The Saints started the season 2-0 with big wins over the Panthers and Cowboys.
But those two wins seem like a long time ago, especially considering the Saints snapped a six-game losing streak on Sunday.
New Orleans hadn’t lost six straight since 2005, before the Sean Payton era began, which lasted until 2021.
Head coach Dennis Allen was asked if he was concerned about job security after Week 7’s loss to Denver, and he said “no.” He wasn’t directly asked about it again after Sunday’s 26-8 loss to the Chargers. However, he was asked if he thought there was a need to discuss the state of the team, which is now 2-6, with the front office.
“We have conversations every day, you know what I mean? So I don’t feel like I have to have these conversations anymore,” Allen said in his postgame press conference. . “Look, I think everyone understands that this is a results-oriented business. And we need to play better football.
“I think everyone understands that.”
One of the ways the Saints tried to do that Sunday was by switching from quarterback Spencer Rattler to Jake Hayner in the third quarter. However, it didn’t work very well, and the Saints only scored three points with Hoehner on.
“We felt like we needed to do something to move things forward offensively,” Allen said of the quarterback change. “We couldn’t get the football moving so we felt like we needed to do something to create some kind of spark.”
Allen noted that quarterback Derek Carr, who has been out since suffering an oblique injury against Kansas City on Oct. 7, could return in Week 9. But he said even if he can’t return, New Orleans must play better next Sunday afternoon against the Panthers.
“The message is, the people in this room are the ones who have to change that,” Allen said. “No one’s coming from outside the building. It’s going to take the people in the locker room, the coaches to fix it. That’s what it is. And we have to pay more attention to every detail. And we have to do a better job of coaching every detail because in our league details matter and we can’t pick and choose what’s effective and what’s not. No.”
