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SAINTS HEAD COACH DENNIS ALLENOpening statement”It was good to get a win and start the season off that way. It was good to see, offensively, we were able to run the football, which I felt like was going to be a key factor for us. We ran the ball really well, which opened up some things in the play action passing game. We had explosives down the field. That was good to see from the offense. Defensively, we had the three takeaways, had four sacks in the game. I thought we did a pretty good job minimizing what they were able to do in the running game, which allows you to kind of rush the passer a little more. There are certainly a ton of things we have to get cleaned up. The penalties were too many. That’s something we will have to address this week at practice. We still have a lot of things that we have to get better at. Our focus is going to be on making the corrections we need to make from this one, improving on those things and getting ready for Dallas.”On having Klint Kubiak on the sideline”(Kubiak) stayed on the sideline. He will probably be there next week. I thought it went well. It’s one of those things where you’re with them all week long and you’re talking to them all week long. I just think there’s something to being able to look in a guy’s eyes and see and feel what they’re feeling on the field. I thought it worked great. I thought Rico’s (Rick Dennison) been outstanding up in the box for him. We have a couple of pairs of eyes up there. I like how it’s worked the last couple of times.”On the offensive production”I thought we executed pretty well. Certainly there’s still things we have to do better, but I think we scored on our first nine drives. That’s encouraging, yet I think there were some other opportunities to get touchdowns instead of having to kick field goals. I think the biggest thing when you win a game like that is keeping guys grounded and understanding this is one of 17. Let’s focus on things we have to improve on. We’ll enjoy the win, but we understand we have a lot of things we have to do better.”On if you can feel how “locked in” the team is”I felt like over the last couple of weeks, I think, just watching our guys in practice, I felt our guys were getting a feel for what we were trying to do. I like the speed that we were practicing. I felt confident in this game that we would play well in all three phases.”On the ability of the offense to start fast”I think your ability to start fast if you’re able to run the football, it sets up more things that you can do. When you’re able to run the football, it’s much easier to pass protect. When you are able to run the football, you have the ability to utilize play-action passing. It just makes the defense have to defend everything. That was positive in this game. We got to try to build on that.”On Derek Carr’s performance”I thought (Carr) played well. I thought he managed the game well. The first touchdown pass to (Rashid) Shaheed was awesome. There was a little bit of pressure on him, had to step up in the pocket. He stepped up, made the throw, put it right on the money. That was awesome to see. Him no different than anyone else on our team, we’re going to go and look at a handful of plays that ‘ah, man, I wish we would have when we had opportunities.’ I think that’s the biggest thing we have to focus on is cleaning those things up as we head into Week Two against Dallas.”On the touchdown to Shaheed”Usually when we put Shaheed on a big post, we’re expecting that. That’s what we’re hoping for. Yet, I don’t know how the defense is going to play it. If they take that away, we have to be ready to go to our secondary deals. That was a part of the plan.”On the passing game as a whole”I feel like we came into this game and said we would go in and play the game to win. That’s what we did. I thought we took our shots when they were available to us, and we ran it when we needed to. We were prepared to potentially go for some fourth downs, if need be. It’s part of the deal. You have to play this game to win in our league, and I have confidence in our guys to be able to do that.”On the chemistry and trust with Klint Kubiak”I think the longer that you’re around somebody, the more you get a feel for where they’re at. There are conversations that go on, and let’s go play this game not to lose; let’s play this game to win. That’s what we did today, and our guys came out and executed at a high level. I think if our guys play that way and execute that way, then I think we’re going to have a chance in a lot of games. That’s what we have to do.”On pressuring with defensive back Alontae Taylor”Well, he’s fast. That would be No. 1, and he’s aggressive. It’s one thing to say you’re going to send somebody on a pressure, but they have to be willing to go in and deal with the noise that’s in there. Every now and then it’s a little noisy, and there is a big 300-pound offensive lineman and things of that nature. I think he is fast; he is aggressive. It was good to see him be able to run back there. What was it three sacks? It’s been a while since we’ve had a DB do that. It’s never happened (Saints history). It’s been a long time … since the 1960s.”On if he will enjoy the win tonight”I’m going to enjoy this one. Why wouldn’t I? These things are hard to come by. For all of us, it’s about staying grounded. There’s no 24 hours. We’re going to be in meetings tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. I don’t know what time it is now, but we’re less than 24 hours (away from that). We’re going to enjoy it for a couple of hours and get back to work tomorrow morning as coaches. Players will get in around nine o’clock and get a lift in, get a little workout, little sweat and then be back ready to go with meetings and make corrections.”On the decision to have Jake Haener serve as the second quarterback and Spencer Rattler as the third in the game”I just think that was my decision and what I felt like I wanted to do in this game. It may be that way next week. It may not be that way next week. I want both of these guys to prepare as if they are going to be the starter, and that’s why we did what we did.”On Alvin Kamara’s game”I thought it was awesome. I have a vision of what (Kamara) can do in this offense. I think there’s a lot of things he can do. We’ve got weapons. We’ve got speed on the outside. We’ve got Alvin and Jamaal (Williams) running the ball. We have all the different things we can do with Taysom Hill. I feel good about the weapons we have. Our coaches put those guys in the best position for them to have success.”On if Derek Carr feeds off the fast start”You sense that with all of them. When you go out in your first drive and you throw a long touchdown pass, I think everybody gets some confidence and excitement with that. I think fast starts build confidence in everybody. I think this I think we had that confidence going into the game. I’ve had the opportunity to watch this team through training camp. I had no idea what the score was going to be, but I had a lot of confidence in my team’s ability to go out there and play and play at a really high level.”On the offensive tackles’ performance”I would probably say, without watching the tape, there was a lot of good, and there was a few bad. Those guys are no different than anybody else. We’re going to go back, and we’re going to watch the tape and make the corrections that we have to make and work to improve. When you look at the offensive performance and being able to put points up like that, being able to run the football like that three touchdown passes, is that right? You don’t do those things without your offensive line playing at a high level. I thought they played well.”On what he meant by “these things are hard to come by””Wins. Wins in our league are hard to come by. They’re difficult. When you get one, you celebrate it, you enjoy it and then you get ready for the next one. We’re playing again next week, you know what I mean? It’s not like we don’t play again for a long time. You’ve got to get back and get ready to play next week.”On if he predicted the outcome being as big as it was”I don’t know that I saw the score being what the score was, but again, I had confidence in our football team to come out and perform well. I think we did that.”On how gratifying the offensive performance was”Yeah, it is, but that’s a long process that started way back in the spring. Look, it’s a credit to all of the coaches and the players that there’s enough trust among players and the coaches with each other. We trust each other enough to know that the message we’re all following can work. When you do all of that and then all of a sudden you see the fruits of the labor, yeah, it’s gratifying.”On playing Landon Young over Nick Saldiveri at left guard in the second half”Nick (Saldiveri) missed a lot of time. We’ve got to get him out practicing and developing. We’ll see where we’re at. That was kind of the plan going in is that Nick would be the emergency, eighth lineman in case we needed him.”On the difference with Alvin Kamara’s performance compared to last season”We’ll see. I don’t want to get into being a prognosticator and trying to fortune tell a little bit, but I do feel like his skillset and what we do offensively, I do think that can benefit him, which obviously benefits us as a team. I am excited to see where it goes.”On making in-game adjustments”There were a few things we had to make some adjustments to. It’s that way in every game. I would probably say that I don’t know we saw too many really exotic things that we weren’t maybe ready for. There were a couple of schematic things they did and made a little adjustment, but other than that, I thought our guys were prepared for what they were doing.”On if the Saints provided an unexpected gameplan”Don’t know. It’s a better question for them. You know what I mean? I thought offensively, I thought we had a good game plan.”On Marshon Lattimore’s hamstring injury in the third quarter”With hamstrings you never really know, but (Lattimore) did do something to his hamstring. We will evaluate it and see what that means, if that means missed time or not. Foster Moreau went out late in the game with a concussion, so he will have to be in the protocol. Other than that, we’ll evaluate where these guys are tomorrow and have a better idea of what we are dealing with.”On the production of the tight ends”I’m excited about what I think we can do offensively. We have a long season ahead of us and we’ve got a ton of things we have to get better at.”