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Drew Brees On Playing The Panthers: “We know the steps that need to be taken. We know what a big game this is.”
The New Orleans Saints came into the 2012 season with mixed expectations given the turnout of the bounty scandal that rocked the organization. Sean Payton will not be coaching the team this year after getting suspended for his role in the bounty scandal and you have to wonder what kind of toll it will take on this team. Will the Saints be inconsistent all year without their true head coach? New Orleans just didn’t look like the same team in a Week 1 loss to the Redskins at home.The offseason was full of distractions, but Drew Brees won’t being using any of the ready-made excuses for his team’s stumble out of the gate. No.9 believes his team knows what they need to do in order to step up this week against Carolina.Drew Brees joined WWL in New Orleans with Bobby Hebert to discuss the frustrating loss to the Washington Redskins last week, his costly interception in the 4th quarter against the Redskins, taking on the Carolina Panthers who are also coming off a tough loss and the Saints making an effort to run a balanced offense against the Panthers on Sunday.
How difficult is it to not play up to expectations and then have to wait seven days to prove yourselves again?
“Yeah that’s frustrating. That’s the worst part of it. Just the fact that you have to wait so long, but we’re a veteran group, so we know the steps that need to be taken in order to get back on track. It’s been a good week of practice thus far, so hopefully we can keep it going and make sure we answer the call this Sunday and no better way to do it than on the road in Carolina against the division.” What happened on the interception you threw in the 4th quarter?“Yeah it came out a little higher than I wanted it to. The nickel [defender] DeAngelo Hall kind of…he was in a position where he could cut underneath Lance Moore and then maybe make a play on the ball that was thrown too low, so I think I aired on the side of throwing it up and over him and unfortunately it came up a little high.” The Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints are going into this game coming off similar performances last week with explosive offenses that have struggled.
Do you agree?
“Yeah I would say both teams were kind of disappointing coming off of last week’s games. I think this obviously being a divisional game with us having to go on the road in a tough environment against a team who I know the expectation level on their end is very, very high. They are extremely explosive offensively. They got a lot of guys healthy again defensively, which unfortunately for them last year they got hit really hard on defense with the injury bug. They’ve got all their guys. Hopefully we are getting some of our guys back, but we know what a big game this is. It always seems like Carolina has always been a game in the last six years whether it’s at home or away. It seems like it’s always a battle. It’s back-and-fourth and we know what to expect to kind of step into that environment.”
You would think that this game against Carolina would not see either team rush the ball all that much given the amount of passing both teams did last week right?“Yeah you would definitely think the stats would be a little more balanced [between running and passing the ball]. I’m sure that is something they are talking about this week. Just like we are talking about it. I think in any game you go in hoping to be balanced and throughout the course of a game you just go with what is working or depending on the circumstances. Unfortunately some of the circumstances for us was that we were down by a lot and we needed to push the ball down the field in order to catch up. Ideally we want to be a balanced offense.”Listen to Drew Brees on WWL in New Orleans hereTags: Bobby Hebert, Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints, WWL in New Orleans
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