The New Orleans Saints have life heading into Week 18, and while they can't necessarily control their fate, they know there's only one thing they can do.
The Saints need to beat the Falcons and let the chips fall where they may, and as Dennis Allen explained on WWL this week, the ability to do that in front of a raucous home crowd will be a significant advantage.
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Saints head coach Dennis Allen in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
"We have one of the best environments in football when our fans are excited about watching us play and when we’re putting a good performance out there for our fans to get excited about," Allen told Bobby Hebert and Mike Hoss. "So we’re going to need that homefield crowd. We’re going to feed off that energy."
The Saints will need some assistance even if they beat the Falcons. In order to win the NFC South, the Saints need the Panthers to beat the Bucs in Carolina. Those games will go off simultaneously. The Saints can also win a wild card spot if they beat the Falcons, and both the Seahawks lose to the Cardinals and the Packers lose to the Bears.
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It's not the ideal scenario, but it's far more attractive than the Week 18 scenario the Saints found themselves in to close out the 2022 season, facing the Panthers in a game with no real implications beyond draft positioning.
"It’ll be a great opportunity for us. I know our guys are really excited about this opportunity to play the Falcons … Week 18 of the season with a lot on the line," Allen said. "This is really why you play the game.”
The Saints (8-8) host the Falcons (7-9) at noon Sunday in the Caesars Superdome.
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MORE FROM DENNIS ALLEN
On starting fast
The Saints' first touchdown against the Bucs was the first time they got in the end zone on an opening drive this season.
"We started off strong in this game. It was something that we felt like we really needed to do. I think in particular, you know, going on the road at their place, knowing the — what we had in store for us and having to go there and play, I think starting off strong, certainly our offense taking the ball down the field like we did and scoring a touchdown on the opening possession was huge," Allen said. "I think the third down conversions were really critical in our ability to keep our drives alive or keep our drive alive there and be able to go down and score a touchdown, and then for the defense to go out and follow that up with a 3 and out and getting the ball back for our offense again. I thought it was a good complementary game for our team.”
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On being the more physical team
“Tt was a big point of emphasis for us in being able to out-physical this football team. You know, I told the team the night before the game that I challenged the offensive and defensive lines, because I knew that if we were going to have success in the game, we were going to have to control the line of scrimmage both with the offensive line and the defensive line. Obviously with the pressure package that they have and what they do with Todd Bowles creates a lot of issues. I think we did a really good job of protecting the quarterback, so we had some opportunities in the passing game to create some plays in the passing game. I knew that we were gonna have to devote some resources in the passing game defensively, to try to take away these receivers a little bit. I thought we did a good job for the majority of three, three and a half quarters of being able to do that, but to do that we were going to have to stop the run in a light box and I thought the guys up front did a good job of handling the line of scrimmage and allowed us to do that.”
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On Derek Carr's performance this season
“I think playing the quarterback position is about being efficient. It’s about throwing completions. It’s about protecting the football, and it’s about, you know, scoring points when you have an opportunity to score points, and I think Derek has done a really good job of doing that," Allen said. "There’s a lot of times where you’re throwing for 300 yards and you’re throwing for 300 yards because you’re chasing points, and so I would much rather get into a position where we’re playing efficient football offensively, we’re moving the ball, we’re scoring points, doesn’t matter how you get them, then get into one of these games where we’re chasing points than throwing the ball all over the yard.”