New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen is pushing back against allegations from the Philadelphia Eagles that his team is dirty. Things grew contentious during the Eagles’ 15-12 win in New Orleans on Sunday, particularly as Philadelphia lost several players due to injury.
“I’d say our guys play extremely hard and we’re going to compete until the down is over,” Allen said Monday, via ESPN. “I don’t think we play dirty. I don’t think we ever have played dirty. It’s not the way we coach it, not the way we teach it, but we do play hard. Look, nobody wants to see anybody get hurt, nobody’s trying to hurt anybody and unfortunately that’s part of the business that we’re in. No, we don’t play dirty. We don’t coach dirty, but we do play hard and we do play physical.”
Specifically, the Eagles seemed to take the biggest issue with a hit that Saints defenders Payton Turner and Khristian Boyd laid on wide receiver DeVonta Smith. After making a reception in the second half, Smith was hit hard by the Saints duo so much that his helmet flew off. The pass catcher didn’t return to the game and has since been placed in concussion protocol.
Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who played for the Saints from 2019-2021, called that play “the dirtiest shit I ever saw in football, bro.”
On top of that incident, Saints right tackle Trevor Penning was flagged for unnecessary roughness on an excessive block of Eagles safety Darius Slay into the sideline benches.
“We can’t have that,” Allen said. “You’ve got to have some awareness of where you’re at on the field. That could’ve been a really costly penalty. I love the aggressiveness, but at the same time, we can’t hurt the team.”
New Orleans dropped to 2-1 on the season following this loss, and Gardner-Johnson added that the Saints were “pretenders.” Naturally, it’ll be fascinating to see what could unfold if these two teams meet again in the postseason if each makes it that far.
