Assisted by two artificial hips, a lineup of try-hard youth and his intimidating persona, Mike Ditka has energized the 6-7 New Orleans Saints to an ornery level. His players in turn remind Ditka of the fierce way Chicago played defense for him and coordinator-rival Buddy Ryan. “This is the best defensive game I’ve seen in a long time,” said the long-ago Cowboys tight end and aide to Tom Landry. “You have to take me back to the ’50s. . . . or the ’80s. This is the best I’ve seen.” Still, “it was just football. We came to play football and probably did it a little better than they did.” To Ditka, “just football” amounts to knocking the other fellow down and stepping on his neck. The Saints left lots of cleat marks on the Cowboys (Sunday) who appeared timid and passive in comparison to the hard-charging hosts.
