Saint's can they go all the way?

The New Orleans Saints are treading dangerously by committing so many turnovers
By Nakia Hogan, The Times-Picayune
November 17, 2009, 4:00AM
One day after the Saints held on for an uninspiring 28-23 victory against the lowly St. Louis Rams, the mood still hadn't changed in the Saints' locker room.
Jeff Roberson / The Associated PressRams safety Oshiomogho Atogwe intercepts a pass intended for Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey during the first quarter Sunday in St. Louis. New Orleans had three turnovers against the Rams, upping the Saints' total to 13 in the past four games. Players on Monday continued to figuratively kick themselves over the mounting turnovers. They openly chastised themselves for yet another sloppy performance. Somberly, they reflected on the penalties and the mistakes. This certainly didn't appear to be the locker room of one of the NFL's two 9-0 teams (the other is the Indianapolis Colts), one with a four-game lead in the NFC South.
"The victory is obviously great, but you still feel that kind of sourness in the back of your mind that OK we are winning but we have some things that we need to correct, " Saints running back Reggie Bush said. "It's fixable. It's not like it's not fixable. It's something that we can correct, and we are going to work on correcting.
"And it's something we have no choice but to correct because if we don't we are going to find ourselves losing games here pretty soon."
Several players said they were happy to see the locker room in a stupor following Sunday's performance in which they committed three turnovers, six penalties and allowed host St. Louis to post season highs in points and yards. Last season at this time, the Saints were 4-5 and were talking about how their postseason chances were slipping away. Now, they've been left to talk about how their errant ways have resulted in victories by narrowing margins.
"You know what I like?" right tackle Jon Stinchcomb said. "We are at a point in the season where we can start analyzing how we are winning games. I've been around here enough years to know that winning isn't easy."
But nearly every player said it's even tougher when New Orleans continues to suffer from the same glaring problem during the past four games -- turnovers.
The three turnovers against the Rams pushed the Saints' total to 13 in the past four games -- and a couple were nearly costly. Receiver Marques Colston fumbled as he attempted to cross the goal line in the third quarter, robbing the Saints of a touchdown. And Drew Brees' second interception of the game -- and seventh in the past four weeks -- led to a Rams field goal.
"We've been turning the ball over the last few games, " Colston said. "And more often than not that's going to get you beat, but we've been able to pull some close games out here lately. But it's something that if we don't get corrected it's going to come back and bite us in the butt."
Said Bush: "Turnovers to all of us are the No. 1 reason teams lose games. If you don't turn the ball over it doesn't guarantee a win, but it at least gives you a chance. When you turn the ball over as much as we have these last few games, for the most part, you end up losing those games. But fortunately enough we've been able to make plays when needed."
The Saints can't continue to be so careless with the football, and Coach Sean Payton has told his players this much.
Payton, however, realizes that harping ball security to his team isn't nearly enough.
While some turnovers can't be avoided, Payton said he and his staff plan to devote more time to preventing the miscues, even if it means adding drills to practice sessions.
"I can tell you don't turn the football over, but we need to look specifically at ways to practice it," Payton said. "And if that means an additional period, we'll do that, because I don't think you can just say don't turn the ball over. And I think part of what we do is teaching, show me what you mean. Show me how. I think those are things we look at.
"It is concerning. I have to do a better job, and offensively we have to do a better job of not just preaching it, but spending more time on it."
The players said they have to do their part as well.
"It's just about focusing," running back Pierre Thomas said. "We haven't really been focusing. That's the only thing we have to do is just focus and take everything slowly and play our game. I don't know what can be the cause of it or what may be the problem. But what we have to do is just focus and stop these penalties and stop turning the ball over. If we eliminate that then we'll be back to like we used to be."