New Orleans Saints Coach Dennis Allen
Opening Statement:
"Obviously, a very disappointing loss. You have to give those guys credit. They came in and had a good gameplan against us. They made it difficult for us, really in all phases. That is a good team that we played and they were the better team tonight."
On if he considered making a change at quarterback:
"No, I didn't. There's a lot that wasn't good offensively tonight. There was a lot more to it than (the quarterback)."
On the lack of touches Taysom Hill received early in short yardage situations:
"No, look, just like everything else, you have a gameplan. You have some plays that you like and certainly when they don't work, everyone's going to wonder why you did what you did. Look, they beat us tonight. They beat us in a lot of different areas."
On the physicality of the Baltimore defensive front:
"Yeah, I think that obviously, they did a great job stopping the run. We struggled to run the ball. They got their hands up, batting down a lot of passes. They had some nice pressure packages, and they were able to get to the quarterback. They did a lot of good things defensively that gave us a lot of challenges. We've got to go back to the drawing board, make some corrections, and be better next week."
On if Baltimore was the most physical team they've faced all year:
"Yes. This was a physical football team, and we knew that going in."
On the challenges of facing a dual-threat quarterback in Lamar Jackson:
"Well look, there's a lot of challenges that go along with it. I was just in there visiting with Mickey (Loomis) and I knew the first question that we were going to get was about the run game. I think they had about 40 minutes in time of possession. If you allow that type of run game to stay on the field for 40 minutes, you are going to give up some rushing yards. I thought we did a pretty good job in the first half of minimizing (the run game). I thought as the game went on, that's where you saw some more bigger and explosive runs."
On the lack of running game affecting the offensive gameplan:
"Yeah, it makes it more challenging. Any time you get into a position where you can't run the football and you've got to just go throw it, it makes it challenging. Having the ability to keep the defense off balance is an important part of what we do."
On Lamar Jackson's running ability affecting the defense on the first touchdown:
"Yeah, I think all of those things they're able to do makes it challenging (on the defense). You've got to get a bunch of heads to the ball. They did a nice job of executing there."
On the ability of Baltimore controlling the ball and how it was affecting the defensive play-calling in the game:
"Obviously, the time of possession is a factor of all phases of the game. We did not do a good enough job on third down in either aspect, offensively or defensively. That's what really led to their time of possession advantage. We talk about that being a critical part of the game, being able to convert third downs on offense and staying efficient. Defensively, being able to get off the field, we didn't do that well enough."
On the performance affecting Andy Dalton's status as the starter:
"No. I think over the last five weeks, (he) has been pretty good in moving the football effectively. This wasn't a good game tonight. So, we'll evaluate as we move forward, but I'm looking at this as a bad day at the office offensively. We've got to improve from it."
On injury updates for Erik McCoy or Pete Werner:
"No, I don't have any updates right now."
Quarterback Andy Dalton
On the difficulty on offense:
"At the end of the day, we got beat today. They deserved to win this one. They had a good plan going in. For us, we've got to find ways to hold up in protection; got to find ways to get the ball out of my hands. Guys have to be open on time."
On how a lack of a running game affected the offensive production:
"When you've got a team like this that has the different pressure packages that they've got, when you get into these third and long situations, you kind of pin your ears back and rush the passer and different things. So, we made it hard on ourselves because we weren't able to run the ball."
On if it is possible for the team to forget about the loss and move forward:
"No, you have got to look at it (this game) and see what areas you need to improve (and) what things we need to correct, for everybody. Everybody, kind of, had a hand in it tonight. So, we've got to look at it and see what changes we need to get better at. We've got to get better quick. We have a short week this week."
On if the Ravens did anything different than what the Saints saw on film:
"At the end of the day, they (Ravens) did a good job with their plan. I think, for us, we need to find more plays to make more plays than what we did tonight. We've just got to be good on offense."
On the Ravens winning the time of possession, limiting the times the Saints had the ball:
"I don't know what the time of possession was, but I know that they definitely had that one tonight. You've got to find ways to convert on third down. You've got to find ways to keep moving the chains. We weren't able to do that tonight."
On the Baltimore defense deflecting passes:
"I've played Baltimore a lot. And, it's always been part of their thing. If they are not getting to the quarterback, they get their hands up. There are some big guys in their front that have long arms. It's unfortunate that that happened."
