'D' lightful

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Sep 8, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Saints’ front office spent a lot of time and energy this offseason revamping the NFL’s 26th-ranked defense, which was part of the reason they failed to make the playoffs last year.

A key trade and several moves in free agency and the draft, which resulted in four new starters and two key backups on that side of the ball for Sunday’s season opener with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, paid off handsomely.

The new-look unit gave up just 13 points and then came up with a game-saving stop on fourth-and-6 at the Saints 24 with 38 seconds remaining in a 24-20 victory over the Bucs in the Superdome.

While the Saints offense piled up 438 yards, with Drew Brees throwing for 343 yards and three touchdowns, the list of heroes was rather lengthy on defense — especially among the newcomers.

• Cornerbacks Randall Gay and Tracy Porter, a pair of West Baton Rouge Parish natives, came up with timely pass breakups throughout the game.
• Defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, the team’s first-round draft pick, provided a consistent push up the middle.
• Middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma, who came to the Saints in a trade this winter, led his new team with nine tackles and two quarterback hurries.
• Defensive end Bobby McCray sacked Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia after he drove his team deep into Saints territory in the final two minutes.

Just three plays after McCray’s sack, one of the team’s old hands got into the act as linebacker Scott Fujita sealed the victory when he picked off Garcia’s fourth-down pass at the Saints 19.

“Obviously, it was an exciting game,” Saints coach Sean Payton said of a contest that featured three lead changes in a 7‰-minute span of the final quarter. “It went back and forth with two good teams just kind of punching each other with momentum swings.”

The Saints took a 17-13 lead on Brees’ 84-yard touchdown bomb to Devery Henderson in the closing seconds of the third quarter before Garcia put his team back up on a 2-yard toss to Ike Hilliard.

After the Saints regained the lead on a 42-yard swing pass from Brees to Reggie Bush, who faked out safety Jermaine Phillips at the Bucs’ 25 and then got to the end zone with 7:38 to play, the defense closed it out.

They ended the Bucs’ next drive after two first downs when Porter, a second-round draft pick, broke up a pass for wide receiver Antonio Bryant and then dug in late when Garcia moved his team to the Saints’ 24 on their final possession.

At that point, McCrary and Fujita came up with the biggest plays of the day at a crucial time.

Fujita said the Saints defense wanted to end it even though the offense could have sealed the deal with a first down a couple of minutes earlier.

“Defensively, you hope for opportunities to come up,” he said. “You want to step up and close the game out like that, or as I was saying earlier, at least hold up our end of the bargain.”

When asked if he had a bigger interception as a member of the Saints, Fujita smiled and said, “I had one in my first game (in 2006). but it didn’t close out the game. This one was on fourth down at the end of the game, so it’s pretty special.”