At halftime of Week 7’s Thursday Night Football game against the Denver Broncos, the New Orleans Saints honored Drew Brees, inducting the greatest player in franchise history into the team’s Hall of Fame. Unfortunately for the Saints and their fans, that ceremony came after a half that served as a reminder of how different things are now compared to during Brees’ prime.
And during the TNF halftime show, Richard Sherman did not hold back in his criticism of what he saw.
“I’m confused, I’m vexed, I’m perplexed. I don’t get it,” Sherman said of the Saints, who trailed 16-3 to the Broncos. “They don’t want to tackle. They don’t want to make plays. These are good players. Tyrann Mathieu is a good player. The easiest interception of his life…and he drops it. I see guys not having effort to get to the ball carrier, to make tackles. Like, I don’t understand this. It seems like they want to get their coach fired. That’s the effort they’re playing with.”
Richard Sherman goes off about the New Orleans Saints during the Amazon Prime Video #TNF halftime show:
“It seems like they want to get their coach fired! That’s the effort they’re playing with… Dennis Allen, you call a timeout so we can watch your quarterback take a knee?!” https://t.co/Q7FNzTnWry pic.twitter.com/rVmRVYWydA
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 18, 2024
Sherman’s criticism of Mathieu is hard to argue with. Denver’s Bo Nix threw a floating pass right to Mathieu, who didn’t have anyone else within five yards of him. Despite that, he dropped the pass.
Like play-by-play man Al Michaels and analyst Kirk Herbstreit, Sherman also had a hard time making sense of New Orleans’ decision to take a time-out with four seconds remaining in the first half, only to take a knee instead of a Hail Mary or lateral play.
“And Dennis Allen, you call a time-out, so we can watch your quarterback take a knee,” he said.
The third quarter was no better for the Saints, as the Broncos outscored New Orleans 10-0 to take a 26-3 lead. So, it appears that the Saints completely missed Sherman’s speech. Or if they heard the speech, it fell on completely deaf ears.
[Photo Credit: Prime Video]
