Important quotes after the Saints loss to the Cardinals focus on the team’s current mindset

The locker room is trying to stick together.

Head Coach Dennis Allen

On the loss, generally:

“Offensively, we did some good things to move the ball and we scored some points. The three takeaways were killers in the game. We got to fix some of these issues and that’s my responsibility of these things that need to be fixed. We haven’t been able to do that. We got to get these guys back and give us some more guys out there and help us start winning games.”

On his biggest concern with the team:

“My biggest concern is that we haven’t had the health of our players. So we got into this game tonight and (Bradley Roby) goes out in the first series and so we were really down to only two corners and this is a big 11 personnel team that’s going to throw three wide receivers out there and made it challenging.”

On the end of the first half:

“We still had time to go out and make a play. I would say of the three interceptions of Andy’s (Dalton)… down in the red area, I thought he was trying to set that in a pretty tight window. The other interception that was at the beginning of the two minutes was a pass that should’ve been caught and then I didn’t see it, but I think he got kind of got hit on that last one and caused it to not be an accurate throw, so it’s really hard to put that one on the QB. I thought in that situation I really thought we were moving the ball effectively. I thought our offense was doing a good job being able to move the ball and so it felt like it was the right move and obviously two pick-6’s there in the first half was not good.”

On his message to the team:

“I think our team knows they’re held accountable. I don’t think there’s any question they’re held accountable if that’s what the question is.”

On the team’s mindset:

“Frustrated but not despondent. Everything we want to accomplish is still the route right in front of us. I’m fully confident that this team will put together a string of wins and turn things around.”

QB Andy Dalton

On which interception he regrets the most:

“That one (in the end zone) is tough. I saw the window there and he made a good play, he undercut the route, so yeah you’d like to have that one back. The other couple ones are just unfortunate happenings in the play. Those are the ones that made a huge difference because it led to a pick-6 on both of them. So, that’s tough. I’d definitely, I’d like to have all three of them back.”

On his second interception:

“I got hit and it affected the throw. I was going to have Chris (Olave) in that window behind him but when I got hit it changed the trajectory of the ball and he made a play on it.”

On the team’s mindset:

“Yeah, everybody is sticking together. That’s the only thing that we can worry about. We’ve got to worry about us and the only way we’re going to get out of this feeling, this way is to pull all together in the same direction and we will. I think we’ve got the right people here and we know the standard of how we want to play and the expectation. We’ve got to go get that done.”

On the extra days’ of rest:

“I think that’s one thing you can look at this team and we’ve got some guys that are out and hopefully in this next time off we can get some guys back healthy. We’ve got some guys that haven’t been able to play that we definitely feel like can help us.”

DE Cam Jordan

On the team’s mindset:

“The mind-set is we have to find a reason—we have to find a way to get better. You end up losing to a team that we felt confident about. You get into whatever it is, you come out it’s the second half and there’s a lot of space and opportunity. We’ve got to be able to capitalize. You look at it, they had three turnovers and we had zero. We’ve got to step up.”

On the team’s missed tackles:

“Coaches can only go so far. It has to be on the players—it is on the players. When it comes down to tackling, there’s got to be emphasis on the will of wanting to tackle. There’s got to be an emphasis on rallying. If one guy misses, again, it should be eight or nine guys flying to the ball, so we’ve got to break down this film, and we have to get better. I saw (Saints DE) Carl Granderson come out the stack and make a tackle down field and if that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes. We have to be able to get these guys down each and every time, so more rallying, more effort. At this point, you take a loss and you can say immediately the defense was not the reason why we won the game, clearly. We want to be the reason.”

On the team’s injuries:

“If you want excuses we have tons of those. We’re not looking for excuses, we’re looking for solutions. Again, I think we have the right “next man up” mentality to make those solutions happen. I think we have to go into each and every game knowing that if this is what we got it’s good enough. Now we just can’t go ahead and punch ourselves in the stomach with it.”

On whether he believes the team can turn things around:

“Again, I think we have the right personnel in the building. I can’t look across any position and say we’re weak at one spot. I think we have depth. We have injuries but that’s “next man up” mentality. I think we have the guys that can overcome adversity. I think that there are some situations in this game, had we overcome them we’d be sitting in a far better, more confident spot. I think we played good and not great. If you’re not playing great, that can get you beat on a Thursday.”

RB Mark Ingram

On the loss, generally:

“We don’t have (any) other option than to be positive and proactive in changing it. Obviously, we just feel like we just keep killing ourselves. At the end of the half, 14 points, red zone turnover, big plays, and explosives. We all have our hands dirty in a loss. We just have to continue to be accountable. Continue to improve. It’s not going to change unless we change it. We get a long weekend to recover, get healthy, and get some of our guys healthy. It’s going to be back to the drawing board again trying to do what we can to prepare to get a win.”

On the team’s confidence level:

“I don’t think confidence is fragile. We have the right guys in this locker room. We have the right guys on this team, the right coaching staff. We believe in each other and obviously we know there is going to be a lot of outside noise. A lot of people outside the building (are) trying to tear us apart and trying to bring us down but we know what we have in this locker room. We’re not going to hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves—nobody feels sorry for us. We are going to have this long weekend, get healthy and go back to the drawing board starting on Monday. None of us like losing. We’ve been good here in New Orleans for a long time. We just played with a confidence and a swag that was different. We’ve just got to get back to doing what we do, knowing how to do it, and not beating ourselves.”