Tag: Cowboys

Dennis Allen on the decision to not play Marshon Lattimore vs. Cowboys

Dennis Allen explains why Marshon Lattimore sat out Week 2 against the Dallas Cowboys, even though the New Orleans Saints corner pushed to play:

New Orleans Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore was a game-time decision against the Dallas Cowboys, and they ultimately didn’t play him — which didn’t keep the Saints from steamrolling the Cowboys in a 44-19 blowout.

The cornerback pulled up with a hamstring injury during the season opener with the Carolina Panthers, which caused him to miss the entirety of practice last week. It was reported Lattimore was pushing to play Sunday morning, and Dennis Allen confirmed this after the game. But Lattimore was held out via coach’s decision to prevent further injury. Allen admitted Lattimore was probably “a little pissed at him.”

What it ultimately came down to is the Saints don’t believe the hamstring issue to be long-lasting, and they want to keep it that way. Allen said he “Didn’t want to risk what we think might be potentially a one-week deal and all of a sudden we turn one week into four weeks.”

By Allen’s remarks and Lattimore’s heavy push to play, it feel as if the cornerback has a good chance to return to action against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 3. We’ll look out for him on this week’s injury report.

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Dennis Allen shares update on Taysom Hill’s chest injury

Dennis Allen shared an update on Taysom Hill’s chest injury during Monday’s press conference, but was short on details about what’s ailing him:

The New Orleans Saints have had some injury concerns the past few weeks with key players like Marshon Lattimore and Taliese Fuaga missing time at  practice, but they’ve fought their way to a 2-0 record in spite of it. However, the Saints did pick up another concerning injury in Week 2’s win over the Dallas Cowboys.

Taysom Hill had to visit a Dallas hospital for further evaluation after leaving the Cowboys game with a chest injury. Thankfully, he made the trip back to New Orleans with the team and initially, it seems to not be a major concern. Saints head coach Dennis Allen spoke on the injury in Monday’s press conference after Week 2.

“Taysom’s doing good, he feels good, and I don’t know if we’ve gotten all the results back on (the testing) he went and had some more imaging today,” Allen said. “I think we avoided anything real serious.”

When pressed by ESPN’s Katherine Terrell on whether Hill would have a more detailed listing on this week’s injury report, Allen declined to specify.

“We’re just gonna go with chest,” Allen responded. “That’s what it’s going to say on the injury report. He has a chest injury, it’s nothing that’s serious, and so he’ll be in the rehab process just like everybody else is and we’ll kind of go from there. Look I think sometimes there’s things that are precautionary, you want to make sure everything is okay, and so we went about whatever that normal medical procedure is and Taysom flew back with us on the plane, and he’s back with us today so we’re just monitoring throughout the week, see what he can do, see what he can’t do, and go from there.”

So things are trending in the right direction for Hill, though it’s too soon to say whether he’ll be available for Week 3’s home game with the Philadelphia Eagles. This is a positive sign that Hill stuck with the team and reported to the facility with them on Monday, and that Allen believes it is at this time an issue that could be viewed more as precautionary. We’ll just have to see how this situation develops during the week ahead.

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Saints’ win over the Cowboys displays a major shift for New Orleans

The Saints’ win over the Cowboys showcased real growth. Dennis Allen beat a good team, and Klint Kubiak has completely renovated this offense:

The 2024 rendition of the New Orleans Saints have already succeeded where last year’s team failed. They’ve defeated a good team by knocking out the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

When the Saints finally started to put it together at the end of 2023, they defeated the lowly Carolina Panthers and New York Giants. The following game was against the Los Angeles Rams, and everyone wanted to see the Saints find success against a better opponent. Sound familiar?

This was the same sentiment expressed before visiting the Cowboys. But this time they passed the test. Alvin Kamara built on top of a strong Week 1 performance, Derek Carr’s connection to Rashid Shaheed proved to still  be dangerous, and it’s safe to say Klint Kubiak has completely renovated this offense.

The offensive line stalled the Cowboys’ pass rush, and that was the place where it seemed Dallas had the biggest advantage on paper. Trevor Penning and Taliese Fuaga kept Carr clean against an elite pass rusher in Micah Parsons.

Rising to the occasion this week answered a lot of questions about the Saints, and it drew a clear line between this team and last year’s squad. The 2024 Saints can beat good teams. The sky just might be the limit for New Orleans.

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Alvin Kamara on his 57-yard TD catch: ‘It felt like a practice rep’

Alvin Kamara’s 57-yard touchdown was executed so well he compared the play to a practice rep. He gave credit to his Saints teammates and play caller Klint Kubiak:

New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara had a monster game against the Dallas Cowboys, and one of his highlights was taking a screen pass from Derek Carr 57 yards for a touchdown. After the game, Kamara reflected on how smoothly that play developed.

The running back began by giving credit to offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak for making the call “right on time.” Kamara said that because of the execution by all players involved, from the linemen to the wide receivers, “It felt like a practice rep.”

For Kamara, it was easy. Once the ball was in his hands, all he had to do was run to the end zone. Running over 50 yards with no one getting close to tackling you is a great indication of effective play calling. It was so easy Kamara “didn’t even have to run really.”

The Cowboys’ new defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer had no answer for Kamara and the Saints offense. That isn’t new for Zimmer. Kamara had arguably the best game of his career versus the Minnesota Vikings on Christmas Day 2020. That game featured 155 yards on the ground and 6 touchdowns, both career highs for Kamara.

That was the last time Kamara faced Zimmer. That’s 10 touchdowns in the last 2 games against a Zimmer defense. At least one of those touchdowns “felt like a practice rep” to Kamara.

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Visiting Saints spoiled Dallas Cowboys’ 16-game home win streak

Derek Carr and the visiting Saints spoiled the Cowboys’ 16-game home win streak. One of the last quarterbacks to beat them at home was calling the game for FOX:

The Dallas Cowboys were so close to greatness. Dak Prescott had quarterbacked his way into a 16-game win streak at home in the regular season, and one of the last passers to outduel him — Tom Brady, whose Tampa Bay Buccaneers won a too-close 2021 season opener in Dallas — was in the FOX Sports broadcast booth. All the Cowboys needed was two more wins at home to tie their franchise record.

So it’s fitting that the New Orleans Saints cut them off at 16. And they didn’t waste much time doing it. A methodical opening touchdown drive was followed up with another strike, and then more, and more, and more. Before they knew what had happened the Cowboys had fallen into a sunken place and could only look up at themselves sitting on their bench, projected on a 160-foot video screen. It was a miserable cycle.

But not for the Saints. Gone are the days where the Saints are seen as a team that can’t win outside New Orleans. They’ve beaten opponents on the road like the Cowboys in Dallas and the Cleveland Browns in frozen-solid Ohio. And on Sunday they reveled in their victory and celebrated it in the streets and all the way back to New Orleans.

Whether you agreed that the Cowboys were Super Bowl contenders or not, they were a quality opponent, and this was a quality win for the Saints. So take some time and enjoy it before the next challenge appears next Sunday.

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Dennis Allen got back to .500 as head coach of the Saints

Dennis Allen got back to .500 as head coach of the New Orleans Saints. One more victory and he’ll have his best-ever win streak:

Dennis Allen’s team improved to 2-0 on Sunday, which means his record as head coach of the New Orleans Saints climbed up to 18-18. He’s back to .500 after a rough start to his tenure left him at 7-10 in his first year on the job. One more victory and Allen will be 3-0 this season, with the longest win streak of his coaching career.

If you want to be technical (and who doesn’t?), Allen is already there. His Saints beat the brakes off the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in  the final two weeks of the 2023 regular season, so you could argue he’s actually won four in a row. And for the sake of argument we’ll fight back against that.

Winning three games in three weeks would be much more impressive than stretching that streak across two different seasons, especially when you consider that it’s another playoff team lining up across from the Saints next Sunday. The Philadelphia Eagles just had a laugh at their division rivals’ expense, and you can bet they don’t want to get clowned on SportsCenter like the Dallas Cowboys are right now. They’ll give the Saints their best shot.

Knowing that, it would have to be even more satisfying for Allen to see his team pluck those Eagles out of the sky. A 3-0 start would be the best of his career. He’s been over .500 before with the Saints (they started 2-0 last season, too, and got ahead by a single win on three different occasions). But he’s never been three games ahead. If he can keep this positive momentum going, it would do a lot to push back against the narratives that have trailed him since his ugly 8-28 run with the Raiders all those years ago.

The challenge is clear. So are the stakes. And so is the opponent. It’s a new week. Let’s see if Allen’s team can get the job done.

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97% of experts picked the wrong team in Saints vs. Cowboys

Nobody’s perfect, but it’s shocking for so many people to be so wrong about this. 97% of experts picked the wrong team in Saints vs. Cowboys:

Nobody’s perfect, but it’s shocking for so many people to be so wrong about this. According to surveying conducted by NFL Pickwatch before kickoff on Sunday morning, 97% of experts picked the wrong team in Week 2’s New Orleans Saints versus Dallas Cowboys game. The Saints won instead, 44-19.

But it’s easy to see why there was so much confidence backing Dallas from neutral observers. The Cowboys were returning from last year’s playoffs and the Saints weren’t. Dallas was riding a 16-game win streak at home — one of the last quarterbacks to beat them inside AT&T Stadium in the regular season, Tom Brady, was on the FOX Sports broadcast for this game. The Cowboys were the easy pick here.

It goes to show you that the easy choice isn’t always the correct one. Many folks watching from home wrote off the Saints’ big Week 1 win because it happened against the lowly Carolina Panthers. We’re guessing it’ll be tough to write off this one now that the Cowboys team many of those viewers picked to win the Super Bowl got embarrassed just as badly as Carolina.

So what does that mean for the Saints? Expectations are higher now. They can’t rest on their laurels and take it easy from here. Every team left on their schedule is going to hope they aren’t the ones Alvin Kamara is breaking another record against, or that Tyrann Mathieu won’t be picking off their quarterback. Nobody wants to see Derek Carr strutting around their end zone. It’s on the Saints to make all those things happen anyway and continue winning over their doubters.

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Taysom Hill released from hospital, traveled back to New Orleans

New Orleans Saints tight end Taysom Hill returned home after visiting a hospital on Sunday for evaluation on his chest injury:

Let’s focus on the good news. New Orleans Saints tight end Taysom Hill returned home from visiting a hospital on Sunday for evaluation on a chest injury he sustained in his team’s win over the Dallas Cowboys. And NewOrleans.Football’s Mike Triplett reports that Hill joined his teammates on their flight back, too, which suggests he avoided something truly serious like a collapsed lung.

That would line up with how Saints head coach Dennis Allen characterized his hospital visit after the game, saying that it was more a precautionary measure than some sort of emergency. Still, we’re short on details, and we may not get more clarity until the injury report is posted this Wednesday.

So stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. There’s a wide range of possibilities here — a fractured rib, torn pectoral muscle, or something else — but many chest injuries are easily diagnosable on the field or in the stadium’s X-ray room. Let’s try to limit speculation until details emerge. Hill is a critically important piece of the Saints offense even when he isn’t touching the football himself and it would be a big blow for him to miss much time.

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New Orleans Saints fans take over Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium

New Orleans Saints fans took over AT&T Stadium on Sunday, parading out of the arena with a second line after their win over the Dallas Cowboys:

New Orleans Saints fans had a strong presence at AT&T Stadium on Sunday, with audible “Who Dat” chants carrying over the FOX Sports broadcast in-between  their team’s big plays. And afterwards, Dallas Cowboys media caught sight of Saints fans marching out of the arena with a second line after their win on the road.

That’s an impressive sight — a river of black and gold jerseys complete with festive umbrellas and what certainly appears to be a trombone and a couple of sousaphones.

Natural geography has made Dallas a popular destination for Saints fans looking catch a road game without traveling too far from Louisiana; it’s a short flight or a manageable drive across state lines for many of them, and they clearly had a good time. A historic scoring output and lockdown defense will do that. We’re guessing this wasn’t the home opener Cowboys fans had in mind.

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Taysom Hill (chest) taken to Dallas hospital for further evaluation

Saints head coach Dennis Allen said Taysom Hill was taken to a hospital for further evaluation after suffering a chest injury in their win over the Cowboys:

One key member of the New Orleans Saints wasn’t celebrating in the locker room after they beat the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Saints head coach Dennis Allen said Taysom Hill was taken to a local hospital for further evaluation after suffering a chest injury in their win over the Cowboys.

“Taysom had a chest injury,” Allen said. “I think they took him for some extra evaluations, so he went to the hospital to be evaluated further. I think more precautionary, but we’ll see how that goes.”

Allen was short on details when pressed for clarity on Hill’s condition: “I just know chest injury, and they wanted to make sure that they went in and evaluated it further. Maybe some imaging.”

Hopefully it isn’t too serious, but it’s worth dialing in any time a player needs to visit the hospital with an injury. We’ll share an update on his status as soon as it becomes available.

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