Carl Granderson: Saints defense was disrespected, so we came in ready to play

Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders's response to questions about the Saints defense leading into Sunday's game drew the ire of Saints linebacker Carl Granderson and they remained on his mind after a 23-22 overtime win. Granderson said before the game that the team would have a " chip on our shoulder " because of the smile that Sanders flashed when asked what he'd seen from the New Orleans defense. Granderson had a couple of sacks in the win and then opened his postgame press session by responding to a question about how much motivation the unit drew from Sanders. "I mean, we seen a lot, you know, on film, so I do not think it was motivation. We saw them chirping," Granderson said. "So we just came into this game ready to play. I think it is disrespectful for somebody to laugh at our defense, you know, take us as a joke. So we went out there and balled out. They had 2.8 yards in carry, and we stopped the run at 95 rushing yards on 34 attempts. So we did our thing on defense, and in overtime, the two-point conversion. So that was a good team win on defense." Sanders had his moments and the Browns would have won with a successful two-point play after a touchdown pass to tight end Harold Fannin in overtime. That would have likely led to a different response from Granderson, but the Saints made one last stop and they were able to get the last laugh as a result.