A year and a week ago, a dejected Dennis Allen stood at a lectern in the bowels of Bank of America Stadium and tried to come up with answers to the questions about how far his team had fallen.

On Nov. 3 of last year, the New Orleans Saints traveled to Charlotte looking to snap a six-game losing streak against a 1-7 Carolina Panthers team. Instead, the Saints blew a five-point lead in the closing minutes. Needing just a field goal to retake the lead inside the final two minutes, the Saints turned it over on downs near midfield with 1:04 remaining and watched as Carolina kneeled out the clock on New Orleans' seventh straight defeat.

The thing is, there weren’t really any answers — none that were satisfactory anyway. The Saints fired Allen the next morning. And while much has changed in

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