Williams pleased with Saints defense so far

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Sep 18, 2009

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Speaking Thursday for the first time since a 45-27 win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday, New Orleans Saints new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, said he was pleased with what he saw in his unit’s first real outing.

“We have to continue taking the ball away. We’ll be measured by that,” said Williams, whose group had three interceptions. “We have to make a significant improvement from last year to this year with that. We gave our offense three short fields, which is good. We have to score on defense.”

The Saints defense, which allowed 231 total yards, gave up just 20 of the 27 points as the offense yielded a touchdown on a fumble return. Also encouraging was the fact the Lions needed to drive just 19 total yards to 10 of their other 20 points — thanks to an 87-yard kickoff return and 43-yard punt return.

“I thought we did a good job when our back was against the wall as far as making it very, very tough for them to cross the goal line,” Williams said. “I would’ve liked to have seen them not get across at all. Those are things to improve upon.”

Getting prepared

As a former Philadelphia Eagles assistant coach from 1997-98 and a coach who went back there every year when he was with the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys from 1999 to 2005, Saints coach Sean Payton knows how passionate Eagles fans can be.

So does tight end Jeremy Shockey, who played for the Giants and visited Philadelphia for six straight seasons before joining the Saints last year.

As frequent visitors, Payton and Shockey know what’s in store for the Saints (1-0) when they meet the Eagles (1-0) Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.

“The key on playing on the road is being able to focus on the task at hand and eliminating distractions and dealing with the crowd noise, which we worked on today,” Payton said after practice Thursday. “This place gets loud. It’s a tough city because they’ve been so passionate about their team.”

Sometimes overly passionate, Shockey said Wednesday.

“It’s a hostile environment,” he said. “Philadelphia definitely has some great fans, and you don’t know what you’re getting into when you go there. Things get thrown at the bus going into the parking lot. Whatever you can imagine, happens there.

“So it’s going to fun going back to play this team. The most important part for us is to let us play our game as an offense, control the ball and take care of the ball. That’s the most important part.”

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