After Further Review: Five takes from Saints win over Falcons

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Take One: 2023 season ends short of goals

There is little doubt that the Saints were in the midst of playing their best football of the season.

Four wins in five weeks was a great way to close things out. Sunday’s thorough dominance over Atlanta was incredible to watch.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough. The Saints 9-8 record kept them on the outside looking in of the postseason. That’s disappointing and disheartening for the organization, who had goals of winning the NFC South.

Now they head into their third straight offseason searching for ways to get back into the playoffs.

Take Two: All roads lead back to Green Bay

In every Saints game this season, the outcome matched who played the best that day. In other words, the team that deserved to win, won the game. The team that didn’t, took the L in every game.

Every one…. expect Green Bay.

In that game back in week three, the 2-0 Saints outplayed the Packers. But the Packers stole a win and may have stolen the Saints playoff berth as well.

You already remember the circumstances. Despite Derek Carr getting knocked out in the third quarter, the Saints still held a 17-0 at the 9-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

Then the bottom fell out, and Jordan Love rallied his team to an 18-17 win.

If that game had gone differently, the Saints would not only have made the playoffs but likely won the division. Fitting that the Saints playoff chances were officially gone when the Packers defeated the Bears Sunday.

Take Three: Victory formation controversy

Who knew when Tyrann Mathieu got tripped up at the one-yard line on his late interception of Logan Woodside that it would set off such a ‘controversial ending’ to one of the Saints most complete efforts of the season?

By now you’ve seen the play. The Saints got in victory formation but instead of kneeling it,Jameis Winston handed it to Jamaal Williams to get his first touchdown of the season.

Falcons coach Arthur Smith didn’t like it and made sure to let Dennis Allen know about it after the game. Allen then apologized to Smith and the Falcons after a game in which his team won by 31 points.

What a truly bizarre way to end the season..

Winston’s explanation was certainly an interesting one. He called ‘team’ decision to hand the ball off to Williams. Apparently, that ‘team’ call didn’t involve the head coach, who didn’t want that play called.

Social media rushed to praise Winston. Teammates seemed to love it too. It’s highly unlikely Winston was trying to upstage his head coach or disrespect Smith. However, he has to understand how that makes Allen look. Plus, running it out of victory formation, as opposed to a normal run look, sort of violates the unwritten rule of that situation.

As for Allen, his emphatic apology to open his press conference was a bad look. He could’ve downplayed the incident postgame and given a low level ‘I understand their frustration, but the guys wanted Williams to get a touchdown’ type response. Instead, he placed way too much of a premium on the hurt feelings of the head coach of his biggest rival, who was fired after the game, that they just destroyed on the field. Plus, Allen revealed that his guys went against his request to kneel at end of the game.

It opened him up to another round of criticism. Instead of perhaps winning over some in the fan base by winning four of his last five games, there are those questioning the respect level the players have for their head coach if they openly defied him.

That’s unfortunate and probably inaccurate. The Saints wouldn’t rally to win four of their last five games if they don’t respect Allen.

Take Four: Derek Carr finishes strong

It would have been interesting to see Derek Carr lead the Saints offensive awakening into the playoffs. He and that side of the ball have really been in a groove lately.

Unfortunately, Carr won’t get that chance. But that doesn’t change the fact that Carr played his best football during the last four weeks of the season. During that stretch he threw 12 touchdowns, one interception for 998 yards and completed 75% of his throws.

Carr was on fire Sunday. He saw the field incredibly well and tossed four touchdowns. He also seemed fearless with the 50/50 ball. It felt like in every one of those throws, his receivers made the play for him.

It’s been an interesting first season for Carr in New Orleans. He admitted that this was the most physically challenging season he’s had with his health. It’s no coincidence that he and the offense drastically improved when his health did the same.

All the while, he was relentlessly booed, mocked, meme’d and thrown under the bus by his teammate on social media. Still, he showed up every week, never missed a start and weathered the storm to finish with a solid first season in black and gold.

Hopefully, Carr’s 2024 campaign can pick up where his 2023 season left off.

Take Five: Other Observations

This was Dennis Allen’s first winning season as a head coach.
I’m thoroughly curious to see how Allen evaluates his coaching staff and who he keeps next season.
Same with the roster. There are big decisions that must be made with some mainstays on the Saints roster. This team has to get younger this offseason.
Speaking of youth, rookies A.T. Perry and Kendre Miller were exceptional in the their final game of their first seasons.
Just an incredible catch by Chris Olave in the end zone. The concentration it took to bring down the catch off multiple tips and get both feet in bounds was off the charts.
Two busted plays led to two early touchdowns for the Falcons. Outside of those two, the defense played really well.

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