By Teresa Varley
Steelers.com

The Steelers opened the preseason and the Mike Tomlin era in an impressive fashion with a 20-7 win over the New Orleans Saints.

The Steelers put up 413 yards of offense, while the Saints managed just 214 yards, most of it coming in the second half with reserves in on both sides of the ball.  

If there were any questions about the Steelers offense coming together with a new coordinator and an updated playbook, they were answered on the opening drive on Sunday night against the Saints.

The Steelers starting offense came out and performed to near perfection on the opening drive. Ben Roethlisberger completed his first pass of the game for 55-yards to Cedrick Wilson. Roethlisberger came back to Wilson for an 18-yard completion to the Saints four-yard line.

"It's hard to find a rhythm so early," said Roethlisberger of the connection to Wilson. "The second play of the game was designed for him and pretty much only him so it was open and I threw it deep to him. The next one to Ced I was just trying to find the open guy."

Wilson, who finished the first half with four catches for 99 yards, had made a plea for getting the ball earlier in the week after practice and his plea must have been heard.

"He came up to me at practice this week and told me he was going to be looking for me," said Wilson of Roethlisberger. "I appreciate that and can be thankful for that. I just want to go out and make plays for him and make sure he is one of the best quarterbacks in the league."

Najeh Davenport, who started the game for Willie Parker, carried the load early and took his third carry of the game into the end zone for a four-yard touchdown to give the Steelers an early 7-0 lead.

Charlie Batch came in on the second drive of the game and played for two series, completing four of six passes for 51 yards and looking solid.

Before the first quarter came to an end the Steelers saw their third quarterback with Brian St. Pierre taking over the reins. St. Pierre engineered a scoring drive of his own, hitting Santonio Holmes deep for 41 yards to the Saints seven-yard line and then finding Holmes on a perfect pass for a three-yard touchdown.

Jeff Reed added a 28-yard field goal to give the Steelers a 17-0 lead at the half.

The Steelers managed to put rack up 305 yards in the first half alone, 205 of them in the air and 100 on the ground. Much of the ground attack came from first-year running back Carey Davis, who carried the ball six times for 67 yards in the half, including breaking free and shedding tackles for a 56-yard gain. Davis also had two catches for 32 yards in the half, putting on a good show as he is battling for a roster spot.

It wasn't just the offense that shone in the first half though. The Steelers defense didn't allow the Saints first-team offense to put any points on the board, something that they took pride in.

"That is our whole mindset to hold them scoreless," said linebacker Larry Foote of the Saints starting offense. "They are a great offense so we knew it would be a good challenge for us. We're pumped up. They put some points up against us last year (in the regular season) and anytime you hold that first-team offense scoreless, you did a pretty good job."

The defense was swarming, holding the explosive Saints offense to just 56 yards and two first downs in the first half, and shutting them down 0-6 on third-down conversions.

"I really think we came out and had a good showing but we still have a lot to improve on," said defensive end Aaron Smith. "We will have to watch the film and see what mistakes we made and get better."

The Saints came out in the second half with Jason Fife at quarterback and he engineered the team's best drive of the night. Running back Antonio Pittman got the call on the ground, while Fife connected with Kevin Dudley for 14 yards and Terrance Cooper for an 18-yard completion. Fife finished off the 16-play, 72-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown pass to Dudley to get the Saints on the board, 17-7.