Dennis Allen is sending a clear challenge to Saints offense after two straight losses

The New Orleans Saints have dropped to 2-2 after suffering defeats in the last two weeks. The biggest difference from the last two weeks and the first two weeks have been offensive output. The Saints defense, for the most part, has been pretty consistent across four weeks. They’ve been bad in late-game situations, but their full-game performances have been good.

The offense, on the other hand, started the year looking like the greatest offense ever, dropping 91 points through the first two weeks. The unit plummeted back down to earth in Week 3, scoring just 12 points against the Philadelphia Eagles. New Orleans doubled that in Week 4 with 24 points, but the offense still didn’t have a clean performance.

Now, head coach Dennis Allen has essentially laid out a challenge for some of the players on the offensive side of the ball. During his media availability on Monday, Allen emphasized the Saints need guys outside of Alvin Kamara, Chris Olave, Taysom Hill, and Rashid Shaheed to make plays. While those four have been good, Allen knows it’s going to take other guys stepping up as well for this offense to consistently reach its potential.

Dennis Allen wants to see more players step up for the Saints offensively

This is a fair assessment from Allen. Once Hill went down with an injury, Alvin Kamara took the majority of the Saints carries. It’s understandable, because he’s elite, but teams usually want to be able to spread the workload more.

Things are especially problematic in the receiving game, as Olave, Shaheed, and Kamara do all the work. Aside from those three, the Saints have 20 receptions for 131 yards. New Orleans needs more from its tight ends, and the team absolutely needs a third receiver to emerge.

Entering this past offseason, many people saw second-year players Kendre Miller and A.T. Perry as guys that will make a splash and help carry the load, but neither young player has been on the field yet. If they can get healthy, they’ll have the opportunity to establish themselves as impactful contributors.

If Miller or Perry aren’t the solution, the Saints will either have to find help outside the building or continue leaning on the four guys that are doing all the work.