Mickles: Preseason over, real work begins

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Published: Aug 30, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The often-raucous locker room you see at the end of the exhibition season was a little toned down Friday night in the Superdome.

After an exceptionally long postgame talk from coach Sean Payton, who talked mostly of the team’s plans for dealing with Hurricane Gustav, the New Orleans Saints had other things on their minds.

Make no mistake, they were glad to have the preseason schedule behind them. But the Saints couldn’t enjoy the moment knowing that plans were in the works for them to possibly head to Indianapolis to continue their preps for the regular-season opener next Sunday.

It didn’t help that the Saints dropped a 14-10 decision to the Miami Dolphins. They finished with 99 total yards on offense — including a mere 47 in a disjointed second half that had nothing to do with Gustav.

That was partially expected considering Payton chose to sit quarterback Drew Brees, wide receivers Marques Colston and David Patten, and tight end Jeremy Shockey. But that’s no excuse.

“I thought there were some things that were sloppy,” he said. “There were some things that bothered me. I know we didn’t play some of our starters, yet there are some things you expect to see this far along in camp.”

Third-teamer Tyler Palko completed 4 of 14 passes for 36 yards and when you take away the 34 yards he lost on four sacks, the Saints had 2 net yards passing for his 2‰ quarters of work.

Payton said it would be wrong to lay all the blame at Palko’s feet, noting the second-team offensive line didn’t provide the protection the starters give Brees.

“Without looking at the tape,” Payton said, “in my mind, (the pass protection) appeared poor. You have to give him a chance a little bit. There were some other things maybe you would like to see him do a little better. But there were some plays where he didn’t really have a chance.

“We’ll look and see what some of the issues were. But some of these young linemen are a play or two away from protecting Drew, and we’re going to have to do a better job than we did tonight.”

There were some good things to come out of the final preseason game, which often features ragged play because many starters stand on the sideline to avoid injury with the real games around the corner.

Deuce McAllister and Mike McKenzie, two veterans coming off serious knee injuries, looked good.