News broke on Monday that the New Orleans Saints fired head coach Dennis Allen following the team's seventh consecutive loss of the NFL season.

Allen was hired ahead of the 2022 season to replace Sean Payton and led the Saints to a pair of middling campaigns. Expectations mounted heading into 2024, and Allen got his team off to a scalding start with two dominant victories in the first two weeks.

Then, everything fell apart. The Saints haven't won since Week 2. And it seems a 23-22 loss to the rival Carolina Panthers on Sunday, who were the only one-win team remaining in the NFL, was the final straw.

Per Saints beat reporter Nick Underhill, the decision to dismiss Allen was "spearheaded" by team owner Gayle Benson in recent weeks.

"Benson met with multiple players last week and traded emails with some to find out what has been going on with the team and how they felt about the head coach," Underhill wrote. "Multiple players told her that the program was failing and that changes weren't just needed but urgent."

Allen finishes his Saints tenure with a 18-25 record and zero playoff appearances. New Orleans' best performance under Allen came in 2023, when the team finished 9-8 with newly acquired quarterback Derek Carr and landed in second place in the NFC South.

The search for a new head coach to return the Saints to the dominance they showed throughout much of the 2010s will begin in earnest. In the meantime, Underhill reports the most likely interim candidate is assistant head coach Darren Rizzi.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Saints Fire Head Coach Dennis Allen After Seventh Straight Loss .