Saints head coach Dennis Allen didn’t want his team listening to outside voices ahead of their opening game against the Panthers and he doesn’t want them listening to it after their 47-10 win either.
Allen said that he wants the team to remember that a lot of the people who are complimenting the team for their play in Week One were the same ones predicting dismal results for the Saints this season, so he’d prefer if players just tune them out across the board.
“I told the team this today: There’s a lot of people outside the building that didn’t think we were capable of doing much,” Allen said, via Luke Johnson of NOLA.com. “Those same people are probably saying a lot of great things about you today that were saying a lot of negative things about you before yesterday’s game. So we try not to pay much attention to that, we’re trying to focus on what our job is, what we need to do, and how we get better. We know we’re going to have an extremely tough challenge this Sunday going up to Dallas.”
Beating up on a team coming off a 2-15 season with a new coach and a roster that’s lacking talent across the board is a good way to feel good about yourself at the start of a season, but it’s not a great measuring stick for the long run and Allen is smart to keep his team’s eyes on what’s in front of them.