New Orleans Saints 10 - 24 Atlanta Falcons

This game is up there for the most miserable performance to watch by the team this season. The worst part? The offense didn’t play particularly poorly, but Kellen Moore repeatedly made immeasurably bad decisions. Due to this, I won’t be diving into the performances of the offense or the defense, but the two people who are most responsible for this loss: Kellen Moore and Blake Grupe (which also happens to fall on Kellen Moore).

Kellen Moore (Dennis Allen, but “Offensive-Minded”)

When Kellen Moore officially became the Saints head coach, I honestly wasn’t happy or sad; I was relatively neutral. I say this because I believed Kellen Moore was an extremely vanilla head coach, but that he at least seemed competent as a playcaller. I also felt that any head coach who came here would struggle to succeed with the current state of the roster. Now, after I have watched Kellen Moore struggle and fail over and over again to make good decisions 11 games into the season, I am completely out on bringing him back again. 

I now have 18 tweets since the season started questioning Kellen Moore, whether it be regarding his demeanor, game management, or playcalling. He has had multiple instances where he doesn’t make up his mind whether or not he wants to call time-outs or let the clock run to the end of the half, and he has also made terrible decisions when challenging calls on the field. One of those things showed up again today, with Kellen Moore failing to challenge an iffy spot after Dante Pettis was just short of a first down, essentially ending the game. To me, it is a no-brainer to challenge that spot, as if it’s overturned, you still have the ball, save your three timeouts, and are near midfield. In Kellen Moore’s mind, I guess he was thinking that the defense could get a stop, which they did, and they’d still have a shot at scoring 14 points, after scoring only three through three quarters. 

Don’t even get me started on Kellen Moore’s playcalling… Moore struggles to call high-quality plays once the Saints cross into opposing teams’ territory. He has struggled with this all season, with the Saints currently at a 38.5% redzone conversion rate (touchdowns only). This lands them last in the league, over 5.5% below the Texans, and makes them the only team below the 40% mark. This also showed up again in this matchup, as the Saints went to the red zone three times and could not score one touchdown. Two of those trips, they got stopped at the one-yard line, both times coming up short with Taysom Hill, NOT their rookie QB Tyler Shough, who you might think would be important to give reps down there. There was a glimmer of hope for Devin Neal on one drive, who single-handedly led the team from their own 25 to the Falcons’ 45, but he didn’t touch the ball again afterwards. This drive ended with a Taysom Hill shotgun rollout pass, with only one possible option to pass to. That is malpractice. 

Finally, Kellen Moore does not possess the mentality or character to be a head coach of an NFL team; he is simply an offensive-minded coach, akin to Dennis Allen. He simply stands on the sideline, always straight-faced, and doesn’t ever seem to try to light fire under his players’ asses. Anytime something goes wrong, the team loses, players make mistakes, etc. I feel like Kelen Moore could show much more passion on the sidelines than he does. Would this definitely change the Saints season or their future outlook right now? Possibly, and honestly probably not. However, it does in my eyes as someone who has played football through the D3 college level, matter in terms of winning over a locker room. Level-headed coaches can come off as not caring, or as someone who will be in over their head when the going gets tough, and I think we can see that possibly happening this season. 

One final point, the Saints just went to Carolina, won, and had a whole bye week to prepare for this Falcons team. Within that bye week, Kellen Moore said the focus was to “self-scout”. The team clearly failed in that department, as they once again started slow and failed to score 20 offensive points. All-in-all, the Saints team looks like it has a dud at the head coach position, which dampens any hopes I had of the team turning it around any time soon. 

Blake Grupe

Blake Grupe should not have even been on the Saints roster for this game, as he was 17/23 on field goal attempts before this game. However, Kellen Moore believed in him, going against all NFL standards, and thought he could turn it around. Then, in another close game, Grupe misses two huge field goals from very makeable distances, with one also directly leading to three Falcons points. If Blake Grupe is not off the team after this game, or is not at least benched for Charlie Smythe or outside competition, Kellen Moore will absolutely get blasted by beat reporters and Saints fans. 

This game was one I was actually looking forward to after having to wait two full weeks since the game in Charlotte. I wasn’t just let down, but I was made to feel like I couldn’t have been more wrong about how I felt about the team after the Panthers game. Change is needed if the season continues this way, but I do at least feel like the team may have something in Tyler Shough. On to the Dolphins…

Offensive MVP: NONE. 

Defensive MVP: NONE. (Shoutout to Demario Davis still balling though)

Special Teams MVP: NONE.