The New Orleans Saints battle with the Philadelphia Eagles was locked in a gritty, physical, low-scoring affair that included multiple injuries on both sides of the ball for both teams. Following the game, there were a number of accusations sent towards the Saints, accusing them of being a dirty team. Those players and coaches have since defended themselves.
Unsurprisingly, it was former Saints C.J. Gardner-Johnson who openly said that the hit on DeVonta Smith was “the dirtiest sh*t” he had ever seen on a football field. Philadelphia fans later jumped on that same accusation, claiming that the player who hit Smith should be banned from football for life. There were also attacks towards Peyton Turner, as it appeared that he spit downward on Smith while he was lying down on the ground following the hit. Turner has since denied that he spit whatsoever, though the video does make it seem as though it happened. That aside, Turner was also accused of further head hunting when he dove in the direction of Smith after he got hit and fell on his back. However, there’s a reason for that. Turner believed the play was still live, and that Smith had fumbled the football, so he dove to try and recover it. That was not a headhunting shot on Smith, he was diving for the ball.
Saints Forced To Defend Themselves From Accusations
With Turner defending himself from the relentless hate that Eagles fans are sending his way (and rightfully so if he actually did spit on Smith), Khristian Boyd, the player who hit Smith, has had to defend himself as well. Boyd said that he’d never try to injure any player and hoped that Smith would be able to recover well. Also, I need to add some context to why Boyd laid the hit he did on Smith. The referees had not blown the whistle at the time of the hit, and Smith was still on his feet. Boyd was making an effort to bring the receiver down and make a play on the football with his team desperately needing it. If this was after the whistle, then that’s different, but the play was still live. And most recently, head coach Dennis Allen backed his guys, saying, “Our guys play extremely hard. We’re going to compete until the down is over. I don’t think we play dirty. That’s not the way we teach it. But we do play hard.”
Penning Also Took Bad Penalty That Resulted In Injury
To make matters worse, Saints offensive tackle Trevor Penning was blocking Darius Slay toward the sideline and continued to drive him into the sidelines. By the time Penning eventually let go, Slay fell to the ground and got injured. His injury, thankfully, didn’t seem like a serious one, but it’s another situation that can’t happen in New Orleans, and Penning was penalized for his actions. When talking about that, Dennis Allen said that Penning needs better awareness of where he is on the field, because he can’t do what he did to Slay.
These Teams Hate One Another
All that’s left to be said here is these two teams don’t like each other very much right now. It was reported that Jalen Carter had to be restrained by Eagles coaches after getting into an altercation with a few Saints fans in the stands. There were also reports that Tyrann Mathieu and Marshon Lattimore were looking to speak with Gardner-Johnson following the game, though he wasn’t looking to talk. Mathieu later said that he hopes to see Philadelphia again later on in the season in the postseason. Then, Gardner-Johnson said that the Saints were pretenders this season as opposed to contenders and that Derek Carr is still not good. Yeah, this story is only just beginning with these squads.