Saints CB Porter shines in debut

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Sep 8, 2008 - UPDATED: 6:28 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — It would have been easy, and certainly understandable, for Tracy Porter to be at least a little nervous or jittery Sunday afternoon.

Porter, a second-round draft pick of the New Orleans Saints, was making his NFL starting debut at one of the toughest positions to play — cornerback — in his home state with 12 family members and friends in attendance.

But the Port Allen native played more like an old pro than a fresh-faced 22-year-old in the Saints’ 24-20 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Superdome.

The 5-foot-11, 186-pound Porter got the start at right cornerback, a sore spot for the Saints last season, and made good with three tackles and breaking up two passes in the big season-opening victory.

“Tracy played well, he played well,” said Saints cornerback Aaron Glenn, who has been around the block a few times as a 15-year veteran. “That’s his job, you know.

“We know how good of a player he is,” he added. “He’s still going to take his lumps, but overall he played a helluva game. He knows he still has a long way to go, but that was a good stepping stone for him going into the coming weeks.”

Two of the biggest plays made by Porter came at crucial times late in the third quarter and the closing seconds of the contest.

In the third period, he had tight man-to-man coverage on Bucs wide receiver Antonio Bryant and knocked away a pass in the end zone, then had good coverage on wide receiver Joey Galloway on a third-down play with 50 seconds to play after the Bucs drove deep into Saints’ territory.

“I had a lot of confidence coming into the game,” said Porter, who played with the first- and second-team defenses in training camp and exhibition games. “But to get NFL experience in a game like that and develop chemistry with your teammates makes it a little easier on you.”

Being a rookie playing in his first NFL game, Porter said he expected to be challenged by Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia and Galloway, who torched the Saints for 29 catches, 607 yards and nine TDs in their last seven meetings.

“Coming in, my teammates said I was a rookie and they were going to come at me,” he said. “They told me, ‘They’re going to test you, so just hold your ground.’ So I definitely had it in the back of my mind that they were going to test me and I wanted to be prepared once they did it.”

Porter teamed up to start with fellow West Baton Rouge Parish native Randall Gay, who joined the Saints as an unrestricted free agent this spring, at the other cornerback spot. Gay also had one breakup although he should have been credited with another.

“They had a lot of (pass) breakups,” Saints coach Sean Payton said of Porter and Gay. “I thought our technique was good (on Galloway) and we did a good job staying on top of the cover routes. I thought we contested the throws.”