Running game shines for Saints

• By LES EAST
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Dec 8, 2008 - UPDATED: 7:05 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — Saints coach Sean Payton talked all week about running the football effectively and finding the offensive balance that has eluded his team for much of the season.

The Saints started their game against Atlanta on Sunday in the Superdome by running the ball on their first five plays. They continued running it with the one-two punch of Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush.

With the game on the line, the running game converted a critical fourth-and-1, Thomas broke free for the go-ahead touchdown, and in the waning moments, Thomas got the final 23 yards of his second career 100-yard game and the Saints’ season-high 184 rushing yards to run out the clock.

“Coach Payton told us that today he was going to give us a chance to run the ball and we wanted to deliver,” center Jonathan Goodwin said. “As a line and a team we believe we can run the ball whenever we’re called on to do it.”

The problem has been that most of the time either Payton hasn’t called on them to run it consistently, or the game situation or the effectiveness of the NFL’s top-rated passing came have conspired against a game-long commitment to the run. Sunday was different.

“We had more of a balanced attack,” fullback Mike Karney said. “That was the word that was stressed all week leading up to the game and you saw it today.

“With the balance we had we were able to run the ball when we had to, we were able to throw it when we had to, we scored when we had to, and when we needed first downs we got them.”

New Orleans ran the ball 30 times and threw it 32. During the first 12 games of the season 62 percent of its plays were passes.

On Sunday it gained 414 yards, 230 passing (56 percent). In the previous 12 games, 78 percent of the yards came through the air.

“We wanted to make it a point that we were going to run on these guys and we did,” Thomas said. “Coach had faith is us and we took it to them. He said we were going to run the ball this game so the backs better be prepared and be ready to run the ball.”

They were as Thomas gained 102 yards on 16 carries and Bush had 80 on 10 carries. As a team they averaged 6.1 yards per carry, well above its 3.6 average coming into the game.

The Saints ran the ball on their first three offensive plays, but gained just eight yards. On third-and-1 Thomas lost a yard, and New Orleans punted the ball away.

On their next possession, Payton stuck with the run and it paid off. Bush popped free up the middle for a career-long 43-yard gain and Thomas followed that with a 4-yard run. On the next play, the Saints went to the air for the first time and Brees hit Bush with a 5-yard touchdown pass.