METAIRIE - Well, it finally happened. The Saints and Texans got in a little scrum and it appears New Orleans lineman Jahri Evans has a future as a rugby player.

The guy knows how to scrum. He and Houston DE Earl Cochran, a third-year player out of Alabama State, got into a little scuffle about midway through practice during 11-on-11 drills.

Maybe it was the heat of the day getting to everybody. Regardless, it wasn't something unforeseen and it wasn't something that Saints head coach Sean Payton necessarily thought was a bad thing.

"If you said at the beginning of the week or the start of this that there was going to be one little skirmish, I think both coaches would've said that was fine," Payton said. "What you don't want is for it to become something really that is a detriment to the practice."

As for the practice, it looked like the offensive line and defensive backs made amends for slow starts Wednesday morning. The o-line looked a lot better than it did Wednesday morning and the secondary played well during individual work.

Injury notes:
As most have likely heard, Hollis Thomas will miss at least two months after tearing his right tricep Wednesday morning during one-on-one drills. He had successful surgery Thursday morning, Payton said.

Also sitting out Thursday - WR Adrian Arrington (toe), TE Jeremy Shockey (leg), LB Mark Simoneau (back), WR David Patten (age) and RB Reggie Bush (knee). As far as Bush goes, this is nothing new and Payton is being more precautionary than anything. Payton said he expects Shockey to be back soon.

Simoneau is questionable for Saturday's game against the Texans.

Highlights:
- CB Usama Young broke up a pass from Houston QB Sage Rosenfels to WR LeRon McCoy in the end zone during pass skele.

- CB Randall Gay broke up a pass form Houston QB Matt Schaub to WR Jacoby Jones, a New Orleans native. It was a nice play by Gay to get to Jones and knock the ball away quickly.

- During 11-on-11 drills, Saints S Roman Harper came up with an interception and would have taken it to the end zone in a live game/scrimmage.

- DE Bobby McCray sacked Rosenfels by bursting through his opponent.

- Houston's Harry Williams burned Saints CB Aaron Glenn on a go route, but it appeared Glenn's coverage got the best of Williams, who caught the ball out of bounds.

-During red zone work for the Saints offense, the first offense scored two touchdowns.

On the first play, the Texans' Travis Johnson pushed Saints C Jonathan Goodwin into the backfield and blew up a screen play.

The next play saw Saints QB Drew Brees connect with TE Mark Campbell for a 20 or so yard touchdown. The question, however, was if Campbell came down with the ball or if Houston's DeMeco Ryans took it away from the tight end before hitting the ground.

The only other score came when Brees found RB Pierre Thomas on a shovel pass that went for a touchdown.

The second-team offense was held out of the end zone. Ditto for the third team.

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