Dennis Allen Post-Game, Texans vs. Saints
Dennis Allen speaks with the media following the Saints preseason finale against the Texans.
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00:00 -All right. Yeah, disappointed in the loss.
00:04 Thought we gave ourselves plenty of opportunities.
00:08 Thought we had a couple of chances in the last couple of drives that we didn't
00:12 take advantage of.
00:16 We lost the turnover battle really for the first time, so I thought that was a big
00:20 difference in the game. But yet there was a lot of
00:24 positives, particularly early in the game. I thought we did some good things. It was nice to see
00:28 Jimmy had a couple of nice catches, contested catches.
00:32 I'll open it up to questions. -Did you feel like
00:36 you needed to see those contested catches going into this game from him? -Yeah, I think that was
00:40 one of the things that... We've said this,
00:44 we don't have to see it every day from these guys, particularly the veteran
00:48 players, but yet at some point we have to see it. We saw
00:52 it tonight. -Does it kick from 50 way more heavily than
00:56 60? Is it more common play or is it kind of just all... -I think
01:00 it's all encompassing. He nailed the 50 yarder.
01:04 Went right down the middle and then the 60 yarder
01:08 just hung it out to the right a little bit. Had plenty of leg.
01:12 And look, I mean,
01:16 percentages of 60 yarders aren't very high at our league, but yet
01:20 I wanted to give the kid a chance to see what he could do and he just missed the kick.
01:24 -Dennis, were you pleased with Brian Rizzi's activity in that first half?
01:28 Just how he was? -Yeah. I thought he was active in the game.
01:32 I don't know what his final stats were, but I did
01:36 think he was active in the game both
01:41 against the run and with the pass rush.
01:45 Thought I saw... It looked like there was a couple of good things I saw out of Isaiah
01:49 Foskey also in the game.
01:53 We got some tough decisions that are
01:57 coming up. We got a lot of good football players on this team.
02:01 We got to make some decisions over the next 48 hours.
02:05 -Dennis, are you where you want to be after three preseason games? -I don't think
02:09 you're ever where you want to be or where we need to be.
02:13 We're in a race to improve, getting ready for the opener
02:17 here in two weeks from today.
02:21 There's a lot of positives with this football team
02:25 right now, but yet there's certainly some things we've got to
02:29 improve on. -How pleased were you to see the penalties, in particular, plummet down?
02:33 -Yeah, it was much better. It was much better in the game.
02:37 I think we had one false start, and I think
02:41 that was just... I think we took too long at the latter scrimmage and needed to kind of get into the
02:45 flow a little bit and get the snap going. I thought that was
02:49 a step forward. -How have you seen Jimmy progress as he's gotten
02:53 more snaps than we've gotten so far? -I think really
02:57 probably since the Charger practices,
03:01 I started to see
03:05 some signs of the mental picture
03:09 that I have of Jimmy Graham.
03:13 Again, I saw it this week in practice,
03:17 and I saw it carry over into the game. That was a positive.
03:22 -How do you feel Isaiah Foskey's kind of progressed? -I think he's getting better.
03:26 Yet he's still
03:30 a rookie and still has a long way to go,
03:34 but he's made significant strides from where he was
03:38 in OTAs and even the first part of training camp.
03:42 Look, that's what you want to see. You want to see a guy that every time he gets an opportunity
03:46 to go out there and get more reps,
03:50 you see a guy that's getting more comfortable in what we're asking him to do.
03:54 -Dennis, how difficult is it gonna be
03:58 next 48 hours? -Well, look, this time of year is always difficult.
04:02 And probably more difficult
04:06 this year, and that's a good challenge to have, a good
04:10 problem to have, knowing that we've got a lot of good football players.
04:14 We'll go through this tomorrow
04:18 and have some significant
04:22 meetings to talk about it. We'll pick the right 53 for this team.
04:26 -More difficult than others just because you have a lot of guys for a few spots?
04:30 -Yeah, I think we just got a lot of good players, you know,
04:34 and you can't keep them all. So that'll be some
04:38 tough moves. -Will you guys do everything on Tuesday or will it be kind of...
04:42 -We'll discuss it tomorrow and see where we're at.
04:46 -No rest for Trevor Penning tonight. Is that kind of a sign that you've seen
04:50 that you can see him? -Well, yeah. I mean, I think we've seen some
04:54 improvement out of him, and I think where we're at right now with where he is
04:58 and then you kind of take into account that last year
05:03 in the preseason and the last preseason game he was injured.
05:07 So I felt good about
05:11 where he was at and didn't want to risk putting him out there.
05:15 -Dennis Traequan Smith was back on the sidelines with the team. Where is he at in his rehab?
05:19 -He's getting closer. He's not full
05:23 go yet, but he's continuing in rehab.
05:27 -How do you go about evaluating something like that with some of these guys that maybe
05:31 haven't had a lot of exposure to dealing with injuries this offseason?
05:35 -Well, look, I mean, some of the guys you've got some
05:39 significant exposure to in terms of past experience,
05:43 and then you've got to go back to what you saw early on at camp.
05:47 And yet, you know, gave some other guys
05:51 some opportunities to try to impress.
05:55 Yeah, I think we'll look at all that and we'll take it all into
05:59 consideration and we'll make the moves that we think are best for this team.
06:03 Okay, guys. Thanks.