SAINTS HEAD COACH DENNIS ALLEN

Opening statement

"It was good to get a win and start the season off that way. It was good to see, offensively, we were able to run the football, which I felt like was going to be a key factor for us. We ran the ball really well, which opened up some things in the play action passing game. We had explosives down the field. That was good to see from the offense. Defensively, we had the three takeaways, had four sacks in the game. I thought we did a pretty good job minimizing what they were able to do in the running game, which allows you to kind of rush the passer a little more. There are certainly a ton of things we have to get cleaned up. The penalties were too many. That's something we will have to address this week at practice. We still have a lot of things that we have to get better at. Our focus is going to be on making the corrections we need to make from this one, improving on those things and getting ready for Dallas."

On having Klint Kubiak on the sideline

"(Kubiak) stayed on the sideline. He will probably be there next week. I thought it went well. It's one of those things where you're with them all week long and you're talking to them all week long. I just think there's something to being able to look in a guy's eyes and see and feel what they're feeling on the field. I thought it worked great. I thought Rico's (Rick Dennison) been outstanding up in the box for him. We have a couple of pairs of eyes up there. I like how it's worked the last couple of times."

On the offensive production

"I thought we executed pretty well. Certainly there's still things we have to do better, but I think we scored on our first nine drives. That's encouraging, yet I think there were some other opportunities to get touchdowns instead of having to kick field goals. I think the biggest thing when you win a game like that is keeping guys grounded and understanding this is one of 17. Let's focus on things we have to improve on. We'll enjoy the win, but we understand we have a lot of things we have to do better."

On if you can feel how "locked in" the team is

"I felt like over the last couple of weeks, I think, just watching our guys in practice, I felt our guys were getting a feel for what we were trying to do. I like the speed that we were practicing. I felt confident in this game that we would play well in all three phases."

On the ability of the offense to start fast

"I think your ability to start fast – if you're able to run the football, it sets up more things that you can do. When you're able to run the football, it's much easier to pass protect. When you are able to run the football, you have the ability to utilize play-action passing. It just makes the defense have to defend everything. That was positive in this game. We got to try to build on that."

On Derek Carr's performance

"I thought (Carr) played well. I thought he managed the game well. The first touchdown pass to (Rashid) Shaheed was awesome. There was a little bit of pressure on him, had to step up in the pocket. He stepped up, made the throw, put it right on the money. That was awesome to see. Him no different than anyone else on our team, we're going to go and look at a handful of plays that 'ah, man, I wish we would have when we had opportunities.' I think that's the biggest thing we have to focus on is cleaning those things up as we head into Week Two against Dallas."

On the touchdown to Shaheed

"Usually when we put Shaheed on a big post, we're expecting that. That's what we're hoping for. Yet, I don't know how the defense is going to play it. If they take that away, we have to be ready to go to our secondary deals. That was a part of the plan."

On the passing game as a whole

"I feel like we came into this game and said we would go in and play the game to win. That's what we did. I thought we took our shots when they were available to us, and we ran it when we needed to. We were prepared to potentially go for some fourth downs, if need be. It's part of the deal. You have to play this game to win in our league, and I have confidence in our guys to be able to do that."

On the chemistry and trust with Klint Kubiak

"I think the longer that you're around somebody, the more you get a feel for where they're at. There are conversations that go on, and let's go play this game not to lose; let's play this game to win. That's what we did today, and our guys came out and executed at a high level. I think if our guys play that way and execute that way, then I think we're going to have a chance in a lot of games. That's what we have to do."

On pressuring with defensive back Alontae Taylor

"Well, he's fast. That would be No. 1, and he's aggressive. It's one thing to say you're going to send somebody on a pressure, but they have to be willing to go in and deal with the noise that's in there. Every now and then it's a little noisy, and there is a big 300-pound offensive lineman and things of that nature. I think he is fast; he is aggressive. It was good to see him be able to run back there. What was it three sacks? It's been a while since we've had a DB do that. It's never happened (Saints history). It's been a long time ... since the 1960s."

On if he will enjoy the win tonight

"I'm going to enjoy this one. Why wouldn't I? These things are hard to come by. For all of us, it's about staying grounded. There's no 24 hours. We're going to be in meetings tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. I don't know what time it is now, but we're less than 24 hours (away from that). We're going to enjoy it for a couple of hours and get back to work tomorrow morning as coaches. Players will get in around nine o'clock and get a lift in, get a little workout, little sweat and then be back ready to go with meetings and make corrections."

On the decision to have Jake Haener serve as the second quarterback and Spencer Rattler as the third in the game

"I just think that was my decision and what I felt like I wanted to do in this game. It may be that way next week. It may not be that way next week. I want both of these guys to prepare as if they are going to be the starter, and that's why we did what we did."

On Alvin Kamara's game

"I thought it was awesome. I have a vision of what (Kamara) can do in this offense. I think there's a lot of things he can do. We've got weapons. We've got speed on the outside. We've got Alvin and Jamaal (Williams) running the ball. We have all the different things we can do with Taysom Hill. I feel good about the weapons we have. Our coaches put those guys in the best position for them to have success."

On if Derek Carr feeds off the fast start

"You sense that with all of them. When you go out in your first drive and you throw a long touchdown pass, I think everybody gets some confidence and excitement with that. I think fast starts build confidence in everybody. I think this – I think we had that confidence going into the game. I've had the opportunity to watch this team through training camp. I had no idea what the score was going to be, but I had a lot of confidence in my team's ability to go out there and play and play at a really high level."

On the offensive tackles' performance

"I would probably say, without watching the tape, there was a lot of good, and there was a few bad. Those guys are no different than anybody else. We're going to go back, and we're going to watch the tape and make the corrections that we have to make and work to improve. When you look at the offensive performance and being able to put points up like that, being able to run the football like that – three touchdown passes, is that right? You don't do those things without your offensive line playing at a high level. I thought they played well."

On what he meant by "these things are hard to come by"

"Wins. Wins in our league are hard to come by. They're difficult. When you get one, you celebrate it, you enjoy it and then you get ready for the next one. We're playing again next week, you know what I mean? It's not like we don't play again for a long time. You've got to get back and get ready to play next week."

On if he predicted the outcome being as big as it was

"I don't know that I saw the score being what the score was, but again, I had confidence in our football team to come out and perform well. I think we did that."

On how gratifying the offensive performance was

"Yeah, it is, but that's a long process that started way back in the spring. Look, it's a credit to all of the coaches and the players that there's enough trust among players and the coaches with each other. We trust each other enough to know that the message we're all following can work. When you do all of that and then all of a sudden you see the fruits of the labor, yeah, it's gratifying."

On playing Landon Young over Nick Saldiveri at left guard in the second half

"Nick (Saldiveri) missed a lot of time. We've got to get him out practicing and developing. We'll see where we're at. That was kind of the plan going in is that Nick would be the emergency, eighth lineman in case we needed him."

On the difference with Alvin Kamara's performance compared to last season

"We'll see. I don't want to get into being a prognosticator and trying to fortune tell a little bit, but I do feel like his skillset and what we do offensively, I do think that can benefit him, which obviously benefits us as a team. I am excited to see where it goes."

On making in-game adjustments

"There were a few things we had to make some adjustments to. It's that way in every game. I would probably say that I don't know we saw too many really exotic things that we weren't maybe ready for. There were a couple of schematic things they did and made a little adjustment, but other than that, I thought our guys were prepared for what they were doing."

On if the Saints provided an unexpected gameplan

"Don't know. It's a better question for them. You know what I mean? I thought offensively, I thought we had a good game plan."

On Marshon Lattimore's hamstring injury in the third quarter

"With hamstrings you never really know, but (Lattimore) did do something to his hamstring. We will evaluate it and see what that means, if that means missed time or not. Foster Moreau went out late in the game with a concussion, so he will have to be in the protocol. Other than that, we'll evaluate where these guys are tomorrow and have a better idea of what we are dealing with."

On the production of the tight ends

"I'm excited about what I think we can do offensively. We have a long season ahead of us and we've got a ton of things we have to get better at."

QUARTERBACK DEREK CARR

On having Klint Kubiak on the sideline

"It was great. In the preseason, we only have so many opportunities and we aren't really game planning or watching film on who you are playing either. The feeling on the sideline is like practice. We have a lot of veterans on offense. We have a lot of older guys who have played a lot of football. He can feel like we got your back or we are telling him to stay aggressive. You can feel that energy from each other. I think it is nice to have him right now and it's nice to have the quarterbacks coach to be a buffer. It is not always going to be perfect. It is not always going to be pretty. You can tell that they (offensive coaching staff) have all worked together. Their cohesiveness was unbelievable. I thought that was really cool to see and something that I was excited about to see like how they made adjustments and how they talked about things. I have seen it done the right way. I have seen it done the wrong way. I was excited to see how they did it and it was cool to see. That is just one game, so hopefully we can keep that going."

On seeing all that you worked on come to fruition

"Yes, you score 47 points and that's hard to do at any time especially in this league especially against that defense. They are unbelievable. Hopefully, the fans and everyone can see what it can be or potentially be. Everyone wants to talk about how exciting it was for the offense, but our defense gave us a lot of short fields. We were able to score in the red zone, which was awesome. We get a blocked (deflected) punt on special teams. It is a team game. You guys are going to get annoyed at me for saying that, but it's a team that's super close to one another. Our team has unity, cohesiveness and a brotherhood. I want to give praise to Klint and the defense, but we are all in this together. The defense setting us up for short fields allowed us (to succeed). It's hard to score that many points when starting from the 20 every time. Them setting us up on short fields and us executing allows a day like that to happen. Hopefully, everyone is excited about that, but at the same time I hope our defense gets a lot of praise for setting us up to go do that."

On the Rashid Shaheed touchdown

"It was a great design. Klint set it up single high. Obviously it was a different read check and all of that, but we got the look. The safety stayed on that hash and stayed low. I put my eyes on it to make sure he didn't get off and Rashid beat the corner. That corner is probably thinking he has help there. It was just the way that Klint designed it. It was a great design by Klint and a great job by the offensive line just giving me that extra half second, so that I could make that throw. Obviously, Rasheed just went and got it."

On having them off balance on third downs

"I hope all this love continues all of the time. This is a long year and I'm going to remind ya'll about everyone loving Klint and myself right now. He had a great game. Any time you can have a great game in this league coaching or playing you'll remember it forever. He did. He had a great day. Our guys had a great plan on certain situation stuff. We all believed in it. We all executed it in practice, and we executed it in the game. I though the game plan was awesome. I got to move around outside of the pocket more than I have gotten to in my life. I have been praying for these days it was awesome."

On five players scoring touchdowns

"It was amazing. You try your best to be able to highlight players. Everyone knows that (Chris) Olave is our number one guy. Everyone knows that I want to throw it to him 30 times a game. For us to still be able to stay balanced and have a balanced attack, there are things that he is doing to defenses without him even touching the ball sometimes. I know that it is not fun for him or his fantasy owners,but it helps us as a team. For us to get five different guys in the end zone, that shows versatility and that we will not be one-dimensional. We have to be a balanced team if we do what we want to do. It is not always going to be that way or that easy to do one or the other, but we have to figure out a way to win. I told ya'll when I came here last year that all I want to do is win. If that means throw it ten times or 50 times I really couldn't care less. I just want to win. That just shows me that we found a way to get in the end zone and found a way to win."

RUNNING BACK ALVIN KAMARA

On the 50th career 100-yard scrimmage game

"I never really keep track of things like this. It's real cool because I have been here my whole career. You don't really think about it. You don't think about the past years. I'm just living in the now. To be able to quantify and put a little stamp on what I have been able to accomplish is cool. It's cool to do it with my teammates and be recognized at the Superdome."

On the offense

"That's what we made some changes for. We've been grinding through camp. We know the type of playmakers that we have. I'm not worried about stuff that goes on outside of the building. I am just worried about us. We have been able to come in and execute. There were still plays out there that we wanted, but we looked good out there today."

On how important it was to start this way

"One game does not define the next game. It is a Sunday. We had a good game. We came out and we executed. You want to come out every game and try to dominate and have a strong performance. It is still Sunday. It's 24 hours and then on to the next."

RECEIVER/RETURNER RASHEED SHAHEED

On the touchdown reception

"It was a great executed play. It was a great play call at that time. It was a play that we practiced. Derek (Carr) told me to have my eyes open and if the safety came down and followed the over coming through. I broke to the post and I saw no safety, so I knew the ball was going to be in the air. The play only works like that if everyone executes their job. Shout out to the offensive line and Derek through a great ball there and I was able to track it."

On that play being called early

"As an offense, we love it. We love an aggressive mindset. Any chance that we get to push the ball down the field and to give an offense a speak is super important. It was a big play to get us going and give us the momentum."

On the difference in the offense this year

"We feel like we are just going out there and playing football. We're super confident. We're super fast. Guys know their assignments. Everyone is keyed in and super locked in to the game plan. As an offense as a whole, we feel more confident in going out there and executing our job. When we do that, I feel like it showed up today."

SAFETY TYRANN MATHIEU

On watching the offense

"We feed off them. There are a lot of big personalities over there. There are a lot of playmakers. I think collectively we are at our best when we are feeding off each other. That was a great start."

On how the offense scoring on nine straight possession impacts the defense

"For us it is lunchtime, we know that we are going to have a chance to make a play. It is important for us to win first down and to get those teams into third and longs. Defensively, we were able to come alive. Hats off to the offense. They definitely carried the weight pretty much the whole day."

On if the performance is what he saw in training camp

"We were competing. Once we got to phase two it felt different especially going to camp and competing against that offense. We knew what the NFL was going to be up against, but obviously it's about executing. Guys are making plays when their numbers are called. There are a few guys that didn't make a play, but we know they can make those plays, so I am looking forward to that."

DEFENSIVE BACK ALONTAE TAYLOR
On being the first defensive back in Saints history to have three sacks in a game

"They told me when I was coming off the field. It hasn't really sunk in yet. I was sitting in the locker room thinking about it. I was praying. It's a blessing. It's just week one though, so many more to come."

On if he thrives in the position of rushing the quarterback

"I think last year we did not have many pressure calls where I got home. I feel like DA (Dennis Allen) called it and had confidence that I would get home and everyone else was going to do their job. Now, I want to pressure every single time on third down."

On the feeling of a sack compared to an interception

"I think I am getting used to it. It is different for sure. When you get an interception, you have a chance to return it."

CAROLINA PANTHERS COACH DAVE CANALES

Opening statement

"Certainly not the outcome that I was hoping for. Before I even got to watch the film, if I could just talk about three turnovers and explosives that we gave up on the defensive side, the blocked (deflected) punt. Those are critical factors. It flips the field, it gives them more possessions, and even when we had our chances, we did not get our first completion for a while there. So just all around, poor execution in all phases and particularly when you turn the ball over, and you give that offense chances, and what we found out is that this is a pretty good offense. We learned a lot about ourselves today, I think. A group of guys that have not played a lot of football together, the communication, working off each other, playing those things. That is all stuff that we have got to get to when we look at the film, so for me, the positive I can take out of it is the way that the guys stuck together and kept playing hard. There is nothing more I can ask for, when you're faced with a situation where we're so far behind already in the first half, can we just keep playing football? I asked them to do that and they responded. The defense ran and tackled the whole time at the end. The offense just played all the way through, trying to execute until the very end of the game, so I am proud of that. I'm proud of these guys, nobody turning on each other, none of that. Just guys that were ready to take their responsibility, and for sure as the head coach, I've got to take responsibility and look at what we have to do going forward."

On guys not having experience playing together and only playing starters in first series

"It all matters, it all counts, so that's something we've got to think about. But again, we had an opportunity today to play football. We played a lot of football, particularly on defense, so we'll learn a lot from just being able to get this group together and work off each other."

On positives of Bryce Young's performance

"Just the pre-snap operation. That was kind of my biggest concern and I thought we did a really good job. We had one delay of game (penalty), I think. We were pretty close up against the clock there a few times, but I think from that standpoint, it gives us a chance with a good starting point to have success in our plays."

On the hole created by the Saints' first touchdown and following interception

"When it's early, I ask the guys to never pass judgment on the outcome of a game based on what happens at the beginning. So when stuff like that happens early, you are just like 'you know what, this is adversity, we have to rise up.' Defense held them to a field goal after that interception, so in that regard, it didn't feel like a precursor of things to come. It just felt like, okay, this is an isolated incident. They had some nice plays, we just had an overthrow on the throw to Diontae (Johnson) there, and then you move on. You just keep playing football."

On processing the game and not getting overwhelmed

"For me, thinking about it, a loss is a loss. The nature of the loss, it matters, it's a factor, we look at it, but whether it was by three points or as much as it was today, you have to just count them as a loss and then move forward to the next challenge. Move forward to growing from things we see on film, and that was the message I gave to the team. I said, 'Hey look, in weeks from now, it's not going to matter what the score was. We lost. Let's go to the truth of it, and let's move on so that it doesn't have that carryover effect."

On defensive performance

"We have got a lot to figure out, we got a lot to work on. Again, I can't speak specifically to anything. We have got to get to the film and see the breakdowns of those different runs and the different actions that got out there."

On communication errors in the secondary

"That was something that I was really looking forward to and hoping it came alive, and I still believe it will. When you have that many guys who have played a lot of football in this scheme, they'll figure it out. We'll get back to the film tomorrow. Everybody will be hard on themselves. We'll all take our measure of responsibility for, what was my approach like offensively, to not put us in situations to where we had to wait so many drives to get that first completion. How can we help the whole situation and system better to find a way to get the ball to our playmakers?"

On how to address the play of Bryce Young

"Just make it about the basics, and just look at each play as isolated incidents. Look at the play, what was the breakdown. Was it timing, was it footwork, (or) was it protection?. There's a lot of factors that go in, and I think that if you can be objective about looking at the breakdown of the play itself, then it allows you to improve. That's what I'm looking forward to."

On the first interception Young threw

"I thought (Diontae Johnson) had good space. I've got to watch the film. I thought he had good space, it looked like a high throw. Post safety was sitting there kind of in position for it, but Diontae had press. I thought he did a good job of separating there, so it was just a matter of me-to-you factor, get that ball to him in that space."

On operations/communication with coaching staff

"That was excellent. We were up against it. We had so much adversity, and the ball getting put in defensive territory, and the offense getting into longer situations, which can kill drives. There was a lot of good information passed along, so I felt really good about that part of it. But again, it comes down to execution and it comes down to gameplay. Did we help guys enough try to get access."

On message to Panthers fans

"It's a long journey. It's a long journey to become us. I truly believe that. I knew that whether we started 4-0 or 0-4, whatever that is, what I knew is that it's going to take a long time to become us, and I just can't help but know that you have to have adversity to become who you're going to be. For guys to pull together, to show their character the way they did today, in a really tough loss, and call it what it is. Again, it's one loss. Now we have a chance to come back, to tighten things up, and to work together."

On whether he considered taking Bryce Young out earlier

"I did. I thought about getting Andy (Dalton) in the drive before, but I was really just trying to get one more shot at 'can we just get our rhythm, can we get some completions.' When it didn't happen, it was very obvious at that point with the score, so I probably could have gotten him out there a drive earlier."

On the mood in the locker room after the loss

"It is somber. I think that this is a group that really takes a lot of pride. They have high hopes for what we are going to become, and what I am trying to capitalize on is just the way they're all connected in there. I think that this is a group that, there are not people throwing helmets around. There are not people that are pointing fingers and doing this and that. They are all to a manner, like, 'I've got to be better. I've got to be better for you in all phases.' That was kind of an ownership moment for the group, so that's generally the mood."

On "taking a long time to become us" meaning

"I don't know. What I just know is that this is a journey, and I can't put any number of games on it. I just know that we will capture moments in games and it will feel like Panthers football. When we're playing tough on defense, we're playing our assignments, when we're all in position working together, when the flow of our offense is going and we have good tempo, we're getting into our plays and different things like that. I have a picture and a vision in my mind, and so do the players. We all have this shared vision of what we can become, and until we feel that, until we feel those drives, we know that we're not there yet. So we're going to keep heading in that direction and we believe that it's going to happen and be possible."