Dennis Allen speaks with the media following a very convincing win over the Bucs in Week 17 to keep the Saints season alive.
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00:00 Good team win for our football team.
00:05 Still feel like there were some things that we could have done better.
00:08 Still felt like there were a few things that we left out there on the field.
00:11 But, you know, I thought particularly in the first half, I thought we played really well in the first half on all three bases.
00:19 I thought the field position in the game was a big part of the game.
00:23 I think the takeaways in the game were a big part of the game.
00:25 I think we ran the ball a little bit better offensively, which opened up some things in the passing game.
00:32 We did a good job on third down, converting on third down.
00:36 So, look, there's a lot of good things that we did.
00:39 Obviously, the first drive of the game, taking it down there, being able to score points, put seven on the board,
00:43 was I thought was big for our football team.
00:46 So, proud of the way that our guys continue to compete.
00:50 Proud of the way our guys continue to fight.
00:52 And I'm proud of the way that they played today.
00:54 So, now we've got to digest this and then get ready for Lent.
01:02 Was this a hard effort, performance, all that stuff you just talked about, to pull off after the state of the team just like nine days ago?
01:10 That maybe the toughest loss?
01:12 Well, I think state of the team probably is.
01:16 I'm sure everybody has their own opinion about the state of the team, right?
01:21 But I've never questioned the mindset of our team.
01:25 I've never questioned the toughness of our team.
01:27 I've never questioned the competes of our team.
01:29 And so, yeah, look, this game we play is hard.
01:34 It's not easy.
01:36 And there are some times that you've got to fight back after a tough loss.
01:40 But I told the team last night, we've got to handle hard well.
01:46 And I thought our guys did that.
01:49 The players said this week they felt like it was a playoff mentality this week.
01:53 How does it feel that they appeared to respond to that message?
01:56 Yeah, look, I think it's positive.
01:59 And I think when we face some adversity, I think our guys have generally responded.
02:07 So, we knew our backs were against the wall.
02:11 And we knew that if we didn't take care of business today, that it didn't matter what happened anywhere else.
02:17 We knew that we had to win this game.
02:19 And I think our guys had the mindset that we were coming in here to win.
02:22 And that's what they did.
02:24 How did you feel when Jonathan Abram performed with that?
02:27 Listen, I thought he played really well.
02:29 I was extremely proud of him, happy for him, the way that he played.
02:35 Great effort play, you know, on the strip, you know, to cause the fumble that DeMario recovered.
02:44 Look, and there was a number of things he did well.
02:46 Obviously, that play stands out.
02:48 But, you know, here's a guy that's been kind of on the practice squad, that he's on the roster,
02:53 probably hadn't gotten as many opportunities as he would like.
02:57 But he's one of the ones that's, you know, he's got probably the most time on the iPad in terms of studying
03:03 what the opponents are doing.
03:06 He works extremely hard at it.
03:08 And he got his opportunity, and he performed well.
03:10 What went into that decision to give him that opportunity?
03:13 Well, I think, look, primarily it was because we had a rookie player that, you know,
03:17 missed the early part of the week practice.
03:20 And so I think you've got to, particularly for a young player, I think you've got to, you know,
03:26 practice to be able to play and play well.
03:29 And so, and look, it doesn't really matter how he gets the opportunity.
03:34 It's about taking advantage of the opportunity.
03:35 I thought he did a good job of that.
03:37 What about Jawan Johnson, especially in the first half?
03:40 Jawan Johnson?
03:42 Yeah.
03:43 I thought he played really well today.
03:44 You know, here's another guy that, you know, look, we've had a number of guys that have kind of gotten
03:50 challenged a little bit, you know, and they've responded to the challenge.
03:54 Jawan Johnson being one of them, I think the last couple of weeks Jawan's really responded to it
03:58 and performed well.
04:00 Obviously, the touchdown was a big play in the game.
04:04 The third down catch down the middle of the field was a huge play in the game,
04:09 changed his field position.
04:11 You know, he catches the, you know, the boot there and I guess it was the fourth quarter there,
04:18 you know, gets us into a good field position.
04:20 So, look, I thought he played well.
04:23 I thought he played through, you know, a little bit of a shoulder injury and, you know,
04:27 came back out and played and competed.
04:29 So, I was really proud of him.
04:31 The first half of the game, you feel that's the best maybe collectively you've played this year
04:35 of both sides?
04:36 Yeah, look, I mean, it's been a long season, so, you know, I think there's been some times,
04:42 you know, where I feel like our team has played really well in a lot of spurts.
04:48 But, yeah, I do.
04:50 I feel like that was, you know, all three phases I think contributed to, you know,
04:56 us being able to get out to that lead in the first half.
04:59 Derek Carr feels like he's been hitting a stride here over the course of the past few games.
05:03 Has there been anything sort of different about his approach?
05:05 Well, look, no, I think, A, I think he's feeling a little bit better.
05:10 You know, I mean, obviously he's had a couple of, you know, things that have kind of nagged
05:14 him throughout the season.
05:17 And I think he's probably--look, nobody's 100% healthy this time of year, but I think he's
05:22 closer to that now than maybe where he was, you know, a month, month and a half ago.
05:27 So, yeah, I think he's been performing, you know, much better over the last, you know,
05:33 call it month or six weeks of the season.
05:36 I think a lot of that is health-related.
05:38 And is this still a bit of what y'all were expecting to see, sort of when everything
05:41 kind of settled in, maybe a little bit more chemistry, a little bit more time?
05:44 Yeah, look, I mean, still not perfect, but it's been improved.
05:52 And I think, look, we've got--we're guaranteed one more opportunity to go improve it a
05:57 little bit more, and that's what we're going to focus on.
06:00 And Adelante tailored it a--
06:02 Adelante was awesome today, really.
06:04 You know what I mean?
06:05 Again, I mean, that's the enjoyment that I get out of coaching is when a guy hits a
06:10 rough patch, you know, and you challenge him, you know, look, he got benched.
06:16 You know, that's hard to--that's hard.
06:19 It's hard to take.
06:20 He responded the right way.
06:21 You guys asked me, how's he going to respond?
06:22 I thought he responded the right way.
06:23 I think he did that today.
06:25 So I was extremely proud of him.
06:27 The Titans seems like they're pretty heavily involved in the passing game early.
06:30 Was there something that you saw going into the game, like a matchup that you all liked
06:34 with that?
06:36 Well, you know, look, I mean, obviously the fact that we used the Titans says that, you
06:41 know, we felt like there was something that maybe we could, you know, hopefully take
06:46 advantage of.
06:47 And again, look, you never know exactly how the game's going to play out.
06:51 I mean, you kind of have an idea of what they might--may try to do, and yet, you
06:54 know, we don't have a contract with them.
06:56 They can kind of do whatever they want to do, and we have to be able to react to it.
06:59 And so, you know, in this game, there's some things that I think they were trying to do
07:03 to, you know, obviously take away some of our receivers, you know, and so the Titans
07:08 played a little bit bigger role, specifically Juwan.
07:11 I'm not sure what Juwan was able to do in the last few weeks.
07:14 How did he get confidence in his selling back?
07:16 He's a receiver, a producer.
07:17 Well, yeah, I mean, look, I mean, confidence, you know, you guys have heard this, and I
07:24 got it from one of my mentors, but confidence is born from demonstrated ability.
07:27 And that's the same thing for us as coaches.
07:30 When we see you do it, we have more confidence that you can do it again.
07:33 When you as a player see yourself do it, you have more confidence that you can do it again.
07:37 So I think all those things work together.
07:39 But yeah, certainly we have confidence in him and throwing him the football.
07:46 Dennis, did Alvin come up?
07:48 That's something after half-time, or--?
07:50 Yeah, so he sprained his ankle.
07:52 In the first half?
07:53 I think it was on the sideline over there right before-- yeah, the first half, right
07:57 before the end of the half when he got tackled on their sideline over there.
08:04 He kind of came in, got it looked at, came out after half to try to test it out, and
08:11 we just didn't feel like he was going to be able to be functional enough to help us win.
08:18 Do you know that it was not a high ankle sprain then since he--?
08:21 I don't know that.
08:22 It was an ankle sprain.
08:23 I haven't really gotten into all the details as to what it is.
08:25 And then a couple of the guys that got ruled out with knee injuries, do you know they--?
08:29 Look, Nephi's got a pretty significant knee injury that he's going to miss significant
08:39 time with.
08:41 Landon, I think, is the same knee that he hurt earlier in the training camp, so a very
08:45 similar situation with him.
08:51 I'd have to get all my-- I know those are a couple that are very receivable for you.
08:57 And can Irving come back in-- he died some reps-- sorry.
09:00 Preps.
09:01 Preps.
09:02 Yeah, yeah.
09:03 But him stepping in in place of Landon Young, would you like to just offer him--?
09:05 Yeah, look, I mean, obviously when you're watching the offense, it's much more difficult
09:14 to see everything that's happening inside.
09:18 Usually if I don't hear his name being said, then I'm assuming that he's doing some pretty
09:22 decent things.
09:23 So I didn't hear his name called out a lot.
09:26 Nothing really stood out to me.
09:28 Like either was not good.
09:29 So I'm assuming that he at least stepped in and did a decent job.
09:34 What was the key to slowing down the Buccaneers' offense?
09:37 You know, Baker had been hot over the past three weeks.
09:39 He scored 30-plus points last week against the Jaguars.
09:42 That's where Sumai and Tijuana may have struggled being one--
09:44 Well, the biggest thing for this game was we had to win the line of scrimmage.
09:48 We had to win the line of scrimmage on offense.
09:50 We had to win the line of scrimmage on defense.
09:52 Our O-line and our D-line had to play well for us to have a chance to win this game.
09:58 And like I said earlier, it went perfect.
10:01 I thought overall we were able to make enough plays up front on both sides of the ball and
10:08 do enough to win the line of scrimmage to give ourselves a chance to win.
10:12 [inaudible]
10:17 Yeah, we can't let the ball get over our head.
10:19 So, you know, we didn't play as well as we needed to in those two instances.
10:26 And that's why when you look at the game you say, "Well, it wasn't perfect."
10:29 You know, so we've got to go back and we've got to make those corrections.
10:31 We've got to fix that because that's inexcusable to let the ball fall over your head.
10:36 And look, when you get in those situations, you know, you've been playing well
10:40 for such a long time doing it one way, don't change how you're playing.
10:44 So there's that fine line of, "Well, am I going to just play soft and easy
10:49 and let them pull the ball underneath?"
10:51 You know, or, "Am I going to play the way I've been playing for the last 58 minutes?"
10:54 You know, and so we'll look at it and our guys will learn from it.
11:00 All right, guys, thanks.