Major defensive imports will fix what ailed the Saints

Loomis is wise to be cautious. A year ago the Saints were favored to repeat as division champions. Then they dropped their first four, lost running back Deuce McAllister, defensive tackle Brian Young and cornerback Mike McKenzie to season-ending injuries and limped to a 7-9 finish.

So Brees stunk his first four games. The Saints still could have survived if they hadn't played matador defense most of the season. You can look it up: They surrendered 31 or more points in six games and lost all six.

Worse, outside of Indianapolis and Philadelphia, none of the six teams that beat them ranked higher than 18th in offense.

Something had to be done, and let's hear it for the Saints. They did it. McCray is a situational pass rusher who should help a defense that dropped from 38 sacks in 2006 to 32 a year ago. McCray dropped off, too, going from 10 sacks in 2006 with Jacksonville to three last year, but the Saints aren't concerned. They just added depth at a critical position.

"You can't help but be impressed by the Super Bowl and the pressure the Giants got up front," Loomis said. "We've already got two real strong ends in (Charles) Grant and (Will) Smith, so this gives us a third man for the rotation. When we went into free agency we felt we had to get help for the pass rush, and Bobby McCray gives us that help."

Pass defense was a problem last year -- a big problem -- and rewind the videotape to the second half of the season opener for details. The Saints weren't all that good up front, and they weren't real good in the secondary, either. That's a bad combination, folks. The result was a league-worst 54 passes of 20 or more yards.

So the club signed veteran cornerbacks Randall Gay and Aaron Glenn and has its fingers crossed with McKenzie -- who Loomis said should be ready for training camp. But don't minimize the importance of McCray to the Saints' pass defense. If he and his teammates can rattle opposing passers, they can force them into bad throws.

And bad throws are interceptions waiting to happen.

Which takes me to takeaways. The Saints had 23 in 2007, which ranked 27th, and if you are going to make it to January you must do better than that. Granted, the Saints had 19 in 2006. But they also had the 11th-ranked defense and third-best pass defense, and that could happen again with the changes they made.

"We feel like we've got good players," said Loomis, "but you still have to perform."

This time I think they will.