Dennis Allen talks loss against Falcons, dealing with injuries, Saints offense

Recapping the top five takeaways from the Saints Coaches Show on WWL

Oct 01, 2024 at 03:19 PM

Andrew Lang

New Orleans Saints Coach Dennis Allen joined Voice of the Saints Mike Hoss and Saints legend Bobby Hebert on the Saints Coaches Show on WWL on Monday, Sept. 30 to talk about their loss against the Atlanta Falcons, how the team handled injuries and more.

Here's the top five takeaway's from Allen's appearance:

1. Finishing games

The Saints fell to the Falcons 26-24 on Sept. 29 to drop to 2-2. They've lost their last two games by a combined five points while holding a lead late in the fourth quarter in both contests.

"We've got to learn how to finish better and, right now, we're not doing that and that's what the good teams are really able to do," Allen said. "The good teams are able to finish when they have an opportunity to. And so, that's been disappointing and hopefully our guys are continuing to learn from that and we'll get better at that as the season rolls on. But that's the way that the National Football League is. A majority of these games come down to one-score games and so it's been disappointing that the last two weeks we've had an opportunity to close it out on defense and we haven't been able to get the job done."

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2. Next man up

The Saints had to fill in some key positions during the game against the Falcons. The Saints were without linebacker Demario Davis heading into the contest and linebacker Willie Gay Jr. exited early in the game due to injury after playing only seven snaps. On offense, the Saints were without two key offensive lineman in center Erik McCoy who was placed on injured reserve after Week 3 and guard Cesar Ruiz who was out for the game resulting in center/guard Shane Lemieux and tackle Landon Young stepping in to start at center and right guard respectively.

"I think we had some guys who stepped in and played really well," Allen said. "I mean D'Marco Jackson, for a guy that's been out for over a month and really hadn't had a lot of practice reps really since training camp, to have to go in on the (eighth) play of the game and finish out the game in place of Willie Gay was pretty outstanding for him to do that. I thought our offensive line, the guys that filled in there, I thought they stepped up and did well."

3. Teams targeting Paulson Adebo

The Falcons sought to attack cornerback Paulson Adebo in Week 4, targeting him 13 times in the Week 4 contest according to Pro Football Focus. They haven't been the only team to throw Adebo's direction as he is the most targeted corner in the league through four weeks with 40 targets.

"I thought Philly started to do that a little bit in the previous week. I thought Atlanta was trying to do that this week," Allen said. "Paulson is a guy that's made a lot of plays for us. He's played good defense for us. He's got to improve on some things from a fundamental and technique standpoint. And look when there has become some flames and the offenses start looking to identify that, you've got to do some things to put out the fire. And so, I have confidence that Paulson will be able to do that. He's played really good football for us, but certainly I think the last two weeks teams have tried to attack him a little bit."

Adebo is tied for the team lead in interceptions with two including pulling one in against Kirk Cousins in Week 4, paces the team in tackles with 32 (28 solo) and is tied for the lead in the NFL with seven passes defensed.

4. Diversifying the offense

With running back Alvin Kamara, wide receivers Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed, and tight end Taysom Hill accounting for 154 of the Saints 210 touches on offense and 1,166 of their 1,414 of their total yards from scrimmage, Allen said the team wants spread the ball around more than they have through the first four weeks.

"I just think we got to be able to get some more people involved," he said. "I think Juwan Johnson is a guy that I think has some ability to help us in the passing game. I think we've got to be able to get him a little bit more involved. I think we just have so many plays that these guys can play and be effective and I get concerned that we're going to overuse some of these guys and then we're going to have to deal with some of the injuries that we see. Jamaal Williams … that's another guy that I think we need to get more involved. I think Mason Tipton is a guy that can help us in certain areas. So, I think we've got to we've got to be able to count on those guys to have some production for us too."

5. Potential return of Kendre Miller

Running back Kendre Miller officially became eligible to be removed from injured reserve this week. Allen said Miller has made "significant progress" to be able to return to play and that the team has considered designating him to return.

"We haven't made a final decision on that and that probably won't come until tomorrow or the next day, but I think he's closer to being ready to get back into practice. And then once we decide to activate him, we really basically have a three-week window that he can practice with the team before we have to make a decision as to: do we bring him off IR or do we leave him on IR, or is he ready to go, is he ready to help us. And so, I think that three-week window for him is going to be an important time frame."

The Saints' third-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft tallied 41 rushes for 156 yards and a touchdown while adding 10 receptions for 117 yards in eight games in his rookie season.