Saints' Dennis Allen, Coaches Should Be Under the Microscope
 

Saints' Dennis Allen, Coaches Should Be Under the Microscope

New Orleans coach Dennis Allen and his staff have had an up-and-down start to 2022. Here's how they've fared so far and why we should be encouraged as the Saints enter a pivotal stretch of the season.

BOB ROSE 1 HOUR AGO

Coach Matt Rhule was fired by the Carolina Panthers on Monday. The Panthers had a 10-23 record in two full seasons with Rhule and was 1-4 this year before the move. Rhule is the first NFL coach to be fired this year, but Carolina may not be the only team to make an in-season move.

Nathaniel Hackett, in only his first season with the Denver Broncos, is already under heavy fire from the media and fans for an inept offense. There are some rumors swirling around Arizona’s Kliff Kingsbury and Frank Reich of the Colts after slow starts, despite previous success with their teams.

Mike McCarthy of Dallas, Brandon Staley of the Chargers, and Tennessee’s Mike Vrabel entered the year under criticism but have gotten off to solid starts. Teams like Jacksonville, the Jets, Cleveland, and Washington have traditionally lost patience with coaches quickly.

This is not to suggest that any of these coaches are going to be fired during the season. However,with the impatience of today’s NFL, some of these first-year coaches may even be cut loose after an unsuccessful inaugural season. None of these coaches even had the daunting task that was facing Dennis Allen of the New Orleans Saints.

Allen, 50, replaced a potential Hall of Famer when Sean Payton stepped down in January. This is Allen’s second stint as a head coach. He coached the Oakland Raiders from 2012 to early 2014 before getting fired with an 8-28 record. Since then, Allen had been Payton's defensive coordinator, returning to a Saints organization where he’d been defensive backs coach from 2006 to 2010.

Allen also served as head coach during a 9-0 win at Tampa Bay in 2021 while Payton was sidelined with Covid. He’d come into 2022 with an experienced coaching staff that included offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael, offensive line coach Doug Marrone, and co-defensive coordinators Kris Richard and Ryan Nielsen.

Despite Allen’s organizational skills and continuity on the staff, the Saints have gotten off to a rocky start to the year.

Slow Starts/Motivation

New Orleans has scored just twice on their opening drives this season and have been outscored, 30-10, in the first quarter. They've been outscored 48-34 in the first half, with their 17 first half points against Seattle on Sunday matching their entire opening half total through the first four games. New Orleans has trailed in all but one game this season when they've come out for third quarter action.

The Saints were outplayed for three quarters by a vastly inferior Atlanta team on opening week and for the entire game by an equally inferior Panthers squad in week three.

Even after spending the entire week in London, New Orleans looked lethargic and unmotivated in the opening quarter against Minnesota in week four before outplaying the Vikings over the final three quarters.

Discipline/Sloppy Play

New Orleans leads the NFL in penalty yardage and ranks next-to-last in number of penalties. The Saints also lead the league with 13 turnovers committed. Two of those were returned for touchdowns, with several others either stopping sure scoring drives or setting up opponents for easy scores.

Team composure crumbled after a week 2 brawl against Tampa Bay resulted in CB Marshon Lattimore getting ejected. The Buccaneers outscored the Saints 17-7 after the fourth quarter incident on their way to a 20-10 win. The team’s coaching and veteran leadership failed to keep the squad focused, leading to a late meltdown.

Untimely penalties have pushed the Saints out of potential field goals several times this season. The avalanche of turnovers has not only destroyed momentum, but forced the Saints into desperate play in four different games while trying to come from behind.

Game Plans/Adjustments

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Re: Saints' Dennis Allen, Coaches Should Be Under the Microscope
 

Gotta admit when I read the thread title I thought it was bako posting.

Re: Saints' Dennis Allen, Coaches Should Be Under the Microscope
 

The Saints could win the Super Bowl and I’d still want Allen and Carmichael gone. They can go to Carolina with Sean Payton. 😒

Re: Saints' Dennis Allen, Coaches Should Be Under the Microscope
 

Way to state your opinion rez! I may not agree with it, but I respect it !

Re: Saints' Dennis Allen, Coaches Should Be Under the Microscope
 

Been saying this ever since game #2.

There is no discipline (penalties/turnovers), guys just going through the motion but it starts at the top. And yeah, the play calling has been stale.

Meanwhile Mark is struggling (2.2 ypc), yet we keep feeding him instead of a "hot hand". Is that on the player or the coach? Easy to see why Latavius threw up the deuces.

That schedule is only going to get harder.

Re: Saints' Dennis Allen, Coaches Should Be Under the Microscope
 

I know I am going to sound like an Allen fan (i’m really not) but there is enough crap in that article to fill 6 honey buckets!

Re: Saints' Dennis Allen, Coaches Should Be Under the Microscope
 

Rez has earned my respect when it comes to analyzing football. I'm no expert but it's easy to see that there is a spark missing and I believe we need new leadership to bring the fire back.

Re: Saints' Dennis Allen, Coaches Should Be Under the Microscope
 

I don’t ever see us exploiting match ups anymore. When I’m watching other games and I see Devante Adams in the slot I know where the ball is going. I see other teams force feed their weapons. I’m watching the Giants climb to 4-1 giving the ball to Barkley most of the game. We gotta put the ball on Kamara’s hands. And we need to continue to expound on the Taysom Hill package. Why do they keep putting Ingram at running back when Taysom is in? Play action QB Sweep with the option to throw it back to Kamara. Run the actual option with Hill and AK. Put Taysom back there 5 wide and hit Kamara on the outside on a screen. There’s so much talent and so many things they can do.

Re: Saints' Dennis Allen, Coaches Should Be Under the Microscope
 

I was someone who really wanted to see the offense under the control of Pete C, and now I got what I wanted, I realised how little I truly understood at that time.

Pete C isn't a coach, he is a X and O's guy. I underestimated the level of sway that Payton's mere presence had. If these guys played like this for Payton, he would be in their faces immediately.
Pete C does not demand that level of respect, because he isn't a guy that the players fear failing in front of.

To me, it all starts with DA.
His off-season press conference really excited me, but it now seems it was just talk.

The D line, whilst they've started to pick up steam, aren't anywhere near as dominant as they were before DA was head coach.
We had a fantastic special teams unit for years that all of a sudden sucks this year.
Defensive backs, which DA coached for years, are probably the weakest unit on the defense. We let so much talent get away and replaced it with guys who either don't really seem to try (Mathieu), guys that are injured or pending court cases (Maye) or players on a career rebound (Evans).

I really hope something can light a fire under them and start to string some wins together, but DA needs to be under the microscope.
I say 5 wins or less and he should be sent packing.

Re: Saints' Dennis Allen, Coaches Should Be Under the Microscope
 

I think the biggest issue with the defense has been the absence of Marcus Maye combined with Adebo looking rusty coming back off injury and Allen refusing to admit you can’t always run man to man all game. Mathieu has looked really good to me. He’s graded out really well too. He’s pretty small so tackling can become an issue but if Maye was playing we could possibly let Mathieu play a little freer. JT Gray and Justin Evans were getting abused deep…and we all know what happens to PJ Williams.