Bashful, New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton was not.
Payton was direct Wednesday in his assessment of how the Saints defended Green Bay's bootleg in Sunday's 37-30 loss to the Packers in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, and in his expectation of whether the Saints will see more of that play coming from future opponents.
"It'll continue to be on the rise if we continue to defend it the way we have," he said. "We've got to have better eyes. We've got to have much better eyes relative to what we're doing.
"Honestly, we looked like a high school team defending the bootleg the other night, and that was kind of embarrassing. That's got to get corrected."
Entering Sunday's noon game against Detroit at Ford Field, the Saints (1-2) have lost two straight for the first time since opening the 2017 season 0-2. And while Payton said the Saints obviously are giving due diligence to the Lions (1-2), the in-house corrections are just as important.
"We're focused entirely on their defense, offense and the kicking game," he said. "But we're just as importantly focused on ourselves and correcting the stuff that we need cleaned up.
"We've got to play better. We've got to be better in our assignment, we've got to be better with our technique."
