Darren Rizzi's first game as an NFL head coach ended with the result he wanted, even if things didn't always go exactly to plan.
It certainly started inauspiciously, with Rizzi's first foray into the head coach's locker room resulting in a clogged toilet. It was a bad omen, he felt, and a detail he shamelessly shared with the media after his team took down the Falcons 20-17 to end a 7-game skid.
"I’m like, this is gonna be a crappy day, pun intended, and so … this is not really a great start to the day," Rizzi said. "Here we go."
That instinct was wrong, one of the few things the new Saints coach seems to have gotten wrong as he's overhauled a great deal in the span of a week and in hopes of getting a fresh start for a 2-7 football team. It all went into the approach, a large part being the idea that not everything was going to go to plan. But the bad moments can't define things, players standing up in big moments and in response to the low moments is the quality that all good teams have.
"Rizz talked a lot about this week of hey, if crap doesn’t go our way, you know, it’s OK, keep playing," Derek Carr said, "and it kind of just eased the mood and honestly, we have nothing to lose, they already fired our coach. ... That mindset of just keep playing, keep competing just kind of put an ease to everybody.”
It does seems to have worked, and the quirky, if not slightly graphic detail he shared about his morning serves as an example of what's helped his message land with the team: Darren Rizzi is unapologetically and honestly himself, even with the image isn't a pretty one. He knows no other way.
Perhaps that's why Alvin Kamara, a player with many of the same traits, has gravitated to his new coach in such a clear and effective manner. Just a day after the decision to make Kamara another team captain was announced, Rizzi presented the star RB with a game ball after he became the team's franchise rushing leader. The team turned around and gave Rizzi a game ball right back after his first win as a head coach. The interim head coach said the game ball should go to the entire building out on Airline, if that's even possible.
"The crazy thing is, Rizzi becoming the head coach, sometimes you look and you think like, all right, what’s gonna change, what’s gonna be different," Kamara said. "Man, Rizzi is the same as he was last week, this week, you know, I think he’s just got more of a voice now, so I think everything that he’s been thinking about, everything that he’s been preparing for coaching … it just all came out today and he did what he had to do. I’m proud of him.”
The new head coach has been drawing attention for how his team played, but also for his some colorful sideline antics. That included his quickly viral reaction to a blocked field goal late in the first half. He also drew attention just after the game ended for an odd moment with Payton Turner where he seemed to be stumbling and drawing some concern.
Don't worry, he didn't play coy with that moment, either. It all came after Rizzi had to ream out Turner for celebrating with 30 seconds still on the clock.
"So when the game is over, he wanted to get me back," Rizzi said, "so he came up to me and I wasn’t looking and he jacked me in the back, and I have a history of stingers, so my left arm went completely numb, literally went completely numb."
“I was grabbing like, Payton are you effing kidding me, right?" Rizzi continued, "I’m like, I’m happy, too, but holy cow."
Unapologetic. Honest. Perhaps slightly annoyed and having still not regained feeling in his left thumb. In the end it's the type of attention that endears a leader to fans and players in the type of raucous environment you want to create, and unfortunately one that's been seen far too infrequently within the Caesars Superdome over the past few years.
Rizzi admitted he was a bit concerned about the environment coming into the game. He didn't know what to expect from fans who were assuredly fed up after seven consecutive losses. But change has a way of creating hope, particularly after Derek Carr hit on a long touchdown to Marquez Valdes-Scantling to take an early lead, then the pair connected again for a bomb that set up another TD in the first half.
The crowd was hot the rest of the game and even could be credited for some Falcons procedural penalties.
"I said earlier in the week, the city should be pissed off, the fans should be pissed off, and you know, they know what a winner looks like and they want winning football and the goal all week was to do that and so I’m happy we delivered," Rizzi said. "Now, let’s see … if we can duplicate that, you know, week after week, but certainly a great start.”
If there's a secret recipe, one of the stars of the game believes Rizzi has it. That would be MVS, who knows a thing or two about winning culture, having spent the past two years in Kansas City playing for a team that's won back-to-back Super Bowls.
"Coach Reid does a good job over there of keeping everybody the standard being the standard, and I think Rizz has taken that and really made it a thing," Valdes-Scantling said. "Because no one is getting coached any differently, everyone is getting coached hard, everyone is getting held accountable and I think that’s important.”
Welcome to Rizzi ball. Let's see what happens next.
