Saints offense comes alive

• By LES EAST
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Oct 13, 2008 - UPDATED: 6:55 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — The Saints’ first possession against the Raiders on Sunday lasted three plays and ended with a punt.

On their second possession, they drove into scoring range, but two holding penalties against Jammal Brown helped stall the drive, and a missed 31-yard field goal by Taylor Mehlhaff left New Orleans scoreless and trailing by three points.

Then came a textbook drive — 18 plays, 86 yards, 10:59 in time possession. It was the Saints’ longest drive of the season, surpassing a touchdown drive against Denver (15 plays, 76 yards, 7:20).

It was their longest drive since a field goal drive (19 plays, 67 yards, 10:20) against Carolina a year and five days earlier.

And, more importantly, it was a model of efficiency and consistency that came six days after New Orleans’ worst offensive performance of the season, a penalty- (11) and turnover-laden (four) mess of a 30-27 loss to Minnesota in which they scored just one offensive touchdown.

“We needed that,” wide receiver Lance Moore said after the 34-3 victory in the Superdome. “It’s funny how it works sometimes. The fans lose confidence and maybe even some players lose confidence when you don’t score first or you go three and out against a team you think you should be able to move the ball against. We had to bounce back and be efficient on offense and we were able to do that.”

During that first long drive, the Saints ran the ball 10 times and threw eight passes. They started with three consecutive runs, then threw four consecutive passes. Then it went: run, pass, three runs, pass, run, pass, run, pass, run (touchdown).

Deuce McAllister, who had just one carry on the first two possessions, ran the ball four times for 24 yards and caught one pass for 4 yards. Reggie Bush carried five times for just 8 yards, but the last carry produced a 3-yard touchdown.

Drew Brees, who completed his first 16 passes, was 8-for-8 for 48 yards. He completed passes to four different receivers, including three to fullback Mike Karney, who had three catches coming in, and one to tight end Sean Ryan, who had never caught a pass with New Orleans before.

“We were balanced,” Karney said. “We started to run the ball and we got that established with Deuce. We had good play action on account of that. We kept making the plays we needed in order to be successful.”

New Orleans converted four third downs during the drive. On third-and-1, Bush gained 1. On third-and-1, Karney gained 2. On third-and-2, Brees completed a 4-yard pass to Karney. On third-and-goal from the 3, Bush ran in for the touchdown.

“We knew coming in which plays we wanted to run and who we wanted to get the ball to. I just thought we were very efficient all day long.”