Rested Saints expect to keep pace

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Sean Payton was the toast of New Orleans even before the Saints’ storybook run to the NFC championship game in his first season as a head coach.

Fans were happy to have their team back and eager to embrace a coach who wanted to be a part of the rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina left entire neighborhoods in a state of lifeless, sagging, water-logged ruin.

Four years later, evidence of the widespread devastation is dwindling. Shattered windows and ripped up roofs have been replaced. Homes have been rebuilt. Long rows of flooded cars and countless fetid debris piles are gone from most of the city.

The Louisiana Superdome — a hot spot of sweltering, rancid misery for thousands who took shelter there during Katrina — is getting new champagne-colored siding to replace panels faded gray by decades of sun and dented by projectiles launched by the storm’s fierce winds.

Today, when the Arizona Cardinals visit for the divisional round of the playoffs, the dome will be a place countless thousands want to be, a place where home fans now gather to simultaneously celebrate their solidarity during the recovery and the greatness exhibited by Drew Brees and the rest of Payton’s league-leading offense.

Expectations have gone up — a lot — and that’s precisely what Payton envisioned when he took the job. Although New Orleans won a franchise-record 13 games this season, it will mean little if they flop in the playoffs.

“In the very beginning, when we got here, you’re wanting to raise the expectation level and how we perform, and I think that when you get to where we’re at now in the postseason, this is a place that we aspire to be every year,” Payton said. “For this team, just getting in the postseason was part of the process, but it wasn’t the end goal. I think the expectation level of this team and the organization has changed. And four years ago that’s what we were looking to do.”

The Superdome crowd was already sure to be juiced even before Payton, as if to add some extra zip, brought back franchise rushing leader and fan favorite Deuce McAllister on Friday. McAllister has been out of football for a year and will not play, but Payton said the 31-year-old running back would be an honorary captain.

New Orleans was abuzz with talk of the Saints (13-3) possibly making their Super Bowl debut when they were 13-0. That excitement has been tempered by a three-game losing streak, but hope remains that the Saints, mostly healthy after an extra week’s rest, will play more like the club that blew teams out earlier this season.

“No matter what anybody else is saying, the bottom line is this is an opportunity we have to create something special for the rest of our lives,” Jabari Greer said. “That’s really all that needs to be said.”