NEW ORLEANS — If you spend any time on Social Media, you probably noticed lots of New Orleans Saints fans have turned on head coach Dennis Allen. Some fans, maybe the loudest ones, want him fired RIGHT NOW and to send him packing before the season is over.
"He's not the guy, so get started on finding the next Saints coach TODAY!" they tweet or post or TikTok, or ramble on Facebook.
Firing Dennis Allen before the season would be incredibly stupid, and worst of all, would actually hurt the Saints chances of finding his replacement, if they decide Allen isn't going to be the head coach in 2023.
You know what kind of football teams fire first-year head coaches during their first season? Stupid ones, run by stupid people. Do you think the Saints are a stupid team? Do you want them to start behaving that way?
Besides Urban Meyer getting fired before his first season ended in Jacksonville in 2021, the only other coach to not finish their first season since 1994 is Bobby Petrino, who quit the Atlanta Falcons after 13 weeks, and fled to Arkansas in 2007.
This happened after the Saints wrecked the Falcons 34-14 on a Monday night, and my mom actually predicted it. After the game she called me and said, "I think the Falcons coach doesn't want to be there. He's laughing on the sideline while the Saints are killing the Falcons. He's up to something."
"Mom, don't be ridiculous, they just hired him, he's not going anywhere."
Petrino resigned the NEXT DAY and high-tailed it to Fayetteville. Moral of this is listen to your mother.
Anyway, my point here is teams that fire coaches during their first season are usually poorly run and making emotionally egregious decisions.
Also, if the Saints fire Dennis Allen anytime before their season ends on January 8, they are just making hiring the next coach more difficult. Do you think the best and most qualified candidates are going to want to come to a team that didn't even let the previous coach finish one season when he was coaching games while missing 9 starters due to injury?
The hot assistants with options won't. Sean Payton only landed in the Saints lap in 2006 after the Green Bay Packers hired Mike McCarthy instead. Why on earth would we want the Saints to make the coach-hiring process harder when they've just shown us the process is ALREADY HARD ENOUGH that they might have botched it?
Is Dennis Allen a good coach? I don't really know, and neither do you. I tend to think he's like 75% of NFL coaches – his success rides on good quarterback play and good injury luck. Dennis Allen hasn't gotten either. If the Saints 2022 season continues to go as poorly as it looks like it will, the Saints will have an extremely difficult decision to make on their first-year head coach come January 9th.
Either he's going to right the ship somewhat and get the Saints to 6-7 wins, and the Saints will use injuries, bad luck, and mediocre quarterbacks as reasons to give him another season or the Saints will continue their spiral into the darkness and win only 1-2 more games and the Saints will decide to hit the reset button and start over from scratch, in which case, that is not the job Dennis Allen was hired to do. Allen was hired to continue the winning and culture Sean Payton built.
Deciding to get rid of Dennis Allen before January won't help anything in 2022 and hurts the chances of the Saints winning in the future. The 2022 season is lost, don't root for the Saints to make their future more difficult because you want to tweet out a 'Bye Felicia' GIF in December.
Saints Fan Mood and Meditation Music: Counting On a Miracle -- Bruce Springsteen
Nothing is saving the 2022 Saints season and it's so bad I feel like we are going to need miracles to even make these games fun to watch. The miracles we need might include four backup offensive linemen to not be terrible against the menace known as Aaron Donald and decent quarterback play in spite of the terrible offensive line play I just mentioned. Feels impossible.
I'd ask for the miracle of the Saints' defense falling accidentally into an interception or picking up a fumble, but those are so infrequent in 2022 I'm not even sure I know what a big defensive takeaway feels like any more.
The Games
Last Week: 3-2
Season: 32-18
New Orleans Saints (-3) vs Los Angeles Rams: The Rams are so bad and injured, they rival the Saints for the saddest present and bleakest future. Their star receiver Cooper Kupp is hurt, Matthew Stafford just exited concussion protocol, because nothing is more of a miracle cure than facing the Saints.
The Rams offensive line is just as much of in injury shambles as the Saints, and might be without three starters, and be playing a third string tackle. The Saints injury report, of course, is worse, includes 13 players (10 starters), and the Saints might be forced into starting either their third string center or their fifth string guard. Say a prayer for Andy Dalton, his safety Sunday against Aaron Donald is in more peril than that Bitcoin investment your cousin made.
Sunday is a winnable game for the Saints. As bad as the Saints looked in Pittsburgh, the game was 10-10 in the fourth quarter and the Steelers were backed up at their 2-yard line. Saints were one big defensive play from probably winning.
It's time for the Saints yearly stupid, ridiculous, how the hell did that happen win.
And no, the 24-0 win over the Raiders wasn't it. That was the Saints very normal win over a team even worse than they are. When I say crazy I mean like the Halloween win over Tampa last year.
Remember that win? Trevor Siemian throwing touchdown passes to Alex Armah and PJ Williams having a game clinching pick 6 off Tom Brady. SHENANIGANS. Absolute madness.
Prepare for silliness on a grand scale because...football. Special teams touchdowns, defensive touchdowns, Taysom activities. It's all going to happen.
Saints 31-14
Chicago (+3) at Atlanta: That brief moment where the Falcons looked competent was annoying, I'm glad it's over.
Bears 27-20
Detroit (+3) at New York Giants: The Giants aren't good, I don't care what their record is.
Lions 23-17
Washington (-3) at Houston: I wish the Saints were as fun and entertaining as the Commanders. That's the saddest sentence I've ever written.
Commanders 31-20
Minnesota (+1) at Dallas: It's about time ESPN broke out the 'Sean Payton to Dallas' graphics again.
Vikings 28-24