Louisiana is bracing for possible effects this week of Tropical Storm Francine, which is expected to make landfall in Louisiana as a hurricane on Wednesday night.
The New Orleans Saints are all too familiar with making plans around the possibility of hurricane impact, last having done so prior to the 2021 season. Then, the franchise moved football operations to Dallas-Fort Worth to prepare for the season opener before Hurricane Ida made landfall.
The Saints played their home opener in Jacksonville, Fla., against Green Bay, then road games against Carolina and New England before returning to New Orleans to play the Giants in the Caesars Superdome in Week 4, on Oct. 3, 2021.
Sunday's game is on the road against the Cowboys, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
"Like everybody else in the city, we're monitoring it," Coach Dennis Allen said. "We'll make plans accordingly. We're going to meet (Monday) afternoon and see what kind of plans we need to make, and then we'll go from there. I think we probably do this better than anybody else in the National Football League, so we'll figure it out."
AK IS A-OK: Running back Alvin Kamara was one of the offensive stars against Carolina in the season-opening 47-10 victory, with 110 yards from scrimmage, including 83 rushing yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.
Despite his desire for a contract extension, Kamara reported on time to training camp and only missed time due to a tight back; otherwise, the eight-year veteran has been present, engaged and energized.
"Alvin has been outstanding," Allen said, after watching Kamara post his highest rushing total since he gained 107 yards against Carolina in the 2022 regular-season finale, and his highest per-carry average since he popped for 7.05 yards on 22 attempts against Minnesota on Christmas Day in 2020, when he tied the NFL single-game record with six rushing touchdowns.
"He showed up, came to work every day," Allen said. "He's been a real pro about handling his business. And look, we know that contracts are part of what we deal with in the NFL. He's kind of put that to the side and just focused on the things that he can control, and that's how he goes out and plays the game.
"He's been great, I thought he was awesome in the game. I thought he ran the ball hard, thought he ran the ball effectively, running the plays the way they were designed to be run. We saw Alvin has still got the ability to be a really good player for us."
RUN FUN: New Orleans totaled 180 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 37 carries against the Panthers, with the run game being as effective as coaches had hoped it would be.
The catalyst was an offensive line that featured three new starters and had a banner day.
"You've got to look at everything in the totality of what we were able to do," Allen said. "When you run the ball like that, when you're able to be effective throwing the ball and your quarterback doesn't get hit much, and you put points up on the board like that, you can't do that and have your offensive line not play well. So, I thought those guys played well, and yet, we'll have a much stiffer test this weekend.
"Our guys did a great job targeting in the run game. I think that was probably one of the better things that we did. We got on the right people and I think that's part of it. And (Carolina has) got some different defensive structures that can make that challenging at times.
"And then I thought we did a good job of kind of re-establishing the line of scrimmage. We were able to get some movement on the line of scrimmage, create space in the defense. The enemy of great run defense is space, so we're trying to create as much of it as we can offensively and we're trying to eliminate as much of it as we can defensively."
