It’s all one step forward and two steps back with this New Orleans Saints team. Dennis Allen and Pete Carmichael Jr.’s poor decision-making set the stage for a fourth-quarter meltdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night, losing 17-16 at Raymond James Stadium. They’re going into the Week 14 bye with a 4-9 record and just a 0.7% chance of reaching the playoffs, per FiveThirtyEight.
This is all the impetus the Saints should need to admit their screwup and move on from Allen and his top decision-makers, starting with Carmichael. The call to kick field goals from distances of 21, 29, and 38 yards while punting 3 times from inside Buccaneers territory was brutal, but it’s part of a trend — Allen has coached scared in high-leverage fourth down situations all year. Sure, it’s because he doesn’t trust his quarterbacks, but it’s also because that’s who he is.
And it’s not like the Saints have been great on short-yardage. Carmichael’s decision to try a quick slant to Marquez Callaway on 3rd-and-1 late in the game doomed them. On their next series he took his top two receivers off of the field and put Kirk Merritt (who was called up from the practice squad this afternoon) into the game; Dalton was sacked on the play when no one was open off the snap. Carmichael has proven himself too clever by half.
Let’s just not discuss how the Saints didn’t think to start using their timeouts until the literal final seconds of regulations, or how they kept an obviously-injured Mark Ingram II in the game on passing downs over Alvin Kamara. Ingram’s right knee was banged up early on, and it appeared to give out on him during one of his final snaps, causing him to go out of bounds short of a critical first down conversion.
Between bizarre personnel decisions and poor game management, the Saints coaching staff have burnt any goodwill they may have earned to this point. Allen needs to go. So does Carmichael. Mickey Loomis and Gayle Benson put them in this position because they expected a return to the playoffs. But the Saints haven’t even played much competitive football this year. They’ve been run over by every half-competent squad on their schedule. The sooner Loomis and Benson realize that and take action, the better they’ll all be for it.
