Holder: Penalty problem could become pandemic if New Orleans Saints ignore ills

quote:

---

Defensive end/linebacker Junior Galette said on a scale of 1-10 that he only gave Payton an eight. I'm not buying that. Why? Because there were an indescribable 28 penalties called with 22 of them being accepted.

Rightfully so, Payton unloaded anger and fury at anyone who would listen in his postgame press conference. It reminded me of when Payton went no-holds barred following last year's debacle in St. Louis when Payton said he had "seen enough" of former left tackle Charles Brown and told kicker Garrett Hartley to find his own ride home, figuratively speaking.

"That was painful to watch," Payton said. "I don't recall, I can't recall ever a game with that many penalties. And here's the thing: Most of the ones I saw were good calls. So this isn't about a crew calling a lot of penalties. This is obviously something I've got to do a better job with.

"We'll find ourselves at short end of a game and then wonder about our offseason goals and what happened. We won't know when exactly it happened, but here in a preseason game, I lost track. I lost track."

Payton continued, "It's the first sign of a team that has no discipline. That's the first sign of poor coaching. It's first sign, along with the quarterback-center exchange. Next question."

---

quote:

---

"I've got to do a better job of that," Payton said. "It'll start on Sunday. It'll start on Sunday."

---