Tag: blowout

Dennis Allen has already lost the Saints locker room

It’s bizarre to say this after a blowout win, but the lack of respect between Dennis Allen and his players makes it clear: he’s lost this locker room

This is an atrocious look for Dennis Allen: the New Orleans Saints head coach led his team to a blowout win over the division-rival Atlanta Falcons on Sunday to end the 2023 regular season, but he undercut himself afterwards by apologizing for all the fun his team was having. Instead of reveling in a victory of a hated nemesis, Allen was busy apologizing to his opponents and calling out his players for insubordination.

Respect is a two-way street. It has to be earned. When Jameis Winston and the Saints offensive line chose to override Allen’s directive to kneel out the clock and get their teammate his first touchdown of the year, it’s a direct reflection on the lack of respect they have for Allen — and how little he’s done to earn their respect in turn.

This is a wildly revealing moment. As former Saints tight end Benjamin Watson observed on social media, “If your players or assistant coaches don’t run the plays you call, you’ve already lost your team. If you’re comfortable enough to tell the world about it, there’s no turning back.”

Maybe Allen believes he’ll recover that lost standing in the offseason by cutting vocal players like Winston and Michael Thomas while trading Marshon Lattimore (and, maybe, Alvin Kamara). But it’s all just a delaying action. They know who he is. He’s going to get exposed next year against a tougher schedule. Other players are going to speak up and challenge him and the cycle will repeat until there isn’t anyone left. There’s a vacuum of leadership at the top of this organization.

Leave it to Dennis Allen to spoil what should have been a celebratory blowout win to usher in the offseason.

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The Raiders broke a surprising record set by the Saints in Thursday night’s blowout

Interim Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce broke a surprising record set by the Joe Vitt-led Saints in Thursday night’s blowout:

You won’t find many scores more lopsided than the final tally from Thursday night’s game — and the history books spell it out. The Las Vegas Raiders destroyed the Los Angeles Chargers by a margin of 63-21, breaking a record that was, surprisingly, set by the New Orleans Saints.

That’s because the Raiders are led by interim head coach Antonio Pierce, who took over earlier this season. Pierce’s 42-point margin of victory is the biggest win by an interim head coach since the league merger in 1970, surpassing the 41-0 shutout that the Saints pitched when Joe Vitt was their interim coach back in 2012.

It isn’t the biggest win by an interim coach in pro football history, though. As noted by CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones, Chicago Bears interim coach Hunk Anderson and Luke Johnsos logged a 47-0 win against the Cleveland Rams way back in 1942. How’s that for a stat?

But this Raiders win does surpass the Saints’ blowout in 2012. And it’s just the tenth time sine 1970 that a team has scored more than 60 points in a game, as observed by Yahoo Sports’ Charles McDonald. The Miami Dolphins put up 70 points on Sean Payton’s Denver Broncos earlier this season.

The last time before that, Payton was on the other end of it (and so was Vitt, the current Broncos senior defensive assistant) when his Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 62-7 more than a decade ago in 2011. It’s funny how these things are all interconnected.

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No. 3 Louisville routs Notre Dame

Sometimes its just not your day.

LOUISVILLE – Sometimes the shots simply won’t fall and that was the case for the No. 18/19 Notre Dame women’s basketball team (19-6, 10-4) on Sunday against the No. 3/3 ranked Louisville Cardinals (22-2, 13-1). The Fighting Irish were a cold 2-of-22 from three-point range and shot 31.7 percent overall, resulting in a 73-47 loss inside the KFC Yum! Center.

Both of Notre Dame’s freshmen finished in double figures as Sonia Citron led with 13 points on 6-of-17 shooting. The New York native also reeled in six rebounds. Next, Olivia Miles totaled 11 points.

Meanwhile, Maddy Westbeld was close to a double-double, finishing with 10 points and eight rebounds. It marked her third straight game in double figures. Maya Dodson was close as well, posting eight points and nine boards.

The Irish already had a shortened bench heading into Sunday and that problem grew during the game, as Sam Brunelle exited near the end of the first with a shoulder injury. That left the Irish with six healthy players for three quarters of the game.

How It Happened

Notre Dame had several open looks from beyond the arc to start the game but just couldn’t get the shots to fall. Despite the fact, it was just 8-7 Louisville at the 4:18 media timeout. The Irish later fired off a fast 6-0 run over 61 seconds, primarily thanks to four straight points from Sam Brunelle. Ultimately Notre Dame closed the opening quarter down one at 14-13, with Miles leading the way with five points.

A Westbeld layup at 4:51 kept it a one-possession game, down 21-19; however, that’s when the game took a turn for the worse for the Irish. Dodson had to go to the bench with two fouls, meaning no subs for the Irish. The Cardinals then finished the quarter on an 11-2 scoring spree to claim a 32-21 lead at the break.

At the midway point, Notre Dame was just 1-of-14 from beyond the arc. Overall, they were shooting 10-of-37 (27 percent) compared to Louisville’s 13-of-33 (39.4 percent).

The floodgates opened up a bit in the third as Louisville built its largest lead of the game at 52-25 at 4:26. Citron was the bright spot in the quarter, recording nine points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field, to spur Notre Dame to 16 points in the period. Louisville then outpaced ND, 15-10, in the fourth to bring it to the final score.

Up Next

The Fighting Irish will have another big test on the road in the form of No. 11 Georgia Tech. That matchup is slated for Thursday, Feb. 17, at 8 p.m. ET in Atlanta. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network.