Payton: ’09 team showing resilience

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Oct 28, 2009 - Page: 1C

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METAIRIE — One of the big differences in the 2008 New Orleans Saints and this season’s improved version, which is 6-0 after Sunday’s 46-34 victory over the Miami Dolphins, is the thing that has helped keep their record spotless.

Their ability to come from behind and finish strong was not a part of their repertoire in an unfulfilling 8-8 season in 2008. Case in point, coach Sean Payton said Tuesday, was a 34-32 loss at Denver in Week 3.

The Saints trailed the Broncos 21-3 early in the second quarter, came back to trail by five at halftime but lost when they couldn’t make a crucial first down late in the contest and missed a go-ahead field goal.

When the Dolphins took a 24-3 lead over the Saints on Sunday, the attitude was different and so were the results as Payton’s club outscored Miami 43-10 the rest of the way to secure the victory. The win helped them remain undefeated, one of only three teams that have yet to lose this season.

They did it after a disastrous first half in which the NFL’s top-ranked offense managed just 112 total yards, Drew Brees threw two interceptions and was sacked three times and the defense gave up a 68-yard touchdown run to former Saints running back Ricky Williams.

“The significance was in us being able to come back and fight back in a game where we didn’t do a lot of things very well in the first half,” Payton said during his weekly news conference. “But we managed to change the momentum and create some opportunities for us in the second half.”

After trailing 24-3 with 8:55 to play in the second quarter, the Saints changed the momentum completely after John Carney missed a 49-yard field-goal attempt.

Two drives later, strong safety Roman Harper forced a fumble after a reception by the Dolphins’ Davone Bess and weakside linebacker Scott Shanle recovered at the Saints 49 with 1:38 to play in the half.

The Saints turned that takeaway into a 1-yard touchdown dive by Brees with two seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 24-10 at halftime, then reduced it by seven more points on free safety Darren Sharper’s 42-yard interception return for a score on the third play of the third period.

From that point on, the Saints seemed like they couldn’t be stopped — offensively or defensively — and eventually beat down the Dolphins with a 22-0 outburst in the final quarter.

“I thought the turnovers we got defensively that led to (Marques) Colston’s catch down to the 1 that led to a touchdown by Drew and the second-half turnover (by Sharper), all those things began to help us,” Payton said in pointing out some of the keys to the comeback.

“I don’t think you can point to one thing. There were too many things, as you looked at the game early on, that we struggled with. And a number of things in the second half that we did well helped us kind of pull out of the tailspin we were in.”

That was an encouraging sign for Payton and his coaching staff, considering how they watched their team lose six winnable games by a total of 18 points in all kinds of different ways a year ago — including that game with the Broncos.