Derek Carr's return to New Orleans Saints' starting lineup couldn't have gone much worse.
He lost his top target to a concussion when his pass over the middle sailed on him. He lost to the worst team in the league and he became the first NFL quarterback to lose to 31 teams.
A day later, he lost his head coach.
These are not the Saints of Sean Payton and Drew Brees, to be sure. But Carr and Dennis Allen expeditiously raised hopes of parading another Lombardi Trophy down Bourbon Street when the Saints totaled 91 points in back-to-back blowouts of Carolina and Dallas to start the season.
They scored on their first nine possessions in a 47-10 shellacking of the Panthers in the opener, then topped that a week later at Jerry World when they reached the end zone on their first half-dozen drives in a 44-19 jawdropper.
Those were heady times — and, as it turned out, fleeting.
The Saints have lost seven straight games since Week 2 amid a flurry of injuries, including a strained oblique that sent Carr to the sideline for three weeks.
Four of those losses were by double digits, among them a 33-10 Thursday night whooping from Payton and his new team, the resurgent Denver Broncos.
The costliest loss was the Saints' 23-22 defeat in Charlotte on Sunday when Carr couldn't lead his team into field-goal range in the final minute and the Saints left town with the same 2-7 record as the Panthers, a team that's statistically dreadful and historically bad.
So, Dennis Allen, who was previously fired by the then-Oakland Raiders in 2014, on Monday became the first coach in NFL history canned twice with the same quarterback starting both teams.
In a written statement released by the team, Allen thanked team owner Gayle Benson and GM Mickey Loomis for his opportunity and said, “I am sorry the results weren’t better, because they were certainly deserved.”
Allen is the second coach fired midseason in 2024. Jeff Ulbrich replaced Robert Saleh after the Jets' 2-3 start and it took him a month to get his first victory.
The caretaker in New Orleans is Darren Rizzi, who gets the Browns (2-7) at home the in two weeks and the Giants (2-7) on the road in four, but he inherited a beat-up team and a quarterback who was eviscerated by former teammate Michael Thomas on social media after wide receiver Chris Olave's concussion Sunday.
As he cut across the middle and reached for Carr's errant pass, Olave was sandwiched by safety Xavier Woods and cornerback Dane Jackson. While Woods was flagged for unnecessary roughness, Olave remained on the field for several minutes being attended to by trainers as the crowd went silent as players from both teams gathered around him. He was eventually placed on a backboard and taken to a hospital by ambulance.
Thomas immediately castigated Carr on social media, saying that Carr tends to "just panic and throw the ball.” He also reposted another message on X that suggested Carr should be fined for throwing a “hospital pass.”
Carr spoke for more than four minutes about Thomas’ comments after the game.
“I have a pit in my stomach anytime one of my teammates goes down because I love them that much,” Carr said. “No matter if I like them or not, and I happen to love Chris Olave. We have a great relationship. I hate, and I don’t like to use that word a lot, but I hate moments like that.”
Carr said Thomas, who has criticized Carr on social media before, seems to be the one teamnate who hasn't gotten along with him in the NFL.
“I don’t know what I did to him,” Carr said. “I don’t know why he feels that way. I’m sorry for whatever he’s dealing with to make him feel like he’s got do that. But he’s never called me during all of this. My phone number has never changed. I’ve in fact called him on different occasions just to try. Sometimes, you can try as hard as you want and it doesn’t work out. And that’s OK. ... But I wish him the best. I hope he gets on a team and does what he wants to do and loves it.”
Woods said after the game he didn’t think it was a malicious hit, but officials told him he was penalized for hitting Olave in the head. “It was nothing dirty on my part, I was just playing football,” Woods said.
Entering the weekend, Carr was one of 10 QBs to have lost to 30 different teams, a club that includes Brees, Brett Favre, Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan. Now, Carr stands alone as the only QB to lose to 31 teams.
The only team he hasn’t lost to is his old team, the Raiders, whom the Saints host on Dec. 29.
Kelce's apology
Another mea culpa came when former Eagles center Jason Kelce began ESPN's broadcast of “Monday Night Countdown" by acknowledging he shouldn't have returned a gay slur to a Penn State football fan who heckled him Saturday about his brother, Travis, dating Taylor Swift.
“In a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate,” Jason Kelce said. “And I don't think that's a productive thing.”
Regrettable decisions
What ever happened to the axiom that you play for the tie at home and the win on the road?
The Buccaneers lost 30-24 at Kansas City in overtime Monday night after Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles decided to go for the tie rather than the win following Baker Mayfield's touchdown throw with 27 seconds left in regulation.
The Bucs were the third team to lose in Week 9 after kicking the game-tying extra point following a TD in the final minute of regulation. The others were the Patriots at Tennessee and the Seahawks at home against the Rams.
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With contributions from AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow in San Francisco and AP Sports Writers Steve Reed in Charlotte and Brett Martel in New Orleans.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Arnie Stapleton, The Associated Press
