Saints coach Dennis Allen apologizes to now-fired Falcons coach for players' insubordination: 'That's unacceptable'

The New Orleans Saints crushed the Atlanta Falcons Sunday, marking a bitter end both to the Falcons' season and to Arthur Smith's tenure as the team's head coach. Afterwards, Saints head coach Dennis Allen apologized to Smith — not for New Orleans' decisive victory, but for his players' last-minute insubordination.

The Saints were leading the Falcons 41-17 when New Orleans safety Tyrann Mathieu intercepted a pass by Falcons quarterback Logan Woodside and ran it down the field to the 1-yard line. Allen and Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael wanted their players to take a knee and run out the clock, with just 1:13 remaining. However, a link broke in the chain of command.

Backup quarterback Jameis Winston, tasked with taking the final snap in victory formation, evidently did not care much for his coaches' sportsmanlike instructions. Rather than take a knee, he handed off the ball to Jamaal Williams, who secured another touchdown.

Coach Smith was visibly apoplectic, storming over to Allen to stress the apparent effort to rub salt in he Falcons' wounds was "f***ing bull****."

Smith also skipped the postgame handshake.

"They can do whatever they want," Smith told reporters after the game, when pressed about the last-minute touchdown. "There are no rules against it. Like I said, we didn't stop them in the second half, and they can do what they want. It is what it is."

"Hats off to them, they kicked our you-know-what in the second half and made us pay," continued Smith. "That's their prerogative. It's also my prerogative to tell them how I feel. Whether people like that or not, oh well. Credit to them. They can do what they want there."

The last-minute touchdown was not, however, what the Saints coaches wanted.

Allen stressed after the game, "That was not a play that we intended to run down there to finish off the game."

Nola.com characterized the insubordination that concluded the 48-17 game as a "difference of opinion," indicating the 11 men on the field reached a collective decision to give Williams his first and only rushing touchdown this season. Williams succeeded in securing touchdowns with the Detroit Lions but has not replicated that success since joining the Saints as a free agent in the spring.

"We made a collective decision that we wanted to get one of our guys who they fight with — blood, sweat and tears, every game — in the end zone," said Winston. "And I'm going to feel good about that."

"The intention was never to be disrespectful," said center Erik McCoy. "I understand them being pissed off, that makes sense. But for us, it was about getting one of the most selfless players in our locker room — that essentially moved to fullback when Adam Prentice went down and is going through blocking linebackers, busting his ass for this team since the day he got here and came in with a positive attitude — a touchdown."

ESPN reported that Allen was made aware of the players' feelings on the matter but overruled them.

"We put victory [formation] out there, and guys kind of wanted to get him a touchdown. They did that on their own, and that's unacceptable," said Allen.

"That's not who we are," Allen said of Winston's decision. "That's not how we operate. We should have taken a knee, so I want to apologize to them. We have a good rivalry, and it's a heated rivalry, but there's a way we go about doing our business. I wasn't happy about that."

Winston later gave a pseudo-apology to his coach but indicated he had no regrets.

"This is the thing: This is about the team. It's not about regrets. It's not about anything else. It's about us as a team making a collective decision. But I do apologize to Dennis," said Winston. "That was not his call."

Regardless of whether the Saints put 48 or 41 on the board, the outcome was the same for Smith.

The Falcons released a statement Monday morning indicating Smith had been dismissed as head coach following a meeting Sunday night with the team's owner and chairman, Arthur Blank, and the team's CEO, Rich McKay.

"Decisions like this are never easy and they never feel good," said Blank. "We have profound respect for Coach Smith and appreciate all the hard work and dedication he has put into the Falcons over the last three years. He has been part of building a good culture in our football team, but the results on the field have not met our expectations."

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