Saints, Chiefs try to avoid 0-3 start
BY BRETT MARTEL Associated Press
Sunday, September 23, 2012
9/23/12 at 7:56 AM
NEW ORLEANS - It's only Week 3 and desperation time is already at hand for the Kansas City Chiefs and the New Orleans Saints.
The loser of their meeting this Sunday in the Super dome will drop to 0-3 and become a playoff long shot before NFL teams have hit the one-quarter mark on their regular-season schedule.
"You just don't want to keep digging that hole because in the NFL, every team is great each and every week," Kansas City quarterback Matt Cassel said. "Is there a sense of urgency about it? Absolutely. We want to get a win, and everybody in this room is working extremely hard to get that done."
The Chiefs are in familiar territory, having started 0-3 last season before finishing 7-9 and out of the playoffs.
The Saints, by contrast, lost a total of three games during the 2011 season and expected to be in contention for a fourth straight playoff berth this season, even after the NFL's bounty investigation resulted in the suspension of head coach Sean Payton.
"I would have never expected to be 0-2," Saints interim head coach Aaron Kromer said. "We are not used to being 0-and-anything. This is a winning organization. It has been a winning organization, and we are going to take it back to that.
"All we can do is worry about this one week," Kromer continued, adding that his instructions to his players after last Sunday's 35-27 loss to Carolina were to "look in the mirror, don't point fingers, and move on."
In case they didn't get the message, small round mirrors were affixed to players' lockers at Saints headquarters this week.
"It's the only answer," said Saints right tackle Zach Strief, an offensive captain. "There's literally a danger in guys pointing fingers and becoming cancers and complaining. I think it can be human nature to say, 'Whose fault is it?' ... and that's poison in a locker room, so the only thing that you can do is look at yourself."
When the Chiefs and Saints look at themselves, they see a mixed bag that gives them cause for hope as well as concern.
Both teams are among the league leaders in offense. The Drew Brees-led Saints rank third, while Cassel's Chiefs rank fifth.
Defense is where the problems lie for both clubs right now.
The Saints are last in yards allowed and tied with the Chiefs for last in points allowed, 75.
Certainly, the oddsmakers see a matchup ripe for a shootout, setting the over/under at 53, higher than any other game this week.
Yet members of both teams would argue that after two games, the sample size is too small to place so much emphasis on statistics.
In such a short span, a few big plays can skew the numbers for a unit that, if not for a handful of blown assignments or correctable mistakes, could have performed much better, they say.
Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel, who also runs his team's defense, believes that unit is not as bad as it looks but will nonetheless be challenged to slow down Brees and Co.
"Definitely it is a concern because we haven't done a good job defensively," Crennel said. "We have given up too many big plays and anytime you give up big plays, that's a field position change. That's a momentum change and so we have to try and eliminate those mistakes."
Associated Images:
New Orleans defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo (left) and linebacker Jonathan Vilma look onto the field during a break against Carolina last week. The Saints and Kansas City are 0-2. JEFF SINER/The Charlotte Observer/AP
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