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Dennis Allen talks Eagles loss, explosive plays, Falcons matchup

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

New Orleans Saints Coach Dennis Allen joined Voice of the Saints Mike Hoss and Saints legend Bobby Hebert the Saints Coaches Show on WWL on Monday, Sept. 23 to talk about the their loss against the Philadelphia Eagles, their upcoming matchup against the Atlanta Falcons and more.

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

1. Positives despite the loss

The Saints lost a close Week 3 contest to the Philadelphia Eagles 15-12. Despite the end result, Allen did find some positives in the team performance as well as plenty to work to improve.

"A loss is a loss in our league and it doesn't matter what the score is," he said. "You don't get to carryover any points to the next game. Everything starts 0-0. Like I said, I thought there was a lot of positives that occurred in the game. I think our offense didn't play like we're capable of playing and yet we scored a touchdown there at the end of the game to give ourselves the lead and give ourselves an opportunity to win the game. Defensively, we didn't finish the game like we needed to or wanted to and yet we took the ball away a couple of times and had a couple of fourth down stops. So, there was a lot of good things that we did. We had punt block on special teams. So, you look at those positives and you want to improve on those positives and continue to do those things. And then how do we fix some of the things we didn't do as well as we needed to."

Allen said the team had good meetings Monday and discussed the missed opportunities the Saints had during the game.

"We learn from our mistakes," he said. "We'll grow from them. We'll get better from them."

2. Fourth-and-one

To start the fourth quarter while up 3-0, the Saints made the decision to go for it on fourth down with one yard to gain on Philadelphia's 18-yard line, but running back Alvin Kamara was stopped short. Allen said he felt like it was the correct choice.

"I think where we were at in the game, I felt confident that we could gain a yard with two opportunities to do it," Allen said. "We had third-and-one, we had fourth-and-one and certainly when it doesn't work out, there's always room for people to question that decision, but we were playing this game to win and I felt like if we could get the first down there, we had a great shot at scoring a touchdown and you score a touchdown in a game like that and go up in that game, the way we would have gone up in that game, I just felt like that was the right decision."

Allen said that the Eagles' typical aggressiveness on fourth downs did not play much of a factor in the decision-making process on that play.

"That decision was really about when you get the ball down there in that area that close to the goal line and you've got it third and one and you got two shots at getting a yard," he said. "I have confidence in our football team to be able to do that. Now, we didn't do it and so and you lose a game by three points. It comes back to haunt you a little bit."

3. Explosive plays conceded

The Saints gave up two explosive plays that resulted in the Eagles scoring. The first was Saquon Barkley's 65-yard touchdown run with 13:27 left to go in the fourth quarter. Allen said the No. 1 thing the defense needs to do to prevent a play like that is "eliminate the space."

"I think we all would like for someone to be able to get the guy on the ground, but when you create that much space and you're having to make a tackle on a guy in that much space, that's a lot easier said than done," he said. "And so, I think, up front, we got to do a better job of making sure we fit it exactly right and eliminate the space and the defense. And when we've done that, we've done a good job of tackling and stopping the run. And when, you put a guy like Saquon Barkley, with that much field to work with, it's a tough assignment, a tough deal to do. So I think the first thing we got to do is we got to fit it up better up front."

Another explosive play happened with 1:16 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Saints, holding a 12-7 lead, backed Philadelphia up to a third-and-16, but Saints players collided while Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert ran a short crossing pattern, leading to a 61-yard catch-and-run that set the Eagles up at New Orleans 4-yard line. On the next play Barkley ran it in. Allen said the team was in man-to-man defense to try to contain Goedert, who finished with 10 receptions for 170 yards.

"That's the one the person that they wanted to throw the ball to and I wanted to try to take him away and we didn't we didn't play as well as we can," Allen said. "We ran into each other and it led to an explosive play. But look, I've been on both ends. I've been on the end where you play soft zone and people move the ball down the field on you and you get criticized for being in a prevent defense, and you get aggressive and it doesn't work, you get criticized for that. So, you just got to do what you think is the right thing to do. It didn't work out and that's the way the game ended."

Allen said there are techniques the defense uses to attempt to avoid collisions like the one that happened that left Goedert unguarded.

"A lot of offenses do things of that nature, picks, rubs, whatever you want to call them, and so there's certain techniques that you have to use to be able to deal with those things," he said. "Look, we, we didn't execute as well as we needed to and it cost us in that situation. Again, like I said earlier, we come in, we watch the tape, we make the corrections that we need to make. We learn from them and we move on."

4. Carl Granderson and Bryan Bresee standout

Two players who put up strong showings against the Eagles were defensive end Carl Granderson and defensive tackle Bryan Bresee. Bresee tallied two sacks against the Eagles while Granderson added 1.5 sacks, during one of which he forced a fumble that the Saints recovered, and five tackles (four solo).

"I think Carl continues to get better every single year. He just continues to work hard. He loves football. He comes in and works his tail off every single day. He's awesome to have around and he's playing at a at an extremely high level right now," Allen said. "I think Bryan Bresee's getting better inside. Certainly, you see the production from a sack and a pass rush standpoint, and yet I think he's gotten he's gotten better in terms of defending the run, and I think there's still a lot of growth to be had with that player. And so, I'm excited about what both of those guys have been able to do thus far."

5. On to Atlanta

There is no rest for the weary as the Saints head on a road trip for an NFC South matchup against the rival Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons added quarterback Kirk Cousins in free agency as well as bringing in a new head coach in Raheem Morris.

"It's going to be a big challenge going there to Atlanta and playing there at their stadium," Allen said. I certainly think they've upgraded the quarterback position from where they were. They've spent a lot of assets on acquiring skill players on offense and now I think they've got the quarterback to go along with it. I think they're playing well on defense. They're minimizing the scores, playing really good in the red zone. So, they've improved their football team and I think we've improved our football team too. And I think (Derek Carr and Kirk Cousins) probably don't get as much credit as they deserve and it'll be good to watch both them go out there and play on Sunday and I'm expecting Derek to play really well."

With the Falcons running a similar offensive scheme, Allen said the defense got its share of reps against it in training camp.

"We kind of understand how it works and yet all of them are uniquely different in terms of how they how they block things and how they operate," he said. "I do think Atlanta is really good up front. Obviously, they had a couple injuries in the game the other day and not sure exactly where that's going to fall, but I do think they block exceptionally well up front, in particular in the run game. And I think the runners are both good runners in their own way, (Tyler) Allgeier being a little bit more powerful, Bijan (Robinson) being a little bit more of the home-run hitter. And then they got some weapons outside with (Drake) London and (Kyle) Pitts, they can attack you outside and get the ball down the field. So, we'll have our work cut out for us."

Check out the game action shots from the New Orleans Saints game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 3 of the 2024 NFL Season on Sept. 22, 2024 in the Caesars Superdome.

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