Saints Coach Kellen Moore
“Awesome win. Found a way to get it done. It was a really, really good job by our guys, just resiliency. Obviously, it hasn’t been an easy month for our guys, missing on four opportunities, and for them to hang in there this whole entire game I thought it was an awesome effort. The turnovers were obviously a huge part of the game, 5-0. Lot of positives coming out of this thing.”
On how the first win of the season feels:
“It’s awesome. This is a special group. Their resiliency to hang in there through some challenging times the first month. By no means is it the perfect script to start a journey together as a group. I thought our guys just battled the entire game, and it was just really fun to see those guys.”
On building momentum for the remainder of the season:
“You have to get in the win column first. Then, you can carry momentum moving forward. We can feel it. We know what it looks like. We know what it feels like. Now, we have to keep getting better. That is what the NFL season is about. You have to keep getting better, and more opportunities will come ahead of us.”
On describing the locker room postgame:
“It’s an awesome group. We have an awesome group. I love the energy. I love the joy that these guys bring each and every day for a lot of our guys. It’s not just, obviously me. A lot of this group is coming together for the first time for Spence [Spencer Rattler], for him battling through a lot of things through the last year and a half for him. I was fired up for him as well.”
On the defensive performance today:
“The turnovers. It’s a resilient group. The playstyle, you never know which play is going to make a difference in the game through all four quarters. I thought our defense did an incredible job attacking the football. To create five turnovers in a game is really, really special.”
On the takeaway by Bryan Bresee, which led to a Jordan Howden touchdown:
“Just excellent, excellent job attacking the football. I have not seen the perfect look (camera angle) yet, but I have seen one. He’s attacking the football, and I think that’s a special thing. We’ve seen it throughout the NFL these last couple of days. Certainly, Thursday night there was an example of that by the Niners. These defensive linemen, they just keep attacking the football, and eventually, it’s going to pop out.”
On his thoughts as the play unfolded:
“They were grinding it out. They were grinding out a long drive. For our guys to make that play, immediately (was smart). As soon as Jordan scoops up the ball, I immediately looked at what was ahead of him, and there was a whole lot of green grass. Our guys did an excellent job of getting out in front of him, creating a couple of blocks and just securing it, allowing him to go score. It was a gamechanging play.”
On the defensive strategy:
“I thought we just continued to attack the football. I thought our defensive line continued to rush, continued to find plays. Jaxson (Dart) is going to be a really good quarterback in this league. He’s a really good player. He’s going to buy time. Plays are going to last longer. It’s going to be challenging for our defensive line, and they just have to keep going for it.”
On CB Kool-Aid McKinstry’s performance:
“Just so, so happy for him. He’s a phenomenal player. We think the world of him. He’s played some hard downs the first few weeks of the season. For him to come up with two big-time interceptions – he made a bunch of plays throughout the entire game. I am so fired up for him. He deserved everything that’s coming his way this week. We are really excited for him.”
“Obviously, Justin (Reid) going out early is a challenging situation. Jonas hopped in there and continued to play, and then Jordan (Howden) hopped in there. Big time job by both of those guys.”
On QB Taysom Hill’s return:
“It was awesome to see Taysom, (and) to see Foster (Moreau) out there competing and playing. They have been through a lot. Taysom had some hard downs in the run game, and the play-action pass, the opportunity to throw it in the short-yard situation was obviously awesome. I thought he made an excellent decision, really good throw because the corner was playing over the top. It was a big-time play. We needed that in that situation.”
On if Hill was limited today:
“His role, obviously, will evolve. He was just coming back. He did punt protection, and he did some snaps in some offensive situations. As he goes, he will keep growing that as we go.”
On having Hill and Moreau lead the pregame chant:
“We talked about it earlier in the week. Once we felt like those two were trending and they were going to be ready to play, it was kind of a no-brainer.”
On when he knew Hill and Moreau would be ready to play this week:
“We felt really good about it going into this week. We had to obviously see the evidence on the field. Both guys hopped into Wednesday’s practice and did an excellent job and really reconfirmed what everyone believed. Again, credit to those guys, their work. Credit to our training staff, all the long journey that all of those guys have been on. Ben (Stollberg), Shone (Gipson), the rest of the crew in there, we have some of the best in the business in there and they work a lot. What these guys have gone through from the whole offseason to the summer being there at training camp and not being able to participate and all the things they have to wait through, for them to be ready when the opportunity presented itself, I give credit to all of those guys.”
On Hill’s pass to tight end Juwan Johnson:
“It was in our pocket based off the look. We had a couple of plays in the short-yardage situation designed for Taysom. Obviously, based on their look, we felt like there was a chance to be aggressive there. We were probably going to go for it on fourth down anyway. We can be aggressive and see if it happens.”
On the offensive development with Hill returning:
“It is going to be a lot of fun as we build this. Taysom hopped in there and had a handful of roles in this game. Obviously, some of them, weren’t really utilized yet. There will be more coming, more expanding. His ability to play all these different positions will be a huge advantage for us.”
On the explosive touchdown by wide receiver Rashid Shaheed:
“As soon as I saw the leverage by the safety, and the corner took Juwan, we knew we had an excellent opportunity. Beautiful route, beautiful throw by [Spencer Rattler]. It was a really cool play. We needed that, an explosive play. We have been trying to chase these explosives. They haven’t happened. It has been frustrating for the whole group, but they’re hanging in there. When the opportunity presented itself, these guys executed at a really high level.”
On the offensive sequencing:
“Our numbers have been heavy run with those bigger packages. Certainly, we had some pass game opportunities in the play, and that one was able to be successful. We were able to utilize it.”
On going through adversity before getting the first win of the season:
“I think our guys have grown a lot through this journey. We know we have played some good football. We haven’t earned the wins. That is certainly the ultimate goal, but I think our guys battled each and every week. Seattle got away from us. That was the one that was frustrating. The other ones, we were right in it. We were close. We have to make a couple more plays, got to find some margins to close a little bit more. I felt like our guys went out there and played really well this week.”
On the matchup with Giants tight end Theo Johnson:
“There’s some circumstance there based off the call. Sometimes you’re matched up against one, whoever the one receiver is based off the presentation look. Kool-Aid responded really well in a bunch of those situations.”
On McKinstry’s balance guarding Johnson:
“He responded really well. I thought Kool-Aid made a bunch of plays as the game progressed. I thought our guys responded really well. There are times you’re going to have advantageous situations, and there are times you’re going to have hard downs and hard situations. Our guys understand that, and our guys’ ability to respond to that is critical.”
“As soon as you see it, oh man, here we go. Awesome, awesome play. [Terrell] Burgess, the ability to recognize it, the ability not to panic in that situation. So many times there are clips all over where guys just go and run into the guy. Ok, we stopped the play, but that’s a 15-yard gain in that situation. For him to just still compete, have some patience to himself as far as some calmness, I thought it was a big time play. It was a critical play for us.”
On quarterback Spencer Rattler’s first career win:
“I thought he did a lot of good. I am really happy for Spence. He has battled through a lot certainly through a year and a half of football here. I thought he’s played a lot of good football this year, here for us. He has competed each and every week. We have been really close, but we have not gotten there collectively. For him to get this one, he’s earned it. He’s earned it, and I thought he had a huge impact on this game in a positive way.”
On the roughing the passer call late in the game on defensive end Carl Granderson:
“I saw a sack. I was disappointed because you try to educate your players. When you don’t feel like, as a coach, you have an answer to help educate your players on how to play the game, that’s frustrating. You coach to give those guys the best chance to be successful. It’s going to be a great opportunity for us to learn whatever ultimately is the opinion of that play is. It is a frustrating play when you do so much good. That’s a frustrating one as a coach. You feel like you’re helpless in that situation.”
On if the league will explain why the penalty was called:
“Potentially. We’ll see if there is. Sometimes you can get an educational point out of it. Sometimes you do not. We will see if our league provides something for our whole league to figure out.”
On scoring 23 unanswered points to end the game:
“I thought the turnovers were huge, and I think our ability to respond to get some points out of the turnovers provided some value. The way we ended the second quarter, I thought was nice. We missed our opportunity, but the defense makes a play. We receive another opportunity to get some points there and take the lead before half. I thought that was a critical moment for us. We have not led a game this year. To go into halftime, finally with a lead, feeling the confidence and then for our guys to come out and play really good football in the second half, really spoke to our guys’ resiliency.”.
On defensive coordinator Brandon Staley’s adjustments:
“Just the communication and just the subtle adjustments throughout the game are really, really critical. That is what makes Brandon special. His ability to make those adjustments in the time, in the moment, make a different call, make an adjustment. I thought our guys communicated at a really high level on defense. They are going to present a lot of different looks on the backend. Our secondary did an excellent job of communicating, being on the same page, being all tied together. Our rush was resilient. Jaxson (Dart) is going to get out and make some plays out in space. You have to be able to respond after that. He’s going to make a play. You have to respond. Credit to all those guys.”
On the special teams performance:
“Obviously, some positives. Certainly, we did some good things. Ultimately, not quite good enough. We have the right guys. We have a bunch of guys who have had a lot of success in this league. When you go through bumps, you bring it a little closer, bring it a little bit tighter, and find the solutions together. We keep moving.”
On cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry providing a spark:
“Certainly with Kool-Aid, he’s been close to some opportunities. He hasn’t quite gotten the ball production yet in his career. For him to make two plays, I thought awesome, awesome job by him, great plays right when we needed them.”
On if game balls were issued:
“Yes, absolutely. We gave Spence and Kool-Aid a couple in there. We, obviously, will give plenty of more guys on Monday as we evaluate the film and have the opportunity to recognize all the good that came through this game. It’s an awesome opportunity for our entire team to recognize the good stuff that came out of this.”
On if he is going to celebrate the win:
“I don’t know. I’m tired. These weeks are long, so I’m ready to hang out and get a little sleep.”
On the challenge in the first half:
“It was a tricky look. I knew it was a 50-50. We just didn’t’ get a ton of looks and felt like there was a chance for a replay there. I knew I was taking a little big of a chance and may not have converted there. They got down to the line of scrimmage. They were able to run the play. It felt like there was a chance the ball was bobbled at that point. We didn’t get it done.”
On if he received a game ball:
“Yes, AK [Alvin Kamara] gave me a game ball. AK’s the best.”
On getting his first career win as a head coach:
“I think for all of our guys, for all of our coaches, this entire group that’s come together, there’s a lot of resiliency that’s had to come through for four games. We missed four opportunities. To be close and to feel like you’re playing good football, it was good. It was a big-time momentum opportunity for our team, establish some winning success, and hopefully it carries on in the future.”