The New Orleans Saints have had an up and down first half of the 2023 regular season, and that fact hasn't been lost on the head coach.
After a 2-0 start, New Orleans has dropped four of its past five games, the past two of which have ended with four unsuccessful heaves to the end zone. As Saints head coach Dennis Allen broke down on WWL this week, there have been positives on offense, but failures at key moments. The latter part is what has to change for this team to get where it needs to go.
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Saints head coach Dennis Allen in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
"We all have to look ourself in the mirror and see what we can do better to give ourselves a better opportunity to win, because quite frankly our worst opponent or toughest opponent this season has been ourselves," Allen told WWL's Mike Hoss and Bobby Hebert. "And so we’ve got to do a better job of doing what we need to do that’s gonna allow us to win and eliminate the things that keep you from winning, and that’s where we’re going to get better.”
One area in particular that has burned the Saints: Penalties. New Orleans is tied for 6th in total penalties called (46), but first in yardage against (440). The Saints also own the most offensive holding penalties against (11) and have the most defensive pass interference calls by a wide margin. The Saints have been flagged for DPI 10 times. No other team has more than six such penalties.
The Saints offense is also ranked 28th in red zone TD percentage (37.5%). All that said, the issues are correctable, and the Saints remain just a game out of the NFC South lead and right in the middle of a crowded NFC standings table. The Saints have a pair of backup QBs ahead on the schedule in Gardner Minshew and the Colts, then rookie Tyson Bagent and the Bears.
“It’s time for us to take advantage of that, you know? ... It’s right there for us, but we’ve got to jump up there and go take it,” Allen said.
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MORE FROM DENNIS ALLEN
On how the Saints handled the mini bye
“Mostly for our players it was time away. I think as coaches we spent time on our own kind of looking at where we are after 7 games, what do we need to improve on, where are the areas that are of the most significant concern. How do we get better in those areas? And then, you know, we’ll move on to getting ready for Indianapolis. But I thought there were some positive conversations that went on over the weekend and some thoughts that we had in terms of how we can be better.”
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On any effort issues with Chris Olave
“I would say that I don’t think we should be talking about an effort problem with Chris Olave. Are there some plays that he can be better on? Yea, certainly there are. And so just like anybody else, he’s gonna continue to work to improve. I think you can look on the tape and there are some routes that he’s hauling ass on. And so I don’t have a challenge with it. Do we need to be better? Yea. But I think that situation has been way overblown.”
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On TE Juwan Johnson's availability
“We’re optimistic that he’ll be able to be back. I think that he’s a guy that can have an impact offensively for us. I think he does some really good things in the passing game. He’ll certainly have to knock a little bit of rust off being that he’s been out for a little while, but he does have an explosive element to the game in terms of what he can do for us offensively.”
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On how the offense can improve
“I think we need to do a better job of being on the same page. I think that’s where the frustration comes in is I don’t think that that should be the challenge right now, seven games into the season. So those things have to be, obviously, addressed and they have to be fixed, and we’ve got to do a better job of fixing them.”