Kellen Moore officially has one game under his belt as a head coach in the National Football League. In the New Orleans Saints' loss against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, he looked like a rookie coach at times. Moore's first game showed that he is, understandably, still a work in progress.
Moore would head into the half with all three time-outs remaining. Now, if they didn't reset at halftime, then it would be impressive that he did so. However, they do, leading many, even the broadcasters, to question his clock management skills. When the Saints eventually got the ball, there were 28 seconds left on the clock. But, if better managed, the offense potentially could have had a minute to try and score.
The first-year head coach was asked by CBS why he never ended up calling a timeout at the end of the first half. "We were just trying to save our timeouts as much as we could," he said to sideline reporter Tiffany Blackmon. "They did a good job of bleeding the clock out and putting (themselves) in a favorable position. We didn't get enough yards there to play it out right there at the end of the half."
Saints head coach Kellen Moore has to be a better game manager the next time around
Initially, the Saints did run the ball well against the Arizona Cardinals. However, as the game went on, it was seen less and less, and by the second half, it was nearly nonexistent. That led to Spencer Rattler throwing nearly 50 passes on Sunday. To be exact, Rattler had 46 pass attempts, tying him with Drake Maye and Josh Allen for the most pass attempts in week one. Of the three, only Allen would be able to come out with a W.
But Allen nearly loss that game as well, and if the reigning MVP could barely pull it off, then Rattler cannot be expected to throw that many passes week in and week out, lest the team risk the young QB reaching double-digit losses before he wins his first game as a starter. But the Arizona defense, according to Saints head coach Kellen Moore, did a good job of preventing the explosive plays and disguising themselves.
The first-year head coach was also aware of the lack of runs that were called as the game progressed. "Run game, we probably didn't get it going as much in the second half. I thought they (the Cardinals defense) did a really good job of playing gap sound," Moore said to the media. "We weren't able to squeeze anything out."