The New Orleans Saints needed to make a statement in Week 5, and they needed star-like performances from their star players to do that.
That's exactly what they got in a 34-0 road shutout of the Patriots, as head coach Dennis Allen explained to Bobby Hebert and Mike Hoss on the WWL Saints Coaches Show this week.
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Dennis Allen in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
"We talked a lot this week about our best players needing to show up in these types of games," Allen said, "and I thought those guys did that."
Tyrann Mathieu delivered with a pick-6, Cam Jordan and Carl Granderson each made plays in the backfield, Michael Thomas paced the offense with big plays in critical situations, Derek Carr played a clean game and the Saints executed for touchdowns in the red zone. But it was Alvin Kamara who truly seemed to spur this offense, getting hard yards between the tackles and plowing in for a 2-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
The score was his 73rd in a Saints uniform and put him atop the franchise's record books, surpassing wide receiver Marques Colston.
"Alvin, I thought, ran the ball exceptionally hard, made a couple of really nice plays out of the backfield," Allen said. "I thought his blitz pickup was outstanding in the game, and so it was great to see him get that touchdown and set the franchise record. There’s been some good offensive football played around here for a long time, and for you to be the leader in terms of touchdowns offensively, that’s pretty impressive.”
But the performance wasn't without its faults, even in such a one-sided affair. The Saints racked up 12 penalties for 85 yards, in multiple cases turning 3rd and manageable situations into 3rd and long. With more competitive games certain to come, that's an area where the team has to improve.
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Kamara made sure to call those situations out in his postgame comments, and Allen pointed to some offensive adjustments and the incorporation of more shifts and motion as a possible culprit for some of those miscues.
"I don’t care whether you motion, don’t motion, shift, don’t shift, run it, throw it, how you call it," Allen said Monday. "It then boils down to execution, so you can have all the pretty shifts and motions that you want to have, and they look cute, but ultimately you’ve got to be able to get to the right people and block the right people and execute your job, and that’s what this game boils down to.”
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MORE FROM DENNIS ALLEN
On Carl Granderson's performance
“I think that’s why we made the decision that we did to give him the new contract, and he’s rewarded us by continuing to play at a high level," Allen said. "And so those are the things that you really like about coaching. You like seeing guys that come in as undrafted free agents, that just come in and go to work every day, continue to work extremely hard, do everything that you ask him to do, and they just continue to get better. And that’s what this player has done, and man, we’re glad we have him.”
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On rookie Jordan Howden's performance
“I think he’s a tough, smart, competitive kid," Allen said. "He played the Green Bay game with the broken finger. He broke the finger in practice on, I believe it was Thursday in practice, and played the game, had surgery the following Monday, was out the following week, and then came back and played with a cast on his hand. So he’s a tough, smart, competitive guy, comes in and works really hard every single day. He’s got ability and he works really hard to improve, so he’s a young guy that we’re excited about.”
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On getting third shutout in past three seasons
“I think it’s extremely hard to shut somebody out in our league, and we’ve had a couple of those over the last few years here and I think when you’re able to put together a game like we did in this game, and putting together a team win offense, defense, kicking game," Allen said. "We won the field position battle by 18 yards, which is pretty incredible in our league. That generally is not more than 4 or 5 yards difference in terms of starting field position. So I thought all three phases in this game really played well and to have an outcome like we have, I think it’s gonna take all three phases.”
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On Houston Texans up next
“I think this is a really good football team," Allen said. "I think they’re built in the same mold as the 49ers in terms of how they want to play the game. They want to be physical, they want to be able to run the football, play-action passing game, get the ball out of the quarterback’s hand. On defense they’re going to be really aggressive up front, try to get after the passer with four, do a great job of maintaining discipline in coverage, make you have to check the ball down, go the long hard way. And they play really good in the kicking game. I think [Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans] has done a really good job with this team and I think he’s got them playing really well.”