It’s starting to feel like we’re piling on Dennis Allen, but the New Orleans Saints head coach isn’t doing himself any favors with more perplexing decisions and off-putting quotes in his press conferences. On Friday, Allen told local media that he’s sent players home for the weekend after a Thursday night loss to the Arizona Cardinals, opting to give them time to heal up and recharge before returning to a normal workweek on Monday.
Is that really the right call after a 2-5 start to the season, in which the Saints have lost multiple games to self-inflicted wounds? Missed tackles, penalties, turnovers, dropped passes, and gaffes in run defense discipline have defined the first few months of Allen’s tenure.
Allen did say that his players’ health is a priority, and it makes sense to take it easier on guys managing injuries: six starters and last year’s first round draft pick were banged up and unavailable against Arizona, with a couple of other players exiting the game with new injuries. But even if the Saints are down 8 or 9 players who can’t practice right now, there are still 60 other guys on the active roster and practice squad who need those reps. Instead of working on their craft with their coaches they’ll be training alone or kicking it at the house with their family and friends.
Time is running out. There is a lot to clean up, sure, but this can’t be stressed enough: the Saints only have 10 games left on their schedule, and if they go .500 from here on out (something they haven’t been able to manage) they’ll end up with a 7-10 record. So when Allen steps up to the podium and mouths off with something like “I think we all live in a microwave society where we want to see things changed right way,” while adding there’s no “magic pill or formula” that could change things overnight, it reads like a tell: he and his staff didn’t put enough work in from the first place, and now they’re reaping what they’ve sewn.
What message is this sending, exactly? When previously asked how the team was practicing accountability with so many things going the wrong way, Allen downplayed the criticism without offering an answer. If he isn’t changing the coaches calling plays or adjusting the lineup to take players liable for negative plays off the field, and instead giving everyone three days off after another mistake-filled loss, then how is anyone being held accountable?
The word we keep coming back to is lackadaisical. It means careless, lazy, unenthusiastic, and lacking determination, and that lines up with what we’ve seen from Allen’s team this year. They opened training camp at a low intensity level, and now that the chips are down and we’re almost halfway into the season, there still isn’t any sense of urgency surrounding the team. For what feels like the millionth time we’re saying this, they must get to work in a hurry and clean up those mistakes. That’s hard to do when you’re choosing to send everyone home after losing five of your first seven games.
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