Why the New Orleans Saints' Drab Season is Bleeding Fans' Passion

Saints fans have been assured and reassured that things would be different in New Orleans, but based on the results they have every right to be upset.

Oct 17, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New Orleans Saints fan holds up a sign showing his feelings on the game against the Denver Broncos during the second half at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

Since Dennis Allen has been head coach of the Saints, the team has had 23 losses in the past three seasons. He's 18-23 in New Orleans and fans are obviously not happy with the way things have played out in 2024 with the 2-5 start. For perspective, his predecessor Sean Payton had 24 combined in the final four seasons of his tenure and had 23 in his first three seasons. The issue here is that there's still 10 games left to play.

During last year's end of season press conferences last year, things were supposed to be different for New Orleans. It's a fresh start. It's a chance to wipe the slate clean and improve, and we heard a lot of things that were needed to at least buy into it.

"It hasn't been good enough. I have to do better job, and I accept that responsibility," Allen said back then. "I understand that this is a production based business. I've been in this business a long time. I do think we played more consistent in the last stretch of the season and I think our record indicated that."

"We've got to look at what are we going to do differently. We are all part of the problem, now we've got to figure out what we're going to be to be part of the solution."

General manager Mickey Loomis was also supposed to set the tone here, addressing certain things that needed to be said after saying the organization had become a little too comfortable over the last years. He said he made it uncomfortable.

"I've had meetings with the team before," Loomis said Wednesday during that end-of-season news conference. "It's been a while. But I felt like there were some things that needed to be said to the players, just like I think there's things that need to be said to the coaching staff and to our football operations staff, and that's going to be said. I think maybe we've gotten a little too comfortable over the last few years, and so I want to make it uncomfortable."

This is why Saints fans are seemingly at their wits end, and it feels like the team is in that same boat. Allen said it himself that he knows this is a results-based business. There's something that's clearly amiss in the building, which is something that I wrote about following the embarrassing loss to the Broncos. Change is pivotal for New Orleans, but do they even know what needs to change and how to do it or hoping that the injuries magically fix deeper issues? The Saints are in a lot of trouble, and there's a lot of questions on whether they know how to fix it or not.

It's about to get worse for the Saints too, because we're at the point where the support is diminishing. Can you blame them? Not even a little bit, and even Loomis himself said that the team had to win and perform well to get fans back. In that presser, Loomis also said that if the team is not meeting the bar, "That's on us," and said that if he were in the stands some last year, he would have booed a couple of times.

I went back through all of the losses the Saints have had over the past three seasons to just analyze Allen's opening statements. There's obviously a lot more to unpack here, but this is a start. Are there commonalities? Is is rinse, wash and repeat or lip service? Here's what I found and all the quotes to go along with it.

Dennis Allen's Opening Statements Following Losses

Oct 7, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen reacts during the second half against the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

• The phrase 'better' comes up 32 times. Variations like 'Better job' comes up 13 times and 'Play better' was used 5 times.
• 'Opportunities' comes up 12 times.
• 'Disappointed' and/or 'Disappointing' comes up 14 times.
• 'Missed' comes up 6 times.
• 'Chance(s)' comes up 6 times.
• 'Mistake(s)' comes up 4 times.
• 'Work' comes up 4 times.
• 'Improve' comes up 3 times.
• 'Inability' comes up 3 times.
• 'Accept', 'Acceptable' and 'Unacceptable' comes up once each.

2024

Oct 17, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen reacts to a play call against the Denver Broncos during the first half at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

vs. Broncos: “Look, I think as coaches and as players, we have to do a better job. We have to do a better job throughout the week of preparation. We’re making mistakes that we shouldn’t be making and allowing guys to get free. Again, part of the run game is that we have to do a better job at winning the line of scrimmage. That’s where it all starts. We have to do a better job of getting off the blocks, and we have to do a better job of tackling. I guess as coaches and players all alike, we’ve got to figure it out.”

vs. Bucs: "I am thoroughly disappointed in the game. It was not acceptable. It was not good enough. It wasn’t good enough from a coaching standpoint. It wasn’t good enough from a playing standpoint. We’ve got a lot of getting better to do, and we’ve got a short time to do it. We need to get some guys healthy, but we’ve got to play better than we did today in all areas.”

at Chiefs: "I thought we got outplayed in the game today, got outcoached. They did a good job. We really couldn’t get a whole lot going on either side of the ball. Offensively, we really couldn’t get anything going in the run game or in the passing game. Defensively, I felt like we made too many mistakes early on in the game. I don’t think we tackled as well as we needed to. I think for the first time this year, I felt like we didn’t play the way we are capable of playing. I was disappointed in that. I think as a coaching staff, we have to look back at what we need to do better and try to improve and put our guys in better positions to be successful.”

at Falcons: “It sucks to lose a game like that. Those are the kind that rip your heart out. But I know we've got a good football team in that locker room. Now, we have to play better. We can't spot a team 14 points, a good team, and expect to win those types of games. The fact that you come back and put yourself in a position to win that tells me that we've got a good football team. But we have to be better, we've got to play better, we've got to coach better. There's a lot of things we have to improve on. We'll go back to work tomorrow, and we'll get ready to go to Kansas City on Monday night.”

vs. Eagles: “Disappointing loss for us. I don’t think we played as well as we are capable of playing, yet you have to give those guys credit. They beat us today, and we had our opportunities. I don’t think we played, obviously, as well on offense as we had played the first two weeks. Give their defense credit. Defensively, we just gave up too many explosive plays. That was really the key to the game is the explosive plays that we gave up and really kind of our inability to move the ball offensively.”

2023

Dec 21, 2023; Inglewood, California, USA; New Orleans Saints coach Dennis Allen watches from the sidelines against the Los Angeles Rams in the first half at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

at Rams: “Obviously, wasn’t good enough tonight. I thought defensively they got after us pretty good. We didn't get a lot of pressure on the quarterback and even at the times that we did, I thought… look, you got to give those guys a lot of credit because I thought they played outstanding on offense. I kind of knew going into this game that it was going to be a challenge and I knew (QB) Matthew Stafford was playing really good, but I don't think we played the way we needed to play either. I thought there was too many times where we talked a lot about eye candy early in the week and I thought it affected us on some plays. We certainly have to be better. I have to do a better job with those guys. Offensively, I felt like we moved the ball again, and I felt like there were some opportunities that we just didn't take advantage of… potential conversions, keep drives alive. I just felt like there were too many missed opportunities offensively."

vs. Lions: “Not happy that we lost the game but was encouraged by some things. We got punched in the mouth early on in this game, and I thought our guys fought back and battled back. Obviously, we understand there are no participation trophies in our league. We are going to take the loss. We’re going to own it, but there were a lot of things I was encouraged by in the game. Obviously, we have to still play better.”

at Falcons: “I’m disappointed in the loss. I thought we had our opportunities. I think this game really boiled down to our ability down in the red area – two penalties, two turnovers, one went for a pick-six – and obviously, defensively, our inability to stop the run. That’s really what the game boiled down to. That’s really what the game was all about.”

at Vikings: "I'm disappointed with the way we played today. Particularly in the first half of the game. I've got to find a way to get this team to be more consistent. So that's on me. I'll have to do a better job. Look, I think the bigger thing really has been our inability on first and second down to do a better job of getting them into third and longer situations. We're allowing too many first and second down conversions, not forcing enough third downs early on in games. We struggled again with quarterback again today. You know, we had some opportunities to get him on the ground. We didn't cash in on those opportunities. We had some guys that were spying him, and he made some plays. But, yeah, look, we have to do a better job. Offensively, I thought we ran the ball early in the game pretty effectively, and then all of a sudden you're chasing points. It becomes a little bit more difficult to do. I think just as a team we've got to do a better job of being more competitive in first half of games. Our guys fought their tails off to give themselves a chance, but can't keep digging yourself into these holes and think you're going to be able to come back all the time."

vs. Jaguars: “Obviously disappointed with the loss. I do think there were some things I saw in the game that were good to see. I thought our offense kind of responded there in the second half. I think right now, our team is too inconsistent right now and that's what's causing us problems so we'll have to work to get that corrected. We got 10 days to get it done.”

at Texans: “Way too many missed opportunities in this game. We had plenty of chances. Red zone continues to jump up and bite us. Missed a couple field goals today, which is uncharacteristic. Defensively I thought we played poorly in the first half. They were better than we were in the first half of the game, that's for certain. Gave up too many explosive plays. We intercepted the ball and turned it right back over to them. We had the ball on the 41-yard line. So just way too many mistakes and way too many missed opportunities. And we have to – I told the team in there we've got to do a better job of executing our jobs. If we're not executing our jobs, then we need to find somebody else that can execute those jobs. Doesn't matter who you are.”

vs. Bucs: “We got our ass beat today. Unacceptable. Obviously nobody's happy about it and we have to be better. I think we weren't converting third downs offensively, which was a challenge. I don't think we got off the field defensively. Third downs I thought our tackling was not very good, particularly in the first half. We have to execute better. There's a lot of dirty hands that are involved in that performance. Obviously, it starts with me, so I've got to make sure that we put better product out there on the field next time we show up.”

at Packers: “Give the Packers credit. They made the plays they needed to make to win the game. I feel like we let one slip through our hands, and we’ve got to be better than that. I thought the second half, too many explosives. Penalties down the field which I thought ended up costing us in the game. We’ve got to get in more. We’ve got to make the corrections and we’ve got to learn from this and we’ve got to get better from it.”

2022

Nov 13, 2022; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen looks on from the sidelines against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the second quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

vs. Panthers: “Obviously, a disappointing loss. We did not do enough good things to win the game. I thought we dominated in a lot of different areas with the exception of the scoreboard. We had some opportunities we didn’t take advantage of. That’s what happens when you don’t take advantage of the opportunities. You let a team hang around. They just hung around, and they kept fighting and had an opportunity to win at the end.”

at Bucs: “Look, again – standing up here disappointed we lost a game that we had a chance to win. We gave ourselves every opportunity and we just didn’t get it done. We had a couple opportunities to make some plays and we didn’t make them. We didn’t convert on third-and-short. Frustrating.”

at 49ers: “Okay. Disappointing loss. We came out here to win a game and I thought we competed against a good team but at the end of the day, we didn't make enough plays and there were plays out there to be made. We didn't make enough plays. And look, you have to give them credit. I mean, obviously, they have a really good football team offensively, defensively, in the kicking game. They made enough plays to win the game. I felt like there were some opportunities out there for us and we didn't take advantage of them.”

at Steelers: "Performance wasn't good enough really in all phases. We didn't play well enough. We didn't coach well enough. We have to do a better job. We fought ourselves back, got back into the game at halftime, felt like we were in a good position, and we really just didn't do anything in the second half. We have to be better."

vs. Ravens: “Obviously, a very disappointing loss. You have to give those guys credit. They came in and had a good gameplan against us. They made it difficult for us, really in all phases. That is a good team that we played and they were the better team tonight.”

at Cardinals: "I think our tackling was shoddy again. I thought offensively we did some good things. We moved the ball. We scored some points. The three takeaways were killers in the game, and look we got to fix some of these issues. That's my responsibility to get these things fixed. We haven't been able to do that. We got to get some guys back healthy which hopefully over these next 10 days we'll be able to get a few of these guys and give us some more guys to get out there and help us try to win a game. That's all I got."

vs. Bengals: “I thought our guys fought their tails off, we just didn’t make enough plays there at the end to win it. I was proud of the way our guys competed, but yet disappointed that we did not make those plays at the end of the game that give us the opportunity to win the game. So, short turnaround, Thursday night game so we got a lot of stuff to work on in a short period of time.”

vs. Vikings: "Frustrating way to end that game. We had our chances. Thought our guys battled back after the second half. Thought we made too many mistakes in the first half, which put us behind. But I thought our guys battled and competed. We still have to find a way to not hurt ourselves with penalties and the turnovers, and that's got to change. So we've got to figure that out."

at Panthers: "Disappointing outcome. We talked about the ball being the most important thing, Snd we did not play well in the first half. The turnover was a big play in the game. Obviously, the two missed field goals were big plays in the game. That is 13 points. We get back into the game and give up the explosive pass, missed tackle and the game was kind of out of hand at that point in time. Look, our guys fought. Our guys competed. We had some guys go down, some guys stepped up. But we're going to have to regroup and we are going to have to play better."

vs. Bucs: "So, obviously disappointed in the loss. Look, it's been the story of this game between these two teams the last six times this game has been played. The team that turns the ball over or the team that takes the ball the away is the team that wins, and we were on the other end of that. So, we got to do a better job of protecting the ball and giving ourselves a chance to win the game. So, there were some good things that happened in the game, but yet, everything gets overshadowed by not taking care of the football."

After all of this, you be the judge. Can the Saints turn this thing around like they have done in the past few years or is this about to get worse before it gets better? You can understand a loss here and there and things not going your way, but the last two have been completely uninspiring to the point where a lot of questions that have been asked are valid, but are they true?

The immediate future will be telling, but fans may not even be on the ride long enough to find out or even care what happens. Some fear the cycle will just continue and will stay that way, and there's little evidence to debate them on it these days.