Everything about the play felt right.
Tampa Bay receiver Louis Murphy cutting over the middle, the ball arriving a step in front of Kenny Phillips, a moment that gave Phillips time to unleash the ferocity that once made him a first-round pick.
Phillips crushed Murphy, dislodging the ball with authority, the hit sending shockwaves through the Superdome.
“Yeah,” Phillips thought to himself, “I can still do this.”
Phillips, forced out of football entirely by an arthritic left knee that required microfracture surgery, made a triumphant return to the NFL for the Saints last Sunday. Brought back after a week away and inserted into the starting lineup for the injured Jairus Byrd and Rafael Bush, Phillips was supposed to be a placeholder, a veteran trying to allow the Saints to tread water until Byrd can return.