The New Orleans Saints played another frustrating game on Sunday, squandering a late lead and giving too many opportunities to their opponents to make a big play. That’s become a concerning pattern during Dennis Allen’s tenure as their head coach.
You could argue the defense did its job by not allowing a single touchdown to be scored by the Atlanta offense, even if they had other flaws under the hood — a leaky run defense and too many penalties in pass coverage, among others. But at the end of day most teams would expect to win after scoring 24 or more points without allowing any touchdowns by the opposing offense.
After all, teams that hit those benchmarks hadn’t lost those games since 1983. And the team that did it last? The Saints themselves, coached by Bum Phillips, in their regular season finale. The visiting Los Angeles Rams scored a safety, a 72-yard punt return touchdown, a 31-yard pick-six, a 43-yard pick-six, and a 42-yard field goal for a combined 26 points. The Saints themselves managed just 24 points in that loss.
Sound familiar? Just like we saw from Dennis Allen’s team, the Phillips-coached Saints couldn’t get out of their own way. Their exciting 2-0 start is well behind them now. Allen must figure out how to get out of this slump at 2-2 and knock out the two-time Super Bowl champs next Monday night. If he can’t, they might fall too far behind in the NFC South title race to pick themselves back up.
