The results might not have always borne it out in a 2022 Saints season that scuffled to 5-9, but there's one thing Dennis Allen knows about his team: The effort has never waned, even as things went awry in more games than not.
And that was the biggest takeaway for the Saints head coach after a much-needed, 21-18 win to sweep the Falcons and keep some longshot postseason hopes alive headed into a Christmas Eve showdown with the Browns.
"I would say that playing hard doesn't guarantee that you're going to win, but not playing hard guarantees that you won't win," Allen said. "And ... that's what this game is about, man. This game is about freakin' effort, passion, energy and going out and giving everything you got. And so I never questioned whether our guys were going to do that or not. I mean, they've done it all year long and so I think they did that again today."
Nowhere was that more evident than the play of rookie Alontae Taylor, who has continued to make play after play after play in a featured role, with pivotal takeaways eluding him in the most maddening of ways. He had a pair of potential interceptions bounce off his hands in the first half, and a third that he appeared to haul in get overturned by the slimmest of margins on review.
It's something that sums up the story of this season for the Saints, close but no cigar. Still, it's the balance of the effort that concerns his coach, and the rookie's play has been a clear bright spot even if his role is likely to be reduced when Mashon Lattimore eventually returns from a stubborn abdomen injury. Taylor finished with 4 tackles and 3 passes defensed in Week 15.
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"He shows up every day with his hardhat on ready to go to work. He listens to his coaches and he tries to do it exactly the way that he's being coached to do it. And he works extremely hard on studying the opponent and knowing kind of the things to anticipate," Allen said. "And so, I mean, that's what we're looking for. We're looking for guys that, they want to be coached. They want to do it the right way. They want to play hard, they want to work hard. And he does that and it's not a surprise that he's able to go out and execute on Sundays because he puts in the preparation."
Do things the right way, and eventually the takeaways -- which have largely eluded the Saints on the whole -- will come. That's the message veteran Bradley Roby says he'd been working to drive home for his rookie counterpart.
So it's fitting that it was Roby who was the recipient of a right place, right time fumble recovery that set up the Saints to ice the game with a 4-minute drive in the fourth quarter. Justin Evans punched the ball out of Drake London's arms after he secured a first down from rookie Falcons QB Desmond Ridder, who was limited to 91 yards passing on the day.
The Saints took over and ran the ball deep into Falcons territory, churning through all three of Atlanta’s timeouts and all but 9 seconds of the clock. The Saints would've preferred to run it all the way out, but a botched snap on 4th and 1 eliminated that chance. Still, they did enough to make sure Atlanta really had no chance for anything but a last-gasp play that was for naught.
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"It's hard to win in this league. And so any time you get one, you know, it's a good feeling. And we're going to enjoy this," Allen said. "We've got about 24 hours to kind of soak it in a little bit. And then, you know, we got a short week to get ready to go up to Cleveland. So it was good win. Our guys deserve a lot of credit for battling the way that, really, they've battled all year long and they came out ready to play today and we made enough plays to win."
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MORE FROM DENNIS ALLEN
WAS THERE A CONCERTED EFFORT TO GET ALVIN KAMARA TOUCHES?
After some of the least involvement of his career over the past month, the Saints star RB was involved early and often, carrying the ball 21 times for 91 yards and hauling in a pair of catches for 13 yards. That was no coincidence, Allen said.
"Yeah, and touches in a few different ways," Allen said. "And I think we've got to continue to try to figure out creative ways to get him the ball and do some things with him let him affect the game."
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WHAT WENT INTO THE TAYSOM HILL SHOT PLAY?
On the second drive of the day, Taysom Hill lined up at QB, and the Falcons clearly weren't ready for what happened. Because rather than pound it down Atlanta's throat, he reared back and hit Rashid Shaheed for a 68-yard TD and a 14-0 lead. It was the first time since Christmas Day in 2020 that the Saints scored touchdowns on their first two possessions of a game.
"There's some things that you do and what you don't know is exactly when Taysom gets lined up at the quarterback position, you don't know exactly what you're going to see every time," Allen said. "So, we got the look that we were looking for and, look, I think Shaheed ran a great route. His speed is impressive. And look, Taysom did a great job of putting the ball in the right spot, just over the top of the safety and, you know, we got a look we were looking for and our guys executed. And that's really what good football is really all about. It was a good play call, right? But the execution's what made it work, and that was good to see."
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WHAT'S MADE JUWAN JOHNSON SO EFFECTIVE?
The Saints' athletic TE returned from an injury absence and got right back to hit scoring ways, hauling in a pair of touchdowns for Nos. 6 and 7 on the season to lead the team in that department. Of his 52 career catches, 11 have gone for TDs.
"He's improved a lot. I mean, you know, he works tirelessly to improve himself and improve his game and it's good to see when when guys work the way that he works and give the type of effort that he gives," Allen said. "It's good to see, you know, him being able to kind of reap the fruits of that labor. And so that's part of what you enjoy about coaching."
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