Saints focusing on finish after consecutive close losses

New Orleans is 2-2 entering next Monday’s game against the Chiefs

Sep 30, 2024 at 04:01 PM

John DeShazier

Senior Writer

CP-Dennis-Allen-Saints-Falcons-Week-4-092924

It's a fact that the New Orleans Saints have stacked noticeably more positive tape than negative during the first quarter of the season.

It's just as much a fact that despite that, they're 2-2 entering next Monday's game against the Chiefs (4-0) at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., having lost two straight gut-wrenchers that very easily could have gone their way.

In 15-12 and 26-24 losses to Philadelphia and Atlanta, respectively, the Saints had leads with 2:03 and 60 seconds remaining but were unable to prevent a game-winning touchdown (Eagles) and field goal (Falcons).

"I think we need to put ourselves in position to win games and figure out how to close them out and how to finish them," Coach Dennis Allen said Monday.

"That's what we haven't done a good enough job of doing, so we, collectively – players, coaches, everybody – we have to do a better job when we put ourselves in those situations of being able to make the right the right call, the right play, the whatever the case may be, to win in those situations.

"(Against Philadelphia) I don't know that we played good enough to win, and yet we put ourselves in a position that we had an opportunity to. (Against Atlanta), I felt like we played good enough to win in a lot of areas and still came away with a loss. That was frustrating."

New Orleans was its own worst enemy in each, glaringly so against Atlanta.

The Falcons scored touchdowns on a fumble recovery off a muffed punt and an interception return, and kicked four field goals.

"I felt like there was a number of things that we did well, and yet we've got to find a way to make the plays at the end of the game to give ourselves an opportunity to win," Allen said. "You can't spot your opponent 14 points in a tightly contested game and expect to win."

Allen said the Saints can expect more close games, which makes it imperative that the team figure out how to close better.

On the defensive play where cornerback Paulson Adebo picked up a 30-yard pass interference penalty that helped set up Atlanta's game-winning field goal, Allen said New Orleans was playing zone.

"There are certain times that it puts you in a little bit more of a one-on-one type of deal," he said. "I don't get into the deal of should you be in man, should you be in zone, should you be in whatever. When it doesn't work out then you should have done the opposite of what you did, and when it works out then that's what you should have done.

"We played that game and didn't allow a touchdown defensively. So there was a lot of things that we did well. And so, I don't think you go into the last two minutes and say, 'All that stuff that we just go through doing, let's throw all that stuff out. Let's change and do something different.'

"We're going to play defense the way that we play defense. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't – I think over the course of time it's been pretty successful. But these last couple of games haven't been as good as we needed them to be."

LEMIEUX AT CENTER: Shane Lemieux took his first NFL game snaps at center Sunday, and Allen said Lemieux and the line held up well. When center Erik McCoy was injured against the Eagles, left guard Lucas Patrick shifted to center but going with Lemieux allowed the least amount of disruption.

"It kind of gets back to if you move Lucas inside, well now you're moving Lucas inside (and) you're already making one change at guard, you'd have to make another change at guard," Allen said. "There's just a lot of moving parts that go along with that. We felt like that was the best five that gave us the best chance to have success. And it wasn't perfect (Sunday) but I thought overall, it was a solid performance by our offensive line."

TAYSOM PROTECTION: Tight end Taysom Hill missed the Eagles game with a chest injury, and left the Falcons game with an abdominal injury after rushing for 24 yards and two touchdowns on six carries. Allen said the team will monitor Hill's usage.

"I think we've got to keep that in mind, and I think I've said that the last couple of years," he said. "We're talking about a guy that, he's had some injuries in the past and he's still an effective player. So I think we've got to be mindful as to how many times we're running him into the briar patch."

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Check out the game action shots from the New Orleans Saints game against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 4 of the 2024 NFL Season on Sept. 29, 2024 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.