The New Orleans Saints are in the midst of a six-game losing streak, but that's only prompted one goal: Play better football.
The team hasn't been and won't be shopping around players with the Nov. 5 trade deadline approaching, as Dennis Allen explained this week on WWL.
"I certainly don’t think we’re in the sell mode, you know, we’re not looking to get rid of players," Allen told the Cajun Cannon Bobby Hebert and Mike Hoss. "We’re looking to improve as a football team, and if there’s ways that we can do that, then we’ll do that, you know, and so we have not been active, you know, actively, you know, going out and shopping any of our guys, that’s not our intention.”
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Saints head coach Dennis Allen in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
It's a fair question considering the circumstances. The Saints sit at 2-6 after more than a month of consecutive losses. It's the first such streak since the 2005 season and the last of the Jim Haslett era. The Saints have battled injuries but are optimistic that starting QB Derek Carr can return for Week 9.
The team is staying focused on the details, Allen said, and improving there will be key. There have been too many critical mistakes that have prevented winning on both sides of the ball. This past week it was offensive penalties at inopportune times that really stymied the Saints offense during a frustrating, 26-8 loss to the Chargers in L.A.
"The … last three weeks we’ve opened up the game, you know, creating explosive plays and you think, man, this has got a chance to be pretty good, and then all of a sudden you have a negative play and, you know, next thing you know you’re punting the football away," Allen said, "and so I think the negative plays are the things that we have to eliminate.”
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NFL as a results-based business/what has to change
“I think you’ve got to focus on the things that keep you from winning and accentuate the positive things and get better at those things and improve the things you’re not doing as well. You know, I don’t think we look at things the same way that maybe people outside our building do. In terms of this, Bobby, I think … we’re not focused on the rear view mirror, of what happened in the past. We’re really focused on what are the things we can control, what are the things we can change, and that starts this week with going to Carolina and getting a win.”
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Is the lack of elite young players an issue?
“I think we have some good young players. I don’t know that we have any great young players, or at least we’re not in that position yet. I think we’ve still got some young guys that are developing that we hope can continue to get better and improve, but yea, I think that’s a … valid question and a fair question, and I think this, I think you can win a lot of games with a lot of good players, you know, you don’t have to have a ton of what people might consider great players. You need tough, smart competitive football players that play the game, you know, the right way, and I do think we have some of those guys and then some of those other, young guys, like rookies and second-year players, we’re finding out about.”
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On DBs/WRs improving in contested catch situations
“I think the key is being able to make the play at the moment of truth. We haven’t been good enough in that regard. We’ve got to work with the technique and being able to do that, both offensively and defensively, because that’s really what this league is about. I mean, this league really, you know, it’s not like college where everything is, you know, gonna be a wide open, you know, throw and everything is gonna be for the most part, there’s gonna be a lot of contested plays and the team that’s able to make those plays in those contested environments is usually the team that’s gonna have the most success.”