It’s doing it out of victory formation that I have an issue with. If they’d have lined up like a normal goal line play it would have been fine

The players took it upon themselves to score, this clearly shows that Dennis Allen and the coaching staff have lost the locker room and team as a whole. Appropriate measures should be taken by ownership and management.

Nobody would've had an issue if they just lined up for a normal play and ran the ball in that way, it's the fact they lined up in victory formation and faked a knee while also ignoring the HC.

I agree with Shannon Sharpe I would cut Jamies Winston and fire Dennis Allen. When the players call the shots then the coach has lost control.

I mean, can you really blame it on a guy's maturity, when he's thirty years old, and been in the league nine years?

My question to Chris would be, if you were on the Falcons defense, how would you act the next time your defense faced the Saints and they went into victory formation? Would you say water under the bridge or would there be some pay back?

You don't go in to V formation and then bull rush the unexpected defense. Setting precedent for defense to now rush the QB when in v formation and possibly injure an o-lineman.

You want to score...play a formation other than Victory formation. Dennis Allen does not have the fear and respect of his players. He needs to be called into GMs office with Winston and they both need to be fired.

Its a nonissue if they’re not in victory formation imo

They had all season to get that dude a touchdown

Most people in the saints media sphere and it’s fanbase know that the problem in New Orleans has so much to do with Dennis Allen the HC, Pete Carmichael the OC and Mickey Loomis the gm. I’m not sure how you get the locker room back without firing DA but it looks like he’s staying so they’ve got to figure that out. One absolute priority is moving on from Pete Carmichael, that’s an absolute must.

My mind thinks of when Greg Schiano was head coach of the Bucs and had his players still play to the whistle on the kneel down against the Giants. That mentality would have been needed yesterday on that play. The relaxed nature of victory formation was abused yesterday by Winston and the Saints players.

It's typical Winston and explains why he never wins.

It's intersesting to see how stupid some former players are. No organization can survive if mutiny is allowed.

They just shouldn’t have been in victory formation. Sets a bad precedent as the defence is holding off because there’s an understanding that they won’t try to move the ball on that play. If you want to score a TD up 200 with 5 seconds left, that’s fine. It’s pro sports. But this formation exists to avoid injury and it’s a bad look on Jameis, Allen and the Saints as a team. End of the day nothing happened so we can move on

Chris, that’s called a narcissist. Now play out some hypothetical thinking here. 1) Was it a team decision or did Winston lie in the huddle. The call came over the radio from the sidelines. So did Winston tell the offense go into victory formation and score. 2) The team got together and decided to score. 3) lack of respect for the coaching staff. We will find out in the next 48 hours. Either way there is a problem there that must be fixed.

So NFL wants the defenders to slam full speed into players taking a knee, just in case they are trying to score??? Refs gonna not call that?

Williams is a backup, Winston is a backup. Winston has to go. From an organizational standpoint if there’s no repercussion for this you’re sending the message that if our backups can just do what they want, then this is a free for all.

The issue isn't the Falcons scoring the touchdown. The issue is the falcons advancing the ball out of the Victory formation. Doing anything other than taking a knee in the V is total BS. It's worse than Greg Schiano's antics.

Terrible take Chris. If they want to go for one more touchdown then fine, line up in a regular formation. To line up in a victory formation and then pull that move is a straight-up Bush League move.

Dennis Allen should have been heated over that too. His own players saying f you we will make the call. Could you imagine the Niners players doing that to Shanahan? It would never happen but Shanahan would annihilate anyone who disrespected him like that.

Im a Falcons fan , and if this helped Arthur Smith get fired then Im for it.

First time I have heard Chris give a pretty good explanation, not only the situation but the Saints seasons as a whole

If you can't follow direction from your coach, You are not needed on the "team", player.

As a native of New Orleans and an almost life-long Saints fan, this was a classless move by the players.

Can you imagine if that would have been Sean Payton still coaching and they did that... 🤯🤯

Idk I’m glad reading these comments we don’t agree with Long. There’s multiple things going on here, it’s a team going rogue. It’s the unwritten rules of victory formation. It’s the maturity you expect a seasoned guy like Winston to have. It’s atrocious for the Saints because now you’ll have to clear roster and coaching staff. And you finished 8-8 not like it was bad, no one dies but some will lose their livelihood.

Not to be morbid, but I guess for all V formation plays (from Saints) the D-Line should now chop the knees out of the O-Line now as they're just standing there, just to be sure. Is what it is.

D.A. sat Jameis while he was healthy for Andy Dalton...However put Carr out there with ribs and concussions. That's Jameis and in my opinion, its personal.

No excuse, the new era of players getting bigger than the game. Classless. No wonder ratings decrease every year.

Imagine trying this BS against Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Suggs back in the day. It'd be a straight up fist fight.

Obviously this never would've happened back in the day with Tom Landry or Chuck Noll. But then I have a hard time seeing it happening under Mike Tomlin too.

Also the fact that the Saints lined up in victory, and snuck the play in.

Like Long said Payton wouldn’t have called victory formation Dennis Allen should have called a run play in it is what it is 504

“Nobody died” lol great point sir.

Jameis Winston essentially stole his kids participation trophy and gave it to whatever his name is RB lol

Arthur Smith was not fired as a result of this Saints win give me a break. Funny how the same people talking about the strong rumors of his being fired weeks ago are all of a sudden surprised about the "suddenness" of it happening sunday night. FFS they lost to Carolina last month, and that was the catalyst.

when a head coach gives instruction, you follow it. end of story. people like chris long will be the first people complaining " these players don't respect the chain of command, they have no respect for the league & all who came before them" yes, because you just now gave a player a pass to disregard authority in the NFL. good lord smh

Not the first time Jameis Winston didn't take no for an answer

When someone starts with " well nobody died ", just stop listening because you could use that argument for 99% of discussions and debates. Funny also that many ex-players are not having an issue with a player not listening to their coach and just going rogue. How would that not be an issue on any team, if its not a big deal then what's the point of having a coach?

Today in sentences I never thought I would hear: "Jameis Winston went to a class."

Best take on this situation I have heard!

They need to do more of this stuff,good theater,Winston for president

As a saints fan, the ENTIRE fan base wants Allen out and we love what Jameis did. Plus its the falcons... F em, Who dat!!

If you get fired in the morning, than it is personal because they could not wait until they came back to ATL.

So is Winston the new coach of NO? What coach wants his players to make that call? It under minds the coach. The players do not resect that coach. If you want a TD there call time out, talk to the coach about it. To go rouge shows no respect.

If Jameis Winston had tried that out of the victory formation against Ray Nitschke, Jack Lambert, Mike Singletary or Dick Butkus, he wouldn't have any teeth and would eating out of a tube for a month.

i love the call

It was a mutiny led by a backup QB. THAT'S the central issue. Allen should be fired and Jameis Winston should be cut. Other coaches should see how an idiot like this could cost them their jobs.

If Dennis Allen is fired the very first thing the new coach would have to do is to release Winston. He can't have that poison on his team.

Come on, we all know Jameis went rogue on this. No way 9 other guys wanted to do this

I don’t think the Steelers do this to Mike Tomlin or the lions do this to Dan Campbell. But also I think if the coach has a feel for his players he should know what they want and do it without having them question him.

Scoring from victory formation is classless and cowardly.

The issue isn't about disrespecting Falcons but disrespecting their own head coach Dennis Allen. Saints don't give a crap for the Allen and Saints should just get fired.

The Atlanta players should jump off side at the NOLA if they line up the victory formation next year haaaaa

No this falls squarley on Dennis Allen and his complete incompetence. You bring in a guy who led the NFL in TDs last year. Then you as a coach decide your best chance of winning is to keep him as far away from the endzone as possible. Ive been in meeting rooms where we as an offense look around at each other trying to figure out what we could do that would work. I guarantee you the offensive players sat in those meeting rooms thinking to themselves "You know coach, Jamaal did have 17 TDs last year, would it really be that bad if we tried getting him the ball more?" Then it comes out that Dennis Allen told them "No" when the saints players asked him if he would allow Jamaal to get his first TD of the season on the last play of the season. Yeah I'd be frustrated to if my brother went all through Summer conditioning and lifting, minicamp, then practice and in weekly meetings doing everything right only to be told in the final moment "No I dont want you to score". And yeah I myself am not upset in the slightest that the Saints players said "Screw you Dennis Allen, we're getting our guy a score since you've refused to let him try all season." The only person Dennis Allen should be blaming is himself. I mena shoot you have both Kamara and Williams, theres no reason the run game should be as anemic as it is. Shoot the Lions have 2 guys w/ around 1,000 yards and 9+TDs, wanna know what runnung the ball like that helped them do? It allowed Detroit to be a top 5 passing offense for the second straight year. Dennis Allens incompetence created this situation and its Dennis Allen's incompetence that should have gotten him fired as soon as the clock hit midnight on Sunday.

The saints are heating up at the right time but two little to late. I fell like saints could of made a run

I agree with Chris, Just get over it. These two teams hate each other. When the Falcons host the saints, they won't even put their name on the big scoreboard. They put visitors up.

If you don’t want them to score then line-up and stop them.

At the end of the day all I cared about was the fact that Arthur Smith wasn’t going to be back as the coach for the Falcons.

Jameis is a career backup and he's good enough that DA will keep him forever. This is how Jameis says "I want to be cut" so I can go play somewhere.

Shannon Sharpe said Jameis should be gone.

🖕🏾DA, Arthur Smith, and anyone else who have a problem with the touchdown ⚜️

DA has not had control of the locker room for a while and I feel this was the moment for him to have his team's back to rally and atleast gain some respect back. But nope he apologizes and kinda shrugs it off but still doesn't find a way to rally. So weird.

What a dumb take by Chris Long. Find better SME's Rich.

If you don't want them to score stop em

Give your best effort till the game is over

If I were the coach, I wouldn’t give a locker room victory speech. I would walk in there and say “pack your bags and go home” then walk out.

That last play sounds like a team that doesn't respect their coach. DA has lost the locker room.

Cut Winston, can't trust him anymore. Cut Allen, no one respects him.

An that rams game dennis got out coached by mcvay

What seems lost in all this is why wasn't Jamaal wasn't getting into the endzone all season. He led the league in TDs last year. Add Dalvin Cook to that convo, as well. The Vikings run game was miserable this year. They could've paid Cook and maybe have gained another W or 2 out of it and made the playoffs. Sometimes I think NFL GMs are too smart (or think they are) for their own good.

if winston ever faces the falcons again, I fully expect atl to end his season with a cheapie and I won't blame them.

This shouldn't take away the fact that the Honey Badger was fucking around, gloating and slowing down, when he had an easy pick six if he would have just ran for it.

This is a Rivalry game !!!

Why did Jaamal Williams choose to not score the entire season ?

Expect defenses to now blow up O-Lines because of this, especially any team Jameis is on.

Why do you all dismiss NFC south rivalries? Jamies Winston played at FSU who just got flushed by UGA last week. Then played in Tampa before landing in NO where he had a chance to give the middle finger to Atlanta? This is the NFL - these games and rivalries mean something and if Atlanta doesn’t want to be on this side of the conversation then go beat the Aints in the dome and quit crying about it. JW was leading his team to do something personal for a teammate. I wish the Falcons had players and bonds that could get to that same decision. They did with Dan Quinn.

Any time the Saints can humiliate the Falcons is a good day.

Why would Williams even want a TD in that situation... its a joke.

The problem is that this shouldn't be getting discussed. Dennis Allen should have apologised and taken the conversation behind closed doors.

Great take! Saints fans agree, lots of problems on this team and most of them involve coaching. I understand the falcons being upset that they ran a play out of the v formation, but I'm sure the players knew that if they lined up in goal or i formation that DA would have called a time out.

Maybe do away with coaches. The Texans owner a few years ago made a statement and was forced to sell his franchise. And he was spot on. In the real world if your boss tells you to do something you do it whether you like them or not.

How is faking victory formation any worse than faking a spike? Either way “the defense wasn’t expecting it”

A no-no is what you describe something your two-year-old does wrong. Winston shows himself low-class and dishonorable. Jones and make all the excuses he wants but bottom line is is total bx.

First off... It they just lined up and everyone knew they were running a real play. Nobody would've taken offense. That rivalry stuff. But when you take Victory Formation... And players are expected not to hit each other in that context then because cheap shots and safety then.... There is no Excuses for that type of behavior. If it was me it would have been some fights

Chris, I disagree with you on the Saints scoring on Atlanta because "Victory Formation" was designed to protect football players. it was fortunate that the Falcons or even Saints players were not injured. This is pure stupidity by NFL players and needs to be called out!

I take it, Winston will be released, possibly Allen also see how it plays out.

As a Falcons fan, I'm kind of glad the Saints embarrassed them - Arthur Smith and the front office dissed Matt Ryan (the Falcons best QB in decades, if not all time) by drafting Desmond Ridder, then brought in Marcus Mariota which was a disaster. Then Smith stuck with Ridder way too long when it was obvious he wasn't improving. It was time for a shake-up, and Arthur Blank isn't getting any younger. That said, this was a rivalry game, and this horseshit play to give Williams a garbage-time TD will not go unanswered next year.

if Dennis Allen had any integrity, he’d cut Winston. Instantly.

People should watch Shannon Sharpe response to the victory formation incident because he was right.

Honestly, I don't blame the players for wanting to run up the score and getting their guy a TD. The Saints coach once he saw the team didn't agree should've kept his mouth shut and just said his guys were playing for each other and supported them. Instead he trashed his own players because they made an audible that was meaningless to win/loss chance. Even if it wasn't what he wanted he should be own team/players side and represent the team. That is what a head coach is supposed to do. Also he should know his players well enough to know if they would want to get their guy the TD at the end or not. It just shows that he doesn't have a personal relationship with any of the players on offense honestly. I'd fire him in the offseason if I owned the Saints.

DA screwing all the players with terrible play calls all year led to this. But otherwise, no biggy.

How did getting derrick car for 75 million dollars did they make playoffs

Aints gon Aint

I’m pretty sure Atlanta will draw a penalty on that situation!

I'm pretty sure that coach was disrespectful to Mr Winston. Paying the house to Derrick Carr. I felt the f this coach in my shananana. Well done with all due offense. Winston knows hes out. Johnny paycheck would be proud. Take this job and shove it. Williams and Winston 2024

He disrespected his coach. It's that simple, Jameis should be cut.

He's right, Jameis is just like a politician: a liar, a thief, with sexual assault allegations.

The oline wanted this td.