Postgame quotes from New Orleans Saints following 20-10 victory over Philadelphia Eagles | 2022 NFL Week 17

Allen: 'We have a gritty, tough group and there’s a lot of fight in those guys in the locker room

Jan 01, 2023 at 04:51 PM

New Orleans Saints Coach Dennis Allen

Opening statement:

"Hell of a win for our team. To come up here against an outstanding football team that we played against today and be able to come out of here with a win. I've been saying that the last few weeks, we have a gritty, tough group and there's a lot of fight in those guys in the locker room and they continue to do that. So really proud of our team, players, coaches, everybody."

On the offense in the first quarter and what the key was to taking the early advantage:

"Well, I think we executed. There's a lot of talk about Taysom (Hill). I think we got Taysom involved early. I think we got Taysom involved late. He was a big part of what we did in terms of helping us win this game. I thought we threw the ball pretty well early in the game. We were good on third down early in the game. It became more and more difficult as the game went on. You're down basically what amounts to three starting offensive linemen against that defensive front, so tough deal to do. But I told the guys in there, man, just the way that they finished this thing out, pounding the football there at the end was really impressive to see especially being down three offensive linemen."

On Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore being back, not showing any rust and how big the play was:

"It was huge. Yeah, huge. Man, he did a great job. I think the defensive back coaches made a couple adjustments over there on the sideline, little play that we kind of anticipated we might get.(Lattimore) did a great job of jumping the route and finishing it. That's the other part about it, we've had some opportunities throughout this season and we haven't quite finished like we need to. Yeah, he finished the play, it was huge."

On the first drive of the game and going for it on fourth down:

"Look, we knew that this was going to be a game, it was going to be hard for us to win the game for us to kick field goals down there. We knew we were going to have to be aggressive in certain areas. And that was an opportunity that we felt like we could be aggressive. Look, the next time we were down there I thought about going for it again on fourth down but we took the points there to make it a two touchdown game and felt like at that time that was the right decision."

On Saints defensive end Cam Jordan setting the franchise sack record and what it means to him having been in New Orleans for most of his career:

"Does that mean I'm a big part of it? (Laughter). (Jordan) won't let me take credit for it, but I'll take a little credit. (Laughter). No, that's awesome. It's awesome. Cam has been a great ambassador for our organization, for the entire National Football League. He has been a great player and probably an even better person. I couldn't be happier for our guy and it's an awesome accomplishment."

On what he has learned the last five weeks of the season:

"I don't know that there's something I found out about them. I think I already knew. I've been saying this. I think we've had a tough, gritty group of guys. I know we haven't won as many games as we would've liked, but when you look at all the things this team has been through this year and continue to fight and scratch and claw. We've been in every single game and we found a way to close them out in the last three weeks. So that's been good to see. That's the type of team I think we could be."

On what the determination to win does for the team's culture and identity:

"I just think it shows we're all on the right track. We're not there yet but we're on the right track. We're moving in the right direction. To have success starts with people in your building and I think we've got a lot of the right people in our building."

On what it means to still have a shot to make the playoffs:

"We're still playing for something. I haven't paid much attention to it so I don't even know what happened today. I think our focus really has been to take care of our business. We set out three weeks ago that we wanted to try to go 4-0 and that's all we could really control. We've been able to get three of them and we've got another tough opponent next week and we'll be excited about going home and playing (the Carolina Panthers)."

On how tough it was to navigate Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore's injury:

"Well look, yeah, Marshon is not the best communicator in the world either. I know you guys have tried to talk to him before. It's been a challenge. But I also know that I've been with Marshon here since 2017 and he's battled through things before. Last year he broke his thumb in the first game of the season, had surgery, and I think he missed a week and was back right after that. It's just good to have him back. I thought he played well today. I'm excited that he's back in the fold."

On how they game-planned for their cornerbacks:

"Look, we like a lot of what Alontae's (Taylor) been doing. We like a lot about what Paulson Adebo's been doing. We like a lot about what Marshon Lattimore brings. These are good problems to have. We felt like that was the game plan going in. I feel like we played pretty well defensively today. I feel like that kind of worked in our favor today."

On their decision not to play Trevor Penning after right tackle Ryan Ramczyk was injured:

"We've been repping Trevor (Penning) at the jumbo tight end for the last three or four weeks. I don't know if it's fair to have him repping in one spot, repping in one spot, repping in one spot and all of a sudden we're just going to throw him out (there). There could've been a lot of shuffling of the deck that could have potentially been involved in a move like that. We felt like one-for-one plug and play, felt good about Landon Young. We'll see where we're at next week. We'll see what the plan will be next week. We'll talk about that. We felt like in this game that was the right thing to do."

On how tough it was to give up six sacks:

"It's a challenge. A challenge. I really felt like after (Ramczyk) went down, well really in the first half, I felt overall we did a pretty good job. It became a little more difficult later in the game. Look, I feel like those guys overall with what they were faced with did a pretty decent job. I think Andy (Dalton) would tell you this, probably a couple that he might have been able to step up in the pocket and maybe avoid one of them. But look, it was big for those guys to be able to step up and at least give us a chance. That was good to see."

Photos: Game Action | Saints vs Eagles Week 17 2022