As backhanded complements go, this one’s a doozy. So let’s start with the positives: New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen knocked off the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday to exit Week 15 with a win. Now to take our medicine, and it’s a bitter pill: Allen is 5-9 after Week 15, having lost nearly twice as many games as he’s won. That’s also a new career-high for Allen as a head coach in the NFL.
Allen never finished better than 4-12 as the Raiders head coach early in his career, so 5 wins this year with the Saints is the highest win total he’s ever achieved. This was also his 50th game as a head coach, and his 13th win. It raises his career winning percentage to .260.
He is who his record says he is: a coach whose teams play unambitious, sloppy football, and who can’t get out of their own way. His poor management gave the Falcons a chance at the end of Sunday’s game by throwing Taysom Hill into a situation he wasn’t prepared for, but they got away with it this time. That hasn’t been the case often enough this year or in Allen’s past time as a head coach. He’s lost 37 of 50 games as a head coach.
There’s no shame in admitting that some coaches are at their best working as a coordinator rather than leading the program from the top. The only shame involved is waiting too long to admit that. Even if Allen’s team wins out to end the year at 8-9, it shouldn’t be enough to keep him entrenched at head coach. The Saints have loftier goals than he’ll be able to reach. Celebrate this win over the Falcons for what it is, but don’t try to read into it as something it isn’t.
