Tag: postgame

WATCH: Dennis Allen addresses the victorious Saints locker room after Week 17

WATCH: Dennis Allen addresses the victorious Saints locker room after Week 17 vs. Buccaneers

It’s not often we get a look inside the New Orleans Saints locker room, but the team shared head coach Dennis Allen’s postgame speech after beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. Allen gathered the team around and praised their effort in practice before handing the microphone over to Demario Davis.

And Davis brought in his own special guest: veteran safety Johnathan Abram, who got the starting nod at free safety while rookie draft pick Jordan Howden was dealing with an illness. And Abram’s words were powerful.

Abram thanked his teammates for their support in a big spot and urged them to keep perspective about what’s next: competing for a win in the regular season finale. He acknowledged that the playoffs are still just out of grasp but made it clear he’s going to push to reach the postseason, and by all accounts that’s something the locker room can agree on.

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Bucs coach Todd Bowles decries team’s effort vs. Saints

Bucs coach Todd Bowles decried his team’s effort in their loss to the Saints, saying they couldn’t have beaten “a high school team”

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were heavily picked to beat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, but things didn’t go their way — and Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles put much of the loss on his team’s lack of effort. The Saints won 23-13, and if not for a garbage time touchdown pass it wouldn’t have been even that close.

“If wouldn’t have mattered if we had played a good team, a bad team, a college team or a high school team, we wouldn’t have won the game with the way we played today,” Bowles said bluntly after the game when discussing the loss with reporters.

Both teams took the field from wildly different circumstances; Tampa Bay had won four games in a row while the Saints were coming off an embarrassing loss in prime time last week. But none of that mattered after kickoff. The Saints brought more intensity and played with greater urgency, and that made the difference.

Is it enough to get them to the playoffs? No, but it’s a good start. The Saints tripped themselves up too often early in the year. Now they’re in a position where they’ll need help from other teams to go the distance and clinch a playoff berth. But it all starts by beating the Bucs, which they did, and rallying in the regular season finale with a win over the Atlanta Falcons. As Allen has been telling the team each week, all they can do is control what they can control.

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WATCH: Dennis Allen addresses Saints locker room after their win over the Colts

WATCH: Dennis Allen addresses Saints locker room after their win over the Colts

It’s always good to see a victorious New Orleans Saints locker room. The team shared a look into their postgame celebrations after Sunday’s win over the Indianapolis Colts, including a speech from head coach Dennis Allen.

“Congratulations to everybody in this room. That was a good team that we played,” Allen said, pacing the room. “And that was a good team win that we had. And everything didn’t go exactly like we wanted it to all the time. We had to overcome a little bit of adversity at times. But that’s what good teams do. They overcome adversity when it hits.”

And the Saints did that. They overcame a 10-point deficit in the second quarter for the first time this season and just the second time with Allen at head coach; in eight other games, that proved enough to knock them out. Hopefully it’s the start of an upswing for them.

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WATCH: Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes address Chiefs after gritty win vs. Jets

See what Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes had to say after the #Chiefs’ Week 4 win over the #Jets on Sunday.

The Kansas City Chiefs won their Week 4 matchup against the New York Jets by a three-point margin, after jumping out to a huge lead early in the game. Despite the close result at the final whistle, Kansas City improved its record to 3-1 to start the 2023 season and is tied for the top spot in the AFC heading into Week 5.

Video of Andy Reid’s message to the Chiefs after Sunday’s game was shared on Twitter yesterday, and gave fans an inside look into how the veteran head coach runs his team.

While Reid may not have been overly enthusiastic in his assessment of Kansas City’s performance, he did give credit to his players for keeping their wits about them in the grind-it-out win.

Patrick Mahomes also got involved after Reid’s comments, apologizing to his teammates for a less-than-stellar primetime performance.

With any luck, the addresses given by Reid and Mahomes will be more enthusiastic and excited next week as the Chiefs seek to secure their fourth win against the Minnesota Vikings.

WATCH: Dennis Allen addresses the Saints locker room after preseason win vs. Chargers

WATCH: Dennis Allen addresses the Saints locker room after preseason win vs. Chargers

There haven’t been many wins to start Dennis Allen’s run as head coach of the New Orleans Saints — so it’s good to see him taking a well-earned victory lap with his players after their second consecutive preseason victory. Derek Carr wasn’t leading his offense, and veteran backup Jameis Winston only had command for the first half. His handpicked rookie quarterback Jake Haener sealed it in the second half.

Sure, it’s just an exhibition game. But don’t for a second think the players in that locker room and the coaches on the sideline aren’t itching for a win. They’ll take their victories where they can and celebrate accordingly. Let’s hope the wins continue into the regular season so the Saints can get back to the playoffs.

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Marcus Freeman recaps Notre Dame’s incredible Gator Bowl win

What a span of 364 days its been for Marcus Freeman and the Notre Dame football program. Whew!

Notre Dame football started the 2022 calendar year by getting a commitment from safety Peyton Bowen in the 2023 class. A few hours later the Irish jumped to a 28-7 first-half lead on Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl.

We all remember how that game ended. And mega-recruit Peyton Bowen’s recruitment, which wound up with him signing with Oklahoma, will not soon be forgotten by anyone.

It’s safe to say now 363 days later that Marcus Freeman has experienced quite a bit leading the Irish as their head coach in one year. Huge ups and massive lows were just some of the stories of 2022.

After Notre Dame’s incredibly entertaining 45-38 victory over South Carolina in the Gator Bowl, Freeman met the media to recap the game and season. Here are some of the key things he had to say.

WATCH: Dennis Allen awards game balls to the Saints equipment staff

WATCH: Dennis Allen awarded game balls to the Saints equipment staff after an all-in effort vs. Browns

Here’s a shoutout to some of the New Orleans Saints’ unsung heroes. Head coach Dennis Allen addressed the team after their win against the Cleveland Browns on Saturday, announcing that he was awarding the equipment staff with game balls for their efforts in preparing them for a rare cold-weather game.

Nola.com’s Jeff Duncan reports that head equipment manager John Baumgartner and his staff were responsible for supplying the team with hundreds of hand warmers, thermal undersuits, and specialized heated vests for coaches on the sidelines, among other cold-weather gear. Scrambling to acquire all of that and have everything ready in time for an early kickoff on a short week is impressive, and it helped the Saints stay focused and execute in Cleveland. Good on them.

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What the Saints are saying after their dramatic Week 15 win over the Falcons

What the Saints are saying after their dramatic Week 15 win over the Falcons: Quotes from Dennis Allen, Andy Dalton, Juwan Johnson and their teammates

The New Orleans Saints came away with a much-needed win on Sunday against the division-rival Atlanta Falcons, and we’ve got the latest from postgame press conferences. Here’s what head coach Dennis Allen, quarterback Andy Dalton, tight end Juwan Johnson, and their teammates are saying after exiting Week 15 with a win:

Texans mark fifth game with multiple takeaways in loss to Browns

The #Texans continue to take losses despite forcing turnovers at a high rate

The Houston Texans’ loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 13 was a frustrating affair, especially given that it constituted their 10th defeat of the season at the hands of their former quarterback. The 13-point margin that ultimately doomed their efforts was indicative of how they’ve squandered opportunities at every turn in 2022, and though they fought hard to the bitter end, Houston remains the league’s most inept team, unable to secure victory at any cost.

Perhaps the only thing that went right for them in the matchup was their ability to force turnovers, which kept the game from getting completely out of hand. Rookie safety Jalen Pitre turned out an admirable performance, snagging his third interception of the season and combining for 16 total tackles in what should be considered his breakout performance.

Likewise, defensive back Demond King II managed to recover a fumble in the game, helping to mark the fifth time that the Texans have forced multiple turnovers this season. Usually, multi-turnover games are considered a rarity, but it seems that when opponents have played against Houston this season, all normal customs and tendencies go out the window.

The most frustrating reality of this milestone is the fact that the Texans can put together a competent defensive gameplan that would normally result in a positive outcome, but the ineptitude of their offense is an insurmountable obstacle that the team just cannot seem to overcome to get a win.

At this rate, Houston will finish the season with one win and a tie to show for their efforts and will lose no less than 14 games en route to securing themselves the first-overall pick in April’s draft. Ostensibly, they’d use that selection to take their pick of the 2023 quarterback class, but it seems that whomever they choose will be up against the gun from day one as they battle the team’s overall incompetence in what is sure to be a whirlwind rookie season.

Brandin Cooks praises Davis Mills’ poise in the second half vs. Giants

Cooks went out of his way to praise Davis Mills in his comments to reporters after the #Texans’ loss to the #Giants on Sunday

The Houston Texans’ seventh loss of the season was a particularly frustrating affair as the team squandered every opportunity to get a win over a highly touted opponent that gave them every chance to make a second-half comeback. A final score of 16-24 in favor of the New York Giants was indicative of how close the Texans came to securing their second win of the season, which could have sparked a shift of momentum in the team’s culture, which has been in the gutter so far this season.

Veteran wide receiver Brandin Cooks has been the figurehead of the dysfunction within the organization this year and sat out last week’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles due to a “personal” issue following a social media outburst when Houston failed to move him at the trade deadline.

Cooks has made it clear that he has no desire to play for a losing team, and was stripped of his captainship ahead of the matchup against the Giants on Sunday. Despite the drama, he still found time to praise quarterback Davis Mills for his play.

“I think he came out in that second half and played with poise,” Cooks said. “[He] didn’t try to press anything and was just making plays like we know he can and guys were stepping up and making plays for him. We just have to be able to do that for him collectively from the start.”

Mills was able to throw for more than 300 yards in the effort and even found Cooks open in the end zone on a play that would be called back due to a penalty. The chemistry the duo found earlier in the season seems to have returned, even if only for one week, and with more practice the quarterback and receiver could be back to old form before the season draws to a close.