It was an eventful day for New Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi on Sunday.
A special teams coach in the NFL since 2009, Rizzi won in his debut as an NFL head coach. He was promoted to lead the Saints after the team fired Dennis Allen last Monday. And in his first game, Rizzi led New Orleans to a 20-17 win, snapping a seven-game losing streak.
His day, however, got off to an inauspicious start. Here’s how Rizzi himself described it:
Whether or not Rizzi unclogged the toilet himself, he was able to change the flow of the Saints’ season.
New Orleans started the year 2-0, scoring a combined 91 points in its first two games of the season. But then the team dropped its next seven games, including a 23-22 loss to the Carolina Panthers in Week 9. That was enough for Allen, who was promoted to head coach from defensive coordinator in 2022, to lose his job.
On Sunday, the Saints handed the Atlanta Falcons — who entered winners in five of their last six — their first road loss of the season.
Saints QB Derek Carr was clean and efficient, completing 16 of 25 passes for 269 yards and two scores.
The Falcons had a chance to tie or take the lead on their final drive of the game but couldn’t convert on fourth down from New Orleans’s 43-yard line.
Rizzi, unlike in the morning, also had some luck on his side, as Atlanta missed three field goals.
New Orleans improved to 3-7 but still remains three games behind Atlanta for first place in the NFC South. The Saints will play the Cleveland Browns in Week 11.
The Falcons fell to 6-4, but they are still the only team in their division over .500. Next up on Atlanta’s schedule are the Denver Broncos.
Rohan Nadkarni is a sports reporter for NBC News.
