Dennis Allen treats win over lowly Panthers like the Saints Super Bowl

Albeit against a horrifically down-bad Carolina Panthers squad, the New Orleans Saints sent a message to the rest of the NFL with their 47-10 shellacking.

The statement victory over Carolina understandably got Saints head coach Dennis Allen fired up. However, the New Orleans sideline general may have gone a little overboard with excitement after pummeling a franchise that went 2-15 last season. He was ostensibly animated and giddy like his team won the Super Bowl -- in Week 1, based on reporting from Luke Johnson of NOLA.com ($).

"I told the team this today: There’s a lot of people outside the building that didn’t think we were capable of doing much," Allen said. Those same people are probably saying a lot of great things about you today that were saying a lot of negative things about you before yesterday’s game."

Dennis Allen treats win over lowly Panthers like the Saints won the Super Bowl 

It sounds like Allen has kept receipts on anyone who doubted the Saints entering the 2024 campaign. Moreover, he wants them to keep that same energy, regardless of the result versus the Panthers.

Seeing how Allen responds to beating the sorry Panthers in a regular-season opener makes you wonder what his reaction to winning a championship would be. He'd party like it's 1999 while hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. Nonetheless, it's unlikely the Saints ever get there under his reign, so perhaps celebrating the minuscule successes scratches that itch for him.

Jokes aside, Allen's message was quite clear: Block out external noise (both good and bad) and take things one week at a time. 

"So we try not to pay much attention to that, we’re trying to focus on what our job is ... and how we get better," Allen stated. "We know we’re going to have an extremely tough challenge this Sunday [against the Dallas Cowboys]."

We can't fault the Saints for beating the opponents on their schedule, but this was always a game they were supposed to prevail. Per ESPN BET, New Orleans entered the contest as 3.5-point favorites. Still, it was an impressive showing from New Orleans. As Allen notes, they came into the year with naysayers and critics, with him at the forefront of it all.