Saints blank Bengals

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Aug 24, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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CINCINNATI — After a rough night in its preseason home opener last week against the Houston Texans, the New Orleans Saints defense was out for a little redemption Saturday night.

OK, it helped that the Cincinnati Bengals didn’t have star wide receivers Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh and running back Rudi Johnson available because of injuries. But the Saints still had to deal with a capable offense led by two-time Pro Bowl quarterback Carson Palmer.

But unlike Texans quarterback Matt Schaub, who was near-perfect a week ago, Palmer and the Bengals sluggish offense didn’t have a prayer against the Saints in a 13-0 exhibition loss in Paul Brown Stadium.

“I thought we played much better defensively,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “We were better on third down, we defended the run well even in our seven-man fronts, coverages were tight and we hurried the quarterback.”

“So that was the big difference from last week, I thought we played with some energy and enthusiasm,” he said. “You could see it on the sideline.”

As a result, the Bengals (1-2) managed just 94 yards in the first half, when Palmer was in the game, and 128 total yards through three quarters before finishing with 165.

Most notably, the Saints (2-1) showed marked improvement in the secondary as cornerback Mike McKenzie made his preseason debut after having surgery on a torn knee ligament in December and second-round draft pick Tracy Porter made his first start opposite him.
It also helped the Saints also came with a better push up front most of the night, but especially when the starters were still in the game in the first half.

They sacked Palmer three times for 25 yards, knocking him out of the contest with a bloody nose and cut lip when defensive end Bobby McCray and free safety Kevin Kaesviharn combined to drop him with 50 seconds to play in the first half.

Palmer, who was hurried several other times, completed 11 of 16 passes for 105 yards. Schaub, on the other hand, was 14-of-16 for 187 yards and two TDs. He also had an astronomical passer rating of 154.9.

The Saints also had a good night against the run, holding the Bengals to 38 yards and a 2.2 average on 17 carries and limiting them to 4 of 14 on third-down conversions, 29.0 percent.

The effort was especially important to the Saints defense because Payton will likely sit most of his starters — or play them very little — in the team’s preseason finale Thursday night against the Miami Dolphins in the Superdome.

“We needed a little redemption because we wanted to get not only physically ready, but get in the right mind-set for the regular season,” said Kaesviharn. “It’s important to build on everything, and I think we did that tonight.”

“Tonight, it was about us executing and showing people how good we can be,” middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma said. “We felt like we did some good things last week that were kind of overlooked. People are going to say things, so it’s about us showing it.”