2012-10-29



New Orleans Saints whipped by Denver Broncos 34-14 | NOLA.com
Nakia Hogan - Saints drop further behind first-place Falcons.

Denver Broncos Defeat New Orleans Saints, 34-14 | neworleanssaints.com
QB Drew Brees throws for two touchdowns in a loss to the Broncos on Sunday Night Football.

New Orleans Saints 14 vs. Denver Broncos 34 | ESPN.com
NFL GAMEHQ: Final statistics, play-by-play, drive charts, photos, video highlights.

New Orleans Saints 14 vs. Denver Broncos 34 | NFL.com
NFL Game Center - Watch video of the game, buy tickets, get stats & depth charts, game highlights, analysis, recap, and discuss with other NFL fans!

New Orleans Saints Postgame Notes | neworleanssaints.com
QB Drew Brees moved past John Elway for sixth place on the NFL's all-time touchdown list

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees runs consecutive TD streak to 50 games | NOLA.com
Nakia Hogan - He now has 301 career TDs.

Saints at Broncos Official Photo Gallery | neworleanssaints.com
Michael C. Hebert

Saints @ Broncos Photos | NOLA.com

Saints vs Broncos coverage

Saints vs Broncos box score

Mile High Report

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From the Saints Sideline

Quick Take: Saints dominated by Broncos at Mile High
Ken Trahan - Denver 34, New Orleans 14. It was no contest.

Mile High beatdown: Broncos rough up Brees, Saints 34-14 | wwltv.com
Bradley Handwerger - New Orleans was in position Sunday night to keep alive the unthinkable dream of a run to the postseason.

Drew Brees couldn't match Peyton Manning in New Orleans Saints' 34-14 loss to Denver Broncos | NOLA.com
Mike Triplett - Brees had one of his worst games with the Saints, while Manning picked apart New Orleans defense.

New Orleans Saints defense goes from awful to worse in loss to Denver Broncos: 10 more observations | NOLA.com
New Orleans Saints columnist Mike Triplett offers 10 more observations on the Saints' 34-14 loss.

New Orleans Saints vs. Denver Broncos: How the game was lost | NOLA.com
Larry Holder - Saints defense had no answers for Peyton Manning.

New Orleans Saints vs. Denver Broncos game recap | NOLA.com
Larry Holder - Key matchup, did you see?

Grading the offense | NOLA.com
Doug Tatum - Zero fleur de lis out of four.

Grading the defense | NOLA.com
Doug Tatum - Zero fleur de lis out of four.

Grading the special teams | NOLA.com
Doug Tatum - Three fleur de lis out of four.

Grading the coaching | NOLA.com
Doug Tatum - One fleur de lis out of four.

New Orleans Saints' historically dismal defense is a problem of players, not coaches | NOLA.com
Jeff Duncan - Don't blame the defensive coordinator.

Reality sets in on lost season for Saints | wwltv.com
Bradley Handwerger - If it hadn’t already, a reality should bet setting in now. The New Orleans Saints, the ones you’ve become accustomed to over the past few seasons, are no longer around.

Halftime thoughts on the Saints - NFC South Blog | ESPN.com
Pat Y. - The New Orleans Saints’ defense, which has been the league’s worst, hasn’t been all that bad so far in Sunday night’s game against the Denver Broncos.

Wrap-up: Broncos 34, Saints 14 - NFC South Blog | ESPN.com
Pat Y. - Thoughts on the New Orleans Saints' 34-14 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday night.

Saints Get Blown Out in Denver 14-34 | thesaintsnation.com
Andrew Juge - In a game that was much, much worse than the score, the Saints were embarrassed in Joe Vitt's return, losing 14-34.

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The Pony Express

Peyton Manning, Broncos defense stuff Brees, Saints for AFC West lead | The Denver Post
Mike Klis - Some quarterbacks chuck it. Peyton Manning shot-putted the ball about 1 1/2 yards ahead to running Willis McGahee for a long, red-zone gain that set up an easy touchdown.

Denver Broncos finally playing at Peyton Manning's level - AFC West | ESPN.com
Bill Williamson - Three weeks ago, the Denver Broncos weren’t playing up to Peyton Manning's standards.

Broncos' Demaryius Thomas developing into elite deep threat | The Denver Post
Tom Kensler - Already considered the Broncos big-play receiver, third-year pro Demaryius Thomas showed once again Sunday night against New Orleans that he is on the verge of joining the NFLs elite deep threat.

Broncos' defense didn't sit back in win over Saints | The Denver Post
Jeff Legwold - It takes a lot for Champ Bailey to use the words "special" and "quarterback" in the same sentence.

Denver Broncos pass-fail: Grading the win over New Orleans | The Denver Post
Jeff Legwold - Denver Broncos pass-fail: Grading the win over New Orleans.

Woody Paige: Denver Broncos marching to another AFC West title | The Denver Post
Woody Paige - Oh, when the Broncos, not the Saints, go marching in.

Rapid Reaction: Broncos 34, Saints 14 - AFC West Blog | ESPN.com
Bill Williamson - A look at a solid 34-14 victory for the Denver Broncos.

Denver Broncos finally playing at Peyton Manning's level - AFC West | ESPN.com
Bill Williamson - Three weeks ago, the Denver Broncos weren’t playing up to Peyton Manning's standards.

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Post-Game Quotes

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS

ASSISTANT HEAD COACH/LINEBACKERS JOE VITT

General Remarks

"I just met with our football team and I certainly share in their disappointment tonight. I told them quite frankly there was probably was too much hype and not enough substance about me coming back last week. I've got to do a better job of preparing our football team. I've got to do a better job of getting our football team ready physically, mentally and emotionally to play in a game like this. To be quite frank with you, there's still stuff that I need to do better. I took a time out, I went for it in the first half on fourth down and are we prepared to take that shot without taking a time out? I should have went for it on fourth down in the third quarter, I didn't do it. I told our team to be prepared for that. At half time, quite frankly, we were where we wanted to be. We were winning the time of possession, we knew we had to do a better job offensively on third down to maintain possessions and we wound up being one-for-12 for the game. We've also got to do a better job stopping the run defensively and we'll continue to make that a premium and work on it. There's a lot of football left to be played. I'm going to work hard to prepare our football team and our football players are going to work hard."

On clarifying his comment about too much hype around his return "[The hype about] me coming back, which was ridiculous. There's nothing that I can do to put pixie dust on this team to make it play better, to make it play more emotional and there's probably more hype than substance on my part. I've got to do a better job of educating our football team of exactly what we have to do to win, especially in an environment like this against a good football team and on the road. We had some keys to victory that we felt we would try to execute, we knew what we had to do to win, and quite frankly we didn't do it. That's my responsibility, that's my fault."

On if the team struggles with mental lapses during the game "Well, I don't think it's mental lapses, I think it's missed tackles. It's some missed assignments, things like that. We're going to play the players that give us the best chance to win football games. We're going to be in the business of being accountable for how we put forth and what we do, and we'll have time this week to work hard to get that corrected."

On if there was an injury to CB Patrick Robinson "Not to my knowledge."

On his decision to move DE Cameron Jordan into the Tackle position "The game that we play is a game of match-ups and if we can create a mis-match defensively to afford our defense an opportunity to make a play that's what we want to do. We also want to give up some different looks. We said last week that we were not going to fool [Broncos QB] Peyton [Manning] with a lot of different coverage disguises but hopefully we could create some mis-matches and create some confusion in their offensive and get a little pressure on the quarterback, and that was good early."

On the cause of poor run defense "I think poor run defense comes from not staying in their gap and not tackling."

On the Broncos showing something they didn't expect "They're going to make their adjustments. We started the game doing exactly what we wanted to do. We knew that Peyton was going to get his completions. We knew that this offense was going to move the football. But in order to win a game like this we talked about our second-half performance and what we were going to have to do all week long, but we didn't get it done. I didn't get it done. So when you play a game like this you've got to come early and you've got to stay late. You've got to play your best football in the second half and we just didn't do it."

On offensive performance tonight "I think the stats speak for themselves. When you finish the game one-for-12 on third down and time of possession is a premium, offensively we're going to have to get better at that. The good news is that we have a lot of men on our offense that are intelligent and want to be fed the proper information - what they have to do to get better. That was a disappointing stat, our offense knows that, we'll improve on that."

On the receivers dropping more passes this year being indicative of a lack of leadership "No, our leadership is strong. We have real good leadership on this football team. This football team has been through a lot, it's been put through a lot. It's not an excuse for the way we played tonight. It's not an excuse for dropped balls, for missed tackles. We're going to be held accountable, and we're all in an evaluation process right now, me included. We need to get better. We need to catch more balls and we need better runs after the catch. We need to defend the pass better, we need to defend the run better. We need to go back to work."

On the Saints not being ready for the Broncos defensive looks "No we were well prepared we felt going into the game. But you have to win individual battles in this game to have a chance. You can get paralysis through analysis."

On CBs Johnny Patrick and Corey White getting a lot of snaps tonight "That's the plan because of the personnel they're going to run. If they're going to run three wide receivers then we're going to run their second tight end as a slot receiver, so, anytime we play defense against Peyton Manning you're going to play more that nickel package to defend against the pass."

On DT Akiem Hicks "I think he's still playing at a high pad level. I don't think he's working his feet the way you need to work it. But this is a big, strong, young encouraging athlete. We're going to continue to play him and we're going to take a few lumps along the way, but we're in the business of trying to develop players and get players better. At this time of the year there's really no such thing as a rookie anymore. The learning process and all that stuff is kind of over and quite frankly, these players are going to be good enough to learn if we good enough to teach them."

QUARTERBACK DREW BREES

On third down percentage "That was a very poor performance on our part on third down. We were not able to sustain drives - we kept our defense out there for entirely too long. I felt like we were in third and manageable situations, but it really was just the lack of execution. I felt like you have to give their defense credit - they played well and made some plays, but overall I believe there were things that we did to ourselves in a lot of cases that prevented us from converting those."

On the offense struggling the entire game to get in a rhythm "Just the second and third quarter and really, I guess, into the fourth up until that last drive, and even then I don't know if we converted any third downs - we converted a couple fourth downs. No, that was just very stale - never felt like we could ever really get anything going."

On the team rebounding "I don't know what 2-5 means, other than we just have to win a lot of games down the stretch - but one at a time. We're going back home to face Philadelphia on Monday night and this has got to be our time to bounce back."

On the team's inconsistency this season "What was disappointing about tonight was the last three weeks previous to this, I felt like we were playing some of our best football - we played very well at times - in all the statistics that matter, most importantly winning. Offensively, as I look at us, our third down percentage has been off the charts, our red zone efficiency has been off the charts -- taking care of the football. We've been doing all the right things - things that you would say is winning football - scoring points. But today, we were obviously not able to take a step forward and the situation we're in requires us each in every week to do that. We're not pressing, we're not overreacting, but the situation is what it is and we do understand the importance of each and every week - the fact that we need to play much better than we did."

On assistant head coach Joe Vitt's return impacting the team "That's what you love about Coach Vitt, he's going to try to take blame and be accountable, but listen, all of us need to be accountable. We all have things that we wish we would have done differently tonight, or done better. I think Coach Vitt did a phenomenal job this week, unfortunately we just didn't come out and play the way I felt like our effort and preparation was throughout the week. That's the disappointing thing because we felt like we were ready for this game, we were ready to take a step forward and we didn't."

On mistakes on third down "A lot of cases I tell myself I need to throw it better and they tell me they need to catch it. Listen, we've all been together long enough - we understand some of those things are a part of the game and they're going to happen every now and then, but it seemed like it happened a lot to us tonight, just in so many different ways. Listen, 1-of-12 on third is just pitiful."

On tight end Jimmy Graham's inconsistency "I don't think immaturity is the word. I think for him, you know he missed last week - he's coming off an injury. He's a guy, any young player, just needs a lot of time on tasks throughout the week to get in a flow, get in a rhythm, gain confidence - all those things. Coming off the injury, he was limited in reps. I felt like he looked for go, but I know that, for him - for all of us - we just didn't execute like we can."

On the pressure the Broncos' offense put on Saints' offense "Coming into this game, we really were not trying to make it about who is on the other side of the ball other than we knew the value of each and every possession for us was that much more critical. But obviously, it's our execution against their defense. Just listen, the more we can possess the ball, the more that we can convert third downs - score points - we're keeping them off the field, as well as being productive ourselves. We left our defense out there entirely too long today. We gave the Broncos a lot more possessions than we should have and I think we're to blame for that, offensively. We need to play better -- we need to do things that can help our defense."

On improving next week "You just think about getting a little bit better each week and I felt like we had really done that for six straight weeks and then all of a sudden we took a step back today. The good thing is we get to go play next week - we get to play on Monday Night Football at home. There's no better way to get back on track than to beat the Eagles on Monday night. We know we have a big mountain to climb - we knew that four weeks ago. We're undeterred, we're not going to be frustrated - we've got great locker room leadership, great character and we're going to continue to grind and move forward."

WIDE RECEIVER MARQUES COLSTON

"We just have to continue to get better. We have a big game coming up Monday night so we've just got to continue to improve throughout the week."

On Broncos defense "We played a good defense tonight and they got the best of us."

On whether the Broncos defense did anything unexpected "No. We felt pretty good coming into the game about our game plan. It just didn't go the way we envisioned it."

On whether this is the lowest point for this team "No. We know exactly what we have in this locker room and we need to continue to work to reach that."

On whether a 2-5 start is too big of a hole to climb out of "We are getting ready for Philadelphia. That is for you guys to discuss. We are worried about getting better next week and playing Philly."

On what he means by "getting better" "We just have to continue to improve, there is no specifics. If each man can continue to get better we'll obviously be better as an offense and as a team."

SAFETY ROMAN HARPER

"We have to be able to execute, we have to be able to tackle better. I know we are facing a formidable offense and we get that, but at the end of the day we get paid to make plays defensively and we aren't making enough. We got a turnover early but we have to hold teams to field goals in the red zone and just overall have a better effort."

On whether this is the lowest point for the team "No. I've seen way worse actually. I think the Colts in '07 was pretty bad, too. I don't want to say the effort was poor I just think the execution wasn't good enough to help us win the game. Defensively, we need another turnover. We have to hold teams to field goals and offensively, maintain drives and things like that. It just wasn't complementary ball on both sides."

On whether the defense took a step back tonight "I'm not going to say a step back. At the end of the day we have to be able to get off the field and be able to make some plays defensively. We didn't make enough plays tonight. I don't know enough, I haven't seen the tape, I don't know enough to make more comments."

CENTER BRIAN DE LA PUENTE

On what the difference is between this year in comparison to last season "I don't know. It is frustrating at times but what you can do is go back and look at how you're playing, how I'm playing, how we're playing as an o-line. We just have to get better."

On what happened with the offensive line "We'll have to go back and watch the tape but it is on all of us. We have to keep [QB] Drew [Brees] clean. We have to get the run game going so it is on us."

On if playoffs are still a realistic goal for this team "We really just have to focus on one game at a time; stick together one game at a time and don't look too far down the road."

DEFENSIVE END WILL SMITH

On if it's too late in the season to have that many mistakes "We know they were coming off of a bye week and they were fresh. [We knew] they were probably coming out with a pretty good game plan against us. We are all professionals here. We knew it was a tough team going in and they beat us."

On how this ranks amongst their five losses this season "A loss is a loss. We didn't finish as tough as we usually do, so that's a little disappointing, but at the end of the day it's still a loss."

On what they have to do to bounce back against Philadelphia "We've just got to keep preparing, we need to stay positive. We had a good opportunity to get back to .500 and go home. We knew it would be a challenge and they came out and played better than us. We just have to keep preparing and get ready for Philadelphia."

On his reaction to the loss "It's very disappointing. I think it's safe to say we struggled across the board. We weren't able to get points offensively and defensively we weren't able to get the stops we needed."

On having another week before his ruling "I'm not worried about that. I was worried about the Broncos today and I'll be worried about Philadelphia now that this game is over."

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DENVER BRONCOS HEAD COACH JOHN FOX

On injuries "Joe Mays did leave the game with a left ankle injury that's being evaluated. We'll keep you up to speed. I don't have any new information. We'll keep you posted."

On if the team played the full 60 minutes "I'd say probably without looking at the tape yet, I thought we played 60 minutes. We started a little faster as a football team than we have to date. All in all, probably at this point without seeing the tape, I'd say, ‘Yes.'"

On the New Orleans Saints and QB Drew Brees "Having competed against them quite a bit, being in that division for nine seasons, I've got the utmost respect for them and his (Brees') teammates offensively. They're a tough crew to defend against, as you saw that last drive. They're very capable. I thought our guys had a good scheme, good plan, and we executed our plan well tonight."

On CB Champ Bailey "We've matched up Champ quite a bit thus far in this season and even last season for that matter. Champ wasn't in on that last drive. We wanted to keep him out of there but all in all, he kind of gets that draw week in and week out."

On holding a lead the whole game "It's a lot more fun than the alternative, that's for sure. We really hadn't had that much in the first half this season. We had a slight lead in the Oakland game here last home game, but other than that, we hadn't seen that very much. It's something we were going to try to do. The only thing, as a tribute to those guys in that locker room, is we're trying to put wins together and this was our first time this season that we've got back-to-back wins."

QUARTERBACK PEYTON MANNING

On the team's performance "I'm sure the coaches will find some mistakes on the film, but it's what we're looking for offensively, defensively, and special teams-kind of feeding off one another. I thought we did that. It was good energy from the sidelines. The defense sure did a great job against a really good offense. Our running game really came alive tonight. I thought that's really where it sort of set the tone for us, offensively. The offensive line, tight ends-[TE] Joel [Dreessen] and [TE] Virgil [Green] and [TE] Jacob [Tamme] were outstanding. [RBs] Willis [McGahee] and Ronnie [Hillman] made some great runs. All of the deep passes were off play action. If you're not running the ball well, there's no reason for a defense to bite on play action. Because we were running it effectively we got the safeties and linebackers to bite and got DT (WR Demaryius Thomas) down the field a couple times."

On the injury to his thumb nail "Just like I said: quarterbacks, probably the biggest fear is always the thumb on the helmet of the defensive lineman, so that's what happened. Mostly the nail, the fingernail. It'll be sore tomorrow, but I'm probably a little bit lucky."

On stringing together a couple of wins "That's what [Head] Coach [John] Fox has been preaching to us, about trying to find some consistency. You sure would hope you'd be better coming off the bye week. I thought the bye week came at a good time. You should be more rested and guys' legs should be better. I thought we played fast tonight; played with a lot of tempo and had a lot of plays. I think we possessed the ball for a decent amount of time. Defense seemed fast out there as well, so I think we used the bye week to our advantage."

On the first touchdown drive of the game "That was huge. We talked about getting off to a fast start. We had the offsetting penalties on the first series that prevented us from getting a first down and then had to punt but getting the ball to the 2-yard line is not ideal, but that was a good drive. Hit the deep play to DT (WR Demaryius Thomas), which certainly shortened the drive for us. I thought our red-zone efficiency has been pretty consistent most of the season. Against the Saints, that sure is a team you want to score touchdowns as opposed to field goals."

On WR Demaryius Thomas "It's very obvious his size, strength and speed. I feel like he's working on his craft every week with the coaches, and he and I spend a lot of time throwing routes, being together, and [competing] one-on-one against our good corners certainly makes you better. So I think he's working just to become a complete receiver.

"On the deep passes, I thought we had a pretty big window there. You know, to throw the ball up and make a big play, and we had a couple of those plays tonight, where there were a couple big plays by him."

On his feeling of urgency after getting the ball after the Saints' failed fourth-down play "It's hard to say, but certainly when a team goes for it on fourth down and your team stops them, offensively you sure want to take advantage of that and make your defense feel complete by stopping him. That was big, and, like I said: playing more of a normal game, as opposed to be down so much in the first and second half, it's easier to call plays-it's more of a familiar type of game, so hopefully we can do that and we can play more 60-minute games from here on out."

On the different factors that go into his quarterback play "It's definitely an analyzed subject. I think there is a lot of factors going into playing quarterback. I've had an injury. I'm a different player coming off the injury-I'm on a different team-and so, I'm just working on kind of finding my way, and our team is finding our way. I keep mentioning finding our identity, and we're starting to form it. I still think there are some things we need to improve on and we're going to build off this win-build some consistency as an offense and hopefully I can just continue to just make strides and be on the same page as the receivers. So, this is an important win, coming off the bye week. You start scoreboard watching in the division (AFC West), during this time, and we've got one more game in the second quarter, when we go to Cincinnati, in our season, so it would be nice to get a win to finish off the second quarter."

RUNNING BACK WILLIS MCGAHEE

On starting fast and not letting the Saints back into the game "You've got to give credit to the defense. They played against a great offense, and they did a great job of containing them. The defense really was the star of the day. Our job was just to feed off of those guys."

On the offense scoring 34 points against the Saints defense "Not only Coach [John] Fox, but us players, we put ourselves to the test and just focused on what we needed to do. Stop worrying about getting ahead in the game, and just take it one play at a time. We did a great job today."

On scoring his first touchdown after coming up short on the previous play "I thought I had it. I knew that was my touchdown. At the end of day, the coaches called another play, and I got in."

On the offense clicking throughout the night "I knew we were going to have a good day. We just showed what our offense can do. We did it for 60 minutes, but we still had a couple errors."

On winning back-to-back games "It feels good. It's just only the beginning. I told you we weren't worried about [the Saints], they've got to worry about us."

LINEBACKER WESLEY WOODYARD

On his vertical jump "I don't have a high vert. I just wanted to go out there and make something happen for my teammates. I came out of there just excited to get a play made."

On the defense's improvement "We continued to believe in each other. Our coaches told us to believe in ourselves and make plays. Our players, the d-line, played a great game. I think those guys [New Orleans Saints] got like 40, 50 yards rushing. They got a few breaks here and there but we just played together as a team and that is what it's about."

On why he played well "My d-line clicked. Before the game they told me that they were going to keep me free, let me go around and make plays. That is what it is all about; playing as a team, dedicating yourself to one another."

On his interception of New Orlean's QB Drew Brees "He is a great player. They ran that play earlier in the drive and I wasn't there to make that play so I knew I had to come back and make something happen."

On limiting the New Orleans offense "They are a good offense and we made some mistakes but the thing is we played hard as team, as a defense and that is what it is all about - being there for your teammates."

On what the bye week provided for the team "We were able to get fresh. We were able to get back, sit down, and work on the mistakes that we made in the first six weeks."

WIDE RECEIVER BRANDON STOKLEY

On if the bye week helped the defense or offense more "A little bit of both but I think the defense definitely. They stepped up and played great. They held them to seven (points), I don't really count that last one really. They played awesome. To do that against that type of offense, that is something that hopefully we can build on and keep doing."

On the team's performance "We did have the one turnover and I thought we could have started a little better and played a little better in the first half so we still have work to do but all in all though it was a good win."

On controlling the division "Right now we are just worried about next week. Hopefully we will get better, keep on improving and that is the bottom line for us to play better football next week and improve throughout the whole season."

On WR Demaryius Thomas "He is pretty good isn't he? It is fun to watch him and [WR Eric] Decker. They both played great and I love watching those guys do their thing, make great catches, and score touchdowns."

CORNERBACK CHAMP BAILEY

On limiting the New Orleans offense "It is hard to do that. I have to give a lot of credit to the coaches and my teammates because we have really been honing in this week trying to make sure we are doing our jobs and do it full tilt. We haven't put together four quarters like we did today. We hate that he gets that last touchdown but that is one of the best in the game and is going to make plays. You just have to limit him and I think we did that well today."

On the performance of LB Wesley Woodyard "That is what he does. He has been making plays all year. Double-digit tackles is easy for him. I expect more out of him to be honest with you because I know what he can do. I have seen him do it in practice several times. He is hungry and he is young and I love that about him."

On the defense's performance "One thing that we have been lacking the past few weeks is coming out and starting fast. We didn't do that tonight; we made sure we started fast and kept it rolling throughout the game."

On putting together a complete defensive game "You can't have a lead like we had and give it up, that shows a lot of character in this locker room. When you give up big leads like that, it's like you took your foot off the pedal. We can't afford to do that around here."

On possibly winning the division "We honestly can't look past next week. It is that simple. If you start worrying about what other teams are doing, you forget what it takes for you to get there. That is what we have to do, we have to concentrate on ourselves and make sure we become a better football team."

WIDE RECEIVER DEMARYIUS THOMAS

On playing with Peyton Manning "It is great just to go out every week and know you have a guy like him that is going to throw you the ball. Going through the week you are working on stuff, just different things, and it is stuff that will make you get better so I feel like it is helping my game out. I think we will get better and better every week."

On developing a relationship with an elite quarterback "That is what we have been working on most of the time, basically getting on the same page, knowing what he wants, knowing when to slow my route down or cut it short. If you're on the same page and you know what spots to be in, you get better, you get open, take your time, it is like it just keeps coming."

On seemingly to develop a chemistry with Manning "I feel like it too. We have been doing great and hopefully it keeps going."

On the screen passes "I love the screen passes. That is one of the things that has made me a better receiver because when I get the ball in my hands I can just keep running and make guys miss. It is hard for me to get tackled and that is one of the best parts of my game."

On the fast start "I think it is the first time of the season to get off to a fast start. Going into halftime up - if we can do that every week, I think we can be one of the great teams of the NFL."

On being healthy "That was my main thing to get healthy and stay healthy. If I can do that, I feel like I can go out every week and put some yards up on the board and show my talent."

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V-Roll Roll Call

New Orleans Saints vs. Denver Broncos Highlights | neworleanssaints.com
Page includes individual play highlight clips.

New Orleans Saints offense takes step back in Denver - Video | NOLA.com
Beat writer Nakia Hogan and Larry Holder discuss the Saints offensive struggles in Sunday night's loss in Denver after three weeks of explosive offensive performances. HansDat note: I couldn't either of these nola.com videos to play, so I linked instead of embedding them, hoping they'll get fixed later in the day.

New Orleans Saints defense goes from bad to worse: video - Video | NOLA.com
Times-Picayune columnists Mike Triplett and Jeff Duncan break down the Saints defensive performance against the Denver Broncos on Sunday night. HansDat note: Same deal as above.

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