Early in the 4th quarter with the Saints pinned on the wrong end of a 30-7 deficit, Dennis Allen made a change on defense that left many scratching their heads.
Second-year DB Alontae Taylor was sitting on the bench next to Derek Carr as Ugo Amadi ran onto the field. He was not up along the sidelines and was not dealing with any apparent injury. He had struggled throughout the game, as had much of the defense. The Saints ultimately lost 30-22 after an unsuccessful rally.
"I just felt like we needed to get Ugo in there and give him an opportunity to go play," head coach Dennis Allen said of the situation.
It was clearly about a bit more than that, and Taylor sat alone on the bench for some time until veteran Johnathan Abram walked over between defensive series for a pep talk. A few minutes later Taylor stood up and stood along the sidelines with his defensive teammates, which is what you'll typically see when the defense is on the field.
Pressed again, Allen indicated that the decision was related to eye discipline and performance.
“I think they got him a couple times with his eyes," Allen said, "and so I just felt like it was the right move for our team at that point.”
The theme of "eye candy" was one that the coaching staff had been preaching all week, with the Rams' scheme full of it with the intent of getting players outleveraged in key moments. That clearly happened too many times for Taylor in this game.
The Rams offense seemed able to move the ball at will, with a missed field goal and poor red zone execution keeping this game a lot closer than it probably had to be. Taylor was not alone in that, with missed tackles and open receivers running all day.
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Taylor's situation has been one on intrigue all season, as he's continued to be the odd man out in the secondary since being selected in the second round out of Tennessee in 2022. He was in a competition for the outside cornerback spot in the preseason, a role that ultimately went to Paulson Adebo. The Saints moved on from Bradley Roby at the end of camp, and Taylor shifted into the slot role with mixed results. Star CB Marshon Lattimore went down in Week 10 and has missed the past five games, but the Saints opted to keep Taylor in the slot and Yiadom on the outside.
Some credit will have to go to the Rams, with QB Matthew Stafford making tight window throws at will and Puka Nacua wrestling away balls and breaking tackles throughout. In the end, the story is simple after Week 16.
"There was times where we had good coverage and they made plays, and there were times when we weren’t in good enough coverage and they made plays," Allen said. "We’ll go back and look at the tape and see where we could be better, but look, they were better than us tonight.”