Thursday night was pandemonium for the New Orleans Saints. They got decimated by Sean Payton's Denver Broncos, 33-10. Throughout the game, the Saints were lifeless and never really showed that they had a shot against a beatable Broncos team.
Towards the end of the second quarter, the Saints got the ball back with less than thirty seconds left. Many expected them to just kneel and head to the tunnel.
Instead, they ran a play, checked the ball down to Alvin Kamara, then called a timeout. That left them with one timeout remaining.
With just over ten seconds left in the half, they ran another play. It gained minimal yardage, another sign to just go into the half. New Orleans, once again, surprised even the broadcast by calling another timeout. Their final timeout decision was an incredibly odd one.
On Friday, Saints head coach Dennis Allen discussed what happened when that timeout was called.
Dennis Allen explains odd timeout decision
The Saints called a questionable timeout just before halftime. Then, they knelt the ball out on the final play of the half. Now, Allen says that he wasn't the one who called the timeout. Rather, offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak called it, according to Allen.
“He got a little excited over there on the sideline... He and I discussed that. That won’t be a problem moving forward.” -- Allen via Nola.com’s Rod Walker
Assistant coaches are not supposed to be able to call timeouts, according to league rules.
We did see the refs slip up earlier this season when a Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach called a timeout, instead of Andy Reid. It was granted, even though Reid was not the one who tried to get it.
In this spot, that would have had to be the case for Allen, Kubiak, and the Saints. If the young coordinator did ask for it, the refs should not have honored it. There's also the possibility that Allen called it, but he does not want to admit the blunder.
In any case, he pushed the blame onto his assistant.
This was a situation that Allen should have swept under the rug.
Allen simply could have left it as a mystery and said something in the ilk of "we considered being aggressive to close the half but changed our minds with extended time to think about the decision."
That was not the route he chose. Now, his assistant catches a bit of unnecessary flack.
