Important quotes after Saints loss to Steelers include coaching accountability

Head coach Dennis Allen

On the loss, generally:

“Performance wasn’t good enough really in all phases. We didn’t play well enough. We didn’t coach well enough. We have to do a better job. We fought ourselves back, got back into the game at halftime, felt like we were in a good position, and we really just didn’t do anything in the second half. We have to be better.”

On the thinking behind running behind an injured offensive line:

“Well, we felt like we could make a first down, and we didn’t do it. We have to be able to make - we’ve got to be able to make, what was it, a yard and a half, I think? We have to be able to make that.”

On his level of frustration with the team’s penalties:

“Very. And look, I’ll go back and look at all of them. I know some of them certainly looked legitimate. We’ll have to go back and look at it.

But I think we had 10, I think they had three or four. Some of those that we had specifically on defense kept drives alive, gave them first downs. Yeah, it’s disappointing.”

On the reason for the team’s recent struggles:

“Yeah, I think we’ve got to coach it better and play it better. I mean, I just think we have to be better in a lot of areas.”

On if he’s thinking about making a change at quarterback:

“I’m not going to get into that right now. We just came off the game. We’ll have plenty of time to evaluate where we’re at in a lot of areas.”

On his message to the Saints locker room:

“Well, look, when you get in situations like these, you have to fight your way out of it. There’s no other way to get out of it other than fight your way out of it.

This is where you’ve got to lean on the leadership of the group, and they’ve got to pull us through.”

On why Alvin Kamara wasn’t utilized more in the game:

“Yeah, look, we struggled to get in much of a rhythm offensively, and so I think it all started with our inability to be able to run the football. I don’t think they did anything in particular that took him away. We just didn’t get him the ball as much as we probably would like to have.”

On what needs to improve with his coaching:

“I think some of it would come down to some fundamentals and technique. I still think there’s got to be some improvement there. The discipline aspect of — we had a couple of false start penalties. There’s just a lot of different areas that we’ve got to improve on.”

QB Andy Dalton

On the loss, generally:

“At the end of the day, we didn’t make enough plays. That’s what it came down to. We weren’t able to sustain drives, and that led to us not scoring enough points.”

On what happened in the 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-1 plays:

“Yeah. We ran the ball both times and weren’t able to get it. I think that’s what happened.”

On what the team needs to do to improve:

“We’ve got to make more plays.”