Saints ready for Cardinals' high-scoring attack

METAIRIE, La. -- New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams coins himself a straight shooter.

Tough to argue after his straight-to-the-point response when asked about what he thought of the NFC wild-card matchup between the Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers.

Darren Sharper and the Saints defense will have their hands full facing Kurt Warner. (US Presswire)

When asked if he gave Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers a call for some advice in how to defend the Cardinals on Saturday in the Louisiana Superdome, Williams said he hadn't and then threw in a little more spice for Capers, who Williams proclaimed as a good friend.

"[Capers is] probably not taking anybody's calls. ... I know I wouldn't be talking to anybody," Williams said.

It's the reason why Williams has admittedly been awake day and night this week. Williams said he started resting a tad more comfortably by Wednesday, but for a defensive coordinator having to conjure up a game plan for a Cardinals offense that just dropped 51 points on the Packers, who finished the regular season as the No. 2-rated defense in the NFL, Williams has no time to sleep.

For a coach dubbed by many around the league as a defensive genius, the shine has started to dim around the Williams-constructed defense. What once was an opportunistic defense creating turnovers and scoring defensive touchdowns seemingly every game through the first half of the season has faded away like the NFC favorite tag to get to the Super Bowl.

There's been an obvious dropoff in the way the Saints defense has played the last half of the regular season as it fell to 25th in total defense. The turnover ratio has also flipped for the worse in the past five games. The Saints were plus-12 in the first 11 games and minus-1 in the past five.

As much as the Saints may want to downplay the injuries, they played a significant role in the dive the defense took in the second half of the season.

The Saints were without starting cornerback Jabari Greer for seven of the final eight games after he required sports hernia surgery to repair his abdomen. Less than a week later, fellow starting cornerback Tracy Porter sustained a sprained MCL after being rolled up from behind by a teammate and he missed four weeks. Nickel corner Randall Gay also missed nearly three games with a variety of ailments during that window.

It drastically altered how Williams game planned. He admittedly blitzed less because the defense needed more help on the back end. The Saints were down to playing first-round pick Malcolm Jenkins and veterans off the street like Mike McKenzie and Chris McAlister. In turn, the penchant for creating turnovers nearly evaporated and the unit was shaky much of the final eight games.

Other starters missing time for the Saints were defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis (four games) and linebackers Scott Fujita (two) and Scott Shanle (two).

Other than defensive end Charles Grant, who was placed on injured reserve last week after tearing his triceps muscle at Carolina, this will be the healthiest the Saints defense has been since Week 9.

It's admittedly allowed Williams to sleep a little easier at night this week.

"I'm a better coach when some of those top guys are playing," Williams said. "Let's take what some see as a negative to be a positive. Last year or years past here when those types of things happened they weren't able o get over the hump. They were able to do whatever it took to find a way to make a play at the end, find a way to make a play there and still win ballgames. We were able to win 13 playing a tremendous amount of people."

Safety Roman Harper wasn't alone, saying the Saints defense can get back to its opportunistic ways despite what happened the last half of the season. He also thinks there's never been a lapse of confidence in the unit regardless.

Harper's thoughts could easily be lip service. But he and the rest of the defense realize as fantastic as Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner played against Green Bay, there's that Warner that lurks where he could throw five interceptions like he did against Carolina earlier this season.

The key for Harper and the Saints? "We can't allow him to be the great Kurt Warner he was this past weekend," Harper said.

Safety Darren Sharper added: "I know it's going to be a tough challenge. I've played against Kurt [Warner] a couple of times. I know what he likes to do."

The key for Williams if the game does turn into a shootout?

"It's much easier in my job knowing there's a guy that can bail me out, too, and Drew Brees can bail me out if something's going wrong," Williams said. "This is one of the reasons why we do what we do and it's really a big reason why I wanted to come here, because I kind of felt like this kind of team was here."

The worries coming from the locker room aren't on the offensive side for the Saints, even though there could be a case for some panic.

Throw the regular-season finale against Carolina out the window because Mark Brunell and Brees are in no way comparable. But the Saints only scored a combined 34 points against Dallas and Tampa Bay to start the downward spiral at the end of the season.

The Saints have scored more points in one game seven times this season than the last two meaningful games combined. Also the last four games, including Week 17 at Carolina, the Saints have produced their four lowest scoring outputs this season (26 at Atlanta, 17 vs. Dallas, 17 vs. Tampa Bay and 10 at Carolina).

Brees feels there's no room for concern.

"I know what we're capable of. I know if you look at our track record and consistently you don't have one of the top three or four offenses. ... Three of the last four years we've had the No. 1 offense in the league," Brees said. "That's a body of work. That's not just a stretch of games here, a stretch of games there. That's a body of work.

"We know how to play at a high level offensively. We did some things this year that were unbelievable as far as taking the ball away, making huge plays in critical situations. Those guys are going to be ready, just like we'll be ready offensively and the opportunity to get guys healthy. That was huge, just because we've been banged up the past few seasons. Like I said, it's a confidence thing.

"I can compare it [to] when we came out the first two games of the season winning 45-27 and 48-22; hard fought game up in Buffalo, 27-7, not our best performance; hard-fought win against the Jets at home, 24-10, not our best performance; then we go into a bye week. Draw the parallel here with this bye week, come out and play a huge game at the time. We're 4-0, they're 5-0, the Giants, and [we] have one of our best performances of the season. We've proven we can do that before."

Guard Carl Nicks has taken offense to pundits discounting the Saints in the playoffs.

"People who are writing us off, that's crazy," Nicks said. "How do you win 13 games and get written off? That's crazy."

If the Saints do lose against Arizona, they won't be written off. The 2009 Saints will be written up as the most disappointing team in franchise history. Any team that starts 13-0 and loses its final four games of the season to squander home-field advantage throughout the playoffs is a downright disaster.

Case closed.

It's almost why the buzz in and around the city this week surrounding Saturday's playoff game is subdued. There's not nearly the jubilant hysteria like there was when the Saints played the Patriots in Week 12 or the Cowboys in Week 15.

Call it the Big Un-Easy.

Saints coach Sean Payton said a couple of weeks ago when all the perfect season chatter was everywhere that you can only judge a team's success or failure by how it performs in the playoffs.

It's what the Saints are up against.

"I think overall because of the expectation level that is different than when we first got here," Payton said. "I think that's something we are ready to shoulder."