Saints end of game

Sunday should have been a celebration.

The New Orleans Saints were washing away all of their demons. The process started a few weeks ago when the offense began to click, and there’s been a steady build over the last five or six weeks. It appeared to reach a crescendo Sunday with a 48-17 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

No playoffs? Fine. Whatever. Maybe that’s even better. New Orleans wasn’t going to get so hot in the playoffs that the season was ending in confetti and a parade. Landing a higher draft pick and seeing the offense keep building to a point where it felt like it had finally figured everything out was a pretty good outcome, all things considered.

But by the time you could ride an elevator from the top of the Superdome to the bottom and make the walk down the hallway to the locker room, a whole bunch of petty fell from the sky and somehow, a 48-17 blowout became something else. It became confusing and frustrating and much more complicated than it should have been.

What happened on the Jamaal Williams touchdown?The Dot presented by Matt Bowers Auto Group pic.twitter.com/aJikS8G9De— Brooke Kirchhofer (@brookechesney) January 8, 2024

We should be talking about all the things the offense became and what it will become and not some garbage-time touchdown that ensured that the NFL’s touchdown leader from a year ago didn’t get shut out this season. Should the Saints have faked a victory formation from the 1-yard line and handed the ball to Jamaal Williams on a fake?

Absolutely not. Dennis Allen didn’t want his team to do it either. And he was right to feel that way. No one wants to flex on a head coach who very easily could get fired tomorrow. That’s not Allen’s character.

Take it away Jamaal 😏#Saints | 📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/L8vZjocAzQ— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) January 7, 2024

He wanted them to kneel. He understood when Falcons coach Arthur Smith approached him after the game and told him that it was a "BS" thing to do. Allen agreed, and he told Smith that. Allen let his team know he was pissed off about it. And he explained after the game that his players didn’t listen to him and changed the play on their own. He said Smith was right to feel the way he felt.

Arthur Smith and Dennis Allen have a postgame chat 😳 pic.twitter.com/s469d2OcWq— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) January 7, 2024

Was it unsportsmanlike? Absolutely. For Allen to stand up there and admit what happened shows integrity. But it also created a weird climate in the locker room where the team had to answer questions about undermining their coach, which was probably the whole point of Allen telling the truth. But it quickly became clear there weren’t a lot of regrets about what happened. Some of the players felt bad, but most were more than willing to stand on business, and to them, making sure their teammate didn’t end the season in an embarrassing position was good business.

All of it feels like a tough and uncomfortable look, no matter which angle you dissect this thing from, because while their teammate avoided some embarrassment, this situation created some for Allen. And the hard thing to figure out is whether this should even be a talking point. It's all debatable. And frankly, it's just weird to be here, having this conversation, instead of the one about how this offense actually played well over the second half of the season.

The Saints just played their best game of the season, and we're talking about players going rogue to get an ineffective running back who signed here this offseason a touchdown off a fake victory formation. Not even an honest touchdown. Everything would have been so much easier if safety Tyrann Mathieu had just finished running that interception back instead of getting tackled at the 1-yard line.

HONEY BADGERTAKES WHAT HE WANTS📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/aZmHv2wjsa— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) January 7, 2024

But of course that couldn't happen, because nothing about this season has been simple. It almost was in the end, though. The clean sell was right there. Offense locked in. All the frustrations quelled. The locker room settled. If the Saints just kneel — or nothing is ever said about the touchdown — it’s all good vibes.

Now, it’s not.

And maybe that’s the most fitting end to this season. Because being around this thing every day and seeing it up close is to know that there were warts. Significant ones. Things got hot. Players were frustrated. Some were ready to turn. And then, it got better and things were building to a great ending.

Just think about how we could be talking about this. The red zone offense actually ended up being great. The young receiving core looks like it finally locked in. Kendre Miller? Man, if that guy stays healthy, he looks like he could be a huge contributor. The offensive line even got good at the end of the season. It all worked out. There’s real potential here if the Saints figure out how to build on everything that worked.

The first TD of Kendre Miller's career 🤝📺 @NFLonCBS | @Offical_dre11 pic.twitter.com/b55e4txDAm— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) January 7, 2024

Allen even looked like he was ending the season in a way where there could be no controversy around him. He just capped off a 9-8 season, which does come across as a touch “too little, too late” since the team missed the playoffs, but you’d have to be very cynical not to see some legitimate bright spots in how things ended.

Instead, we’re talking about how his players didn’t respect his call and put him in a spot he didn’t want to be in. It’s almost too bad Allen isn’t a jerk, because if he had just told Smith, “Stop it if you don’t like it,” or “Go eff yourself,” Jay Frostt would be painting a portrait of Allen right now that would be going viral on social media by tomorrow. That would have been the easy path, but only if you really felt it and were cool with playing the villain. If someone wanted that path, this wasn't even a lay-up. The ball was already in the hoop and needed to be knocked out for the shot to miss.

Allen knocked it out because he values sportsmanship. And saying otherwise wouldn’t have been true to his character. If you like Allen, you’ll say he held his players accountable. If you don't, you’ll say he probably could have avoided all this drama by just not saying too much in public, addressing it behind closed doors and moving on.

Our @HardhideWhiskey player of the gameQuarterback Derek Carr🍓: 22/28 passing attempts🍓: 264 passing yards🍓: 4 Touchdowns pic.twitter.com/WCxzbuBbgF— NOF (@nofnetwork) January 7, 2024

But Allen got embarrassed in public, so he probably felt the need to respond to his players the same way. If I've got to answer these questions, so do you. But could he have backed them in public — or at least not called them out in public — and scolded them in private and still effectively held them accountable that way?

Again, that's up for debate, which stinks, because the Saints were one stupid and meaningless touchdown away from everything being feeling pretty good heading into the offseason. Now, we're talking about this instead of what matters, because this topic became so big and so loud that talking about anything else feels like hiding from the truth.

And the truth is, the Saints are still messy.