Sports

Spencer Rattler Was Baffled By Dennis Allen’s Bizarre Decision To Call Timeout Just To Take A Knee

by Last Updated
Spencer Rattler Dennis Allen Timeout Saints
Getty Image

New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen made one of the strangest decisions of the NFL season on Thursday night. Spencer Rattler, and literally everybody who watched the bizarre sequence of events play out in the Superdome, could not comprehend the thought process.

Fortunately, it did not impact the outcome. Unfortunately, the Saints still lost their fifth game of the year by 23.

New Orleans had the ball at its own 31-yard-line with 11 seconds remaining in the first half. Rattler connected with running back Alvin Kamara for a gain of four on 2nd-and-9. Players on the field looked content in running down the clock and heading into the locker room at halftime.

Allen had a different idea. He called a timeout with four seconds left.

Amazon’s TNF broadcast cut to Rattler right after the timeout. The confusion on his face was evident. It appeared as though he asked: “What are we doing?!”

Here’s the thing.

To call a timeout in that spot makes sense, at least to some extent, if the Saints tried to throw a Hail Mary or attempted a hook-and-ladder out of the break. There is nothing wrong with a desire to score points.

Allen did not run either of those plays. In fact, he did not run a play at all.

New Orleans went right back to the line of scrimmage and Rattler took a knee. The clock expired. Both teams returned to their respective locker rooms.

Kirk Herbstreit and Al Michaels had no idea why Dennis Allen exhausted his final timeout for no reason. Nobody did.

Maybe Allen was going to run another play but changed his mind after the brief huddle. Maybe he didn’t want to go into the locker room with a timeout in his pocket simply on principle.

Whatever the reason, it did not make any sense.