There are only three unbeaten teams left in the NFL heading into Week 5, and the Saints get to face one of them when they visit the Chiefs on Monday Night Football.
That said, this is not a Chiefs team that's been dominating by any stretch, with all four wins in one-score games that came down to the wire. Kansas City is dealing with injuries on offense, particularly at WR and RB. Still, as Deuce McAllister broke down on WWL this week, the Saints finding a win out at Arrowhead is more about the Saints than anything else.
"It’s really been, I guess you would say back-to-back weeks where the Saints offensively as well as defensively just have had mistake," Deuce said. "I mean, they have not been clean the last two weeks as they were the first two weeks."
Listen to the full interview with Deuce McAllister in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
It's true, the Saints have been the opposite of the Chiefs. Their two wins were by a margin of 91-29, while their losses have been by a margin of 41-36. In both losses the Saints' defense got on the field in the final 2 minutes with a chance to close it out, but mistakes doomed them. In Week 3 it was a play where three defenders collided on a 3rd and 16 to set up a 61-yard catch and run and the go-ahead touchdown. In Week 4 it was a 30-yard pass interference penalty to set up a 58-yard game-winning kick. That loss to the Falcons also featured a muffed punt for a touchdown and a pick-6.
To put in kindly: Too many mistakes will lose you football games, plain and simple.
"I don’t want to say an opponent doesn’t matter, it does, but how you go out and execute matters as well. If you can’t go out and execute at a level that it needs to be, it’s going to be very, very hard to win in this league," McAllister continued. "You’re a good enough team that you can win and play with pretty much, nearly every team in the NFL, but even the worst team, they can beat you if you’re gonna give them points and you’re gonna make mistakes that you can’t overcome.”
The Saints (2-2) face off with the Chiefs (4-0) on Monday Night Football. Catch all the action on WWL.
MORE FROM DEUCE
Could the Saints trade for Davante Adams?
“The Saints can make it work. It may take some maneuvering and it may take even some overpaying if you’re gonna ask the Raiders to, hey, I want you to absorb X, Y, Z when you talk about salary, because I think it’s close to right at $1 million every week that he’s with the team that his salary goes down up until the Nov. 5 trade deadline, so it’s basically going to be a situation where, yes, the Saints can convert the salary, you can do signing bonus, void year. They can play that game, but I still don’t know if that is enough to get them where they need to be from a financial standpoint, so the other part of it becomes they still want to have some flexibility because, as we know, there will be injuries for their team already, and so with injuries you have to be able to sign other guys and so when I do see signings of other players, they have to have funding available and so that’s one reason that you need some flexibility as far as your own salary cap. The other is obviously to be able to pursue some type of trade, so can they restructure a deal or two of someone’s? Yes, they could. Will they? I’m not sure.”
What's the latest on Kendre Miller
“Normally I would say, hey, let’s get him a week or two of practice, you know, because you have the 21-day window. I don’t know if the Saints have that luxury. I think it may be a situation where, hey, Kendre, I know what you’ve been doing. … I’ll tell you this, he has been very diligent as far as going to rehab, being able to come to meetings, being able to go to practice and be a part, but you can’t practice. All you can do is look. That’s all he’s been doing, so for the last four weeks he’s been engaged.
"I think he’s in a good place mentally, where he’s been able to hopefully, knock on wood, now, I’m not on the social like stalking players and stuff like that, so I don’t know when I say this, but hopefully he’s in a good place mentally to where it’s just ball. I want to ball. I want to play, and if he’s in that space, I would normally say can I get 30 plays out of this young man, nah, Mike, can I get 10 plays out of this young man, and of those 10 plays, six of them are gonna be carries. Can I get 15 plays out of this young man, out of those 15 plays, 7 or 8 will be carries and so that’s kind of where you are, because you've got to lighten the workload for Alvin Kamara, I mean, Alvin has battled, he’s fought, he’s given you everything you could’ve asked for and more up until this point, but if you continue down the road that you’re going with him, you’re not going to be able to ask for anymore, because he ain’t gonna have anything to give you.”
Thoughts on the Chiefs offense/defense
“It’s still Travis Kelce over there, so you can’t just discount him completely and I think it all starts with [Pat] Mahomes. I mean, I don’t know if you can rattle the guy. He’s gonna give you some chances, because he trusts his receivers. He trusts that they’re gonna be where they’re supposed to be and the question becomes can you make a play.
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"When you talk about the defense, we can talk about every player on that defense, there’s one player — there’s one player, you better know where he is every snap. When he is on the sideline, you better be jumping up and down saying ’there he is.’ I still know where he’s at, Chris Jones — it starts with him. He lines up as a nose. He lines up as a 3-technique. He lines up at the left defensive end. He lines up at the right defensive end. He will go across the board. He is looking for the mismatch, and then their defense is basically predicated on pressure. And what I mean by that, they don’t mind going zero. They don’t mind bringing guys and saying hey, we can play sound defense on the back end even if we bring the extra guy and we feel like you are not going to make the right read so it’s gonna be a huge challenge. I thought the offensive line played well, really, really well against Atlanta, but you’re going to see, just like Atlanta hit you some zero blitzes. You’re gonna see the same thing. I mean, you’re gonna get zone dog, you’re gonna get three strong, you’re gonna get four strong. They’re going to give it and they want to see what you’re gonna pick up and what you can’t pick up.”
