, which matches the 1991 Saints for the best start in the franchise’s 43-year history, hasn’t gone to the heads of these Saints.

There’s still plenty of time for things to wrong, be it poor play or things that are out of the Saints’ control, such as injuries. The 1991 Saints lost five of their last nine games, did not clinch their division until the last game of the season and lost their first playoff game.

Injuries, including starting quarterback Bobby Hebert’s shoulder sprain, contributed to that team’s slide. And as this season wears on, the Saints’ depth is beginning to be tested as well.

Several Saints regulars sat out practice on Wednesday with injuries of varying severity.

Defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis is in his second week of recovering from a right knee sprain, Kendrick Clancy had swelling in his right knee, center Jonathan Goodwin has a contusion in his right knee, linebacker Scott Fujita is in his third week recovering from a left calf strain and receiver Lance Moore has a sprained left ankle. Clancy, Goodwin and Moore all played against Atlanta.

Ellis, a 2008 first-round draft choice who has become one of New Orleans’ premier run stuffers, and Fujita, a starting strong-side linebacker, both sat out Monday night’s game.

Falcons running back Michael Turner had 151 yards rushing and a touchdown. It was by far the most yards the Saints have allowed to a single running back this season.