For nearly a week, New Orleans’ defense took criticism – from the media, from their coaches and most importantly, from themselves.

Though only preseason, the Saints’ collapse against the Houston Texans in the second exhibition game became outwardly worrisome.

And then came Saturday and a performance the unit just might have needed with the regular season arriving soon.

(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

New Orleans Saints linebacker Mark Simoneau, left, tackles running back Pierre Thomas (23) during the afternoon practice session at the Saints football training camp at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., Saturday, July 26 2008. The Saints hope their revamped defense will result in less points scored against them.

Against the Bengals, New Orleans' defense allowed only 165 total yards and just 10 first downs. Cincinnati gained only 38 yards on the ground.

“We needed a little bit of a confidence builder,” safety Roman Harper said. “Cincinnati helped us, too, with T.J. (Houshmandzadeh) not playing and Chad (Johnson) not playing. We’ve got to understand that, too.

“But we’re happy with our performance for the most part.”

They should be, especially coming on the heels of as poor a performance as the Saints have had in a long while, preseason or not.

The Texans scored on every full possession of the first half, not including a two-play drive at the end of the half, and picked up points on 2-of-4 drives in the second half.

In all, New Orleans allowed Houston 405 total yards and 21 first downs all while giving up first downs on 10-of-14 third down plays.

“We had a lot of great plays against the Texans, but we couldn’t get off on third down,” Harper said. “Against Cincinnati, we got off on third down. That’s the difference in the NFL.”

Of the teams that made the playoffs a year ago, only two had worse third-down defenses – Indianapolis and Tennessee – and both lost their playoff openers.

The obvious difference between the two games was New Orleans’ aggressiveness. Against the Bengals, the Saints blitzed and came from all angles, throwing the Cincinnati offense into an unorganized frenzy.

But according to middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma, no one should necessarily expect the Saints to become a blitz-happy defense.

“It really depends on what (defensive coordinator Gary) Gibbs decides for that week,” Vilma said. “We have to be able to execute both. If Gibbs decides to go basic, we have to be able to come out and play basic. If he decides to blitz more, we have to execute.”

The blitzes led directly to four sacks and nine quarterback hurries.

“The key is just to be as not as predictable,” head coach Sean Payton said. “I thought we did a good job of executing the pressures when they threw it quick and threw it high.”

Call it a case of pride on the line.

“We knew we didn’t play well,” said linebacker Mark Simoneau, who didn’t play while resting a back injury. “You’re going to take it from the media. Coach called us out. Guys understood that. I think that it was important (to play well).

“But it was a pride aspect. As a player, you come off a bad performance, immediately you’re going to try to get things corrected and play the best you can.”