Derek Carr’s return to the New Orleans Saints’ starting lineup couldn’t have been much worse.

He lost his main goal due to a concussion when your pass down the middle went over his receiver. He lost against the worst team in the league and became the first NFL quarterback to lose to 31 teams.

One day later, lost his head coach.

These are not the saints of Sean Payton and Drew Brees, for sure. But Carr and Dennis Allen quickly raised hopes of another Lombardi Trophy on Bourbon Street as the Saints scored 91 points in consecutive rout of Carolina and Dallas to start the season.

They scored on their first nine possessions in a 47-10 win over the Panthers in the first game, then surpassed that a week later at Jerry World when they reached the end zone on their first half-dozen drives in a 44-19 amazing against the cowboys.

They were heady times and, as it turned out, fleeting.

The Saints have lost seven straight games dating to Week 2 amid a series of injuries, including an oblique strain that sidelined Carr for three weeks.

Four of those losses were by double digits, including a 33-10 loss on Thursday night. Payton screams and his new team, the resurgent Denver Broncos.

The costliest loss was the Saints’ 23-22 loss in Charlotte on Sunday, when Carr failed to get his team into field goal range in the final minute and the Saints left town with the same 2- 7 than the Panthers, a team that is statistically terrible and historically bad.

So Dennis Allen, who was previously fired by the then-Oakland Raiders in 2014, on Monday became the first coach in NFL history fired twice with the same quarterback starting on both teams.

In a written statement released by the team, Allen thanked team owner Gayle Benson and general manager Mickey Loomis for his opportunity and said, “I regret that the results were not better, because they were certainly deserved.”

Allen is the second NFL coach fired midseason in 2024. Jeff Ulbrich replaced Robert Saleh as interim coach after the Jets’ 2-3 start and it took him a month to get his first win.

The interim manager in New Orleans is Darren Rizzi, who hosts the Browns (2-7) at home in two weeks and the Giants (2-7) on the road in four, but inherited a ramshackle team and a quarterback who was eviscerated by former teammate Michael Thomas on social media after wide receiver Chris Olave’s concussion on Sunday.

While cutting up the middle and reaching Carr’s errant pass, Olave was caught by safety Xavier Woods and cornerback Dane Jackson. While Woods was penalized for unnecessary roughness, Olave remained on the field for several minutes being tended to by coaches as the crowd fell silent and players from both teams gathered around him. They finally placed him on a board and took him to a hospital by ambulance.

Thomas immediately criticized Carr on social media, saying Carr tends to “just panic and throw the ball.” He also reposted another message on X suggesting Carr should be fined for throwing a “hospital pass.”

Carr spoke for more than four minutes about Thomas’ comments after the game.

“I get a knot in my stomach every time one of my teammates goes down because I love them so much,” Carr said. “It doesn’t matter if I like them or not, I happen to love Chris Olave. We have a great relationship. I hate, and I don’t really like using that word, but I hate moments like that.”

Carr said Thomas, who had previously criticized Carr on social media, appears to be the only teammate who doesn’t get along with him in the NFL.

“I don’t know what I did to him,” Carr said. “I don’t know why he feels that way. I’m sorry for whatever you’re facing to make you feel like you have to do that. But he never called me during all this. My phone number has never changed. In fact I have called him on different occasions just to try. Sometimes you can try all you want and it doesn’t work. And that’s fine. …But I wish him the best. I hope he is part of a team and does what he wants to do and loves.”

Woods said after the game that he didn’t believe it was a malicious hit, but officials told him he was penalized for hitting Olave in the head. “It wasn’t anything dirty on my part, I was just playing football,” Woods said.

Entering the weekend, Carr was one of 10 quarterbacks to lose to 30 different teams, a club that includes Brees, Brett Favre, Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan. Now, Carr is the only quarterback to lose to 31 teams.

The only team he hasn’t lost to is his old team, the Raiders, whom the Saints host on December 29.

Kelce’s apology

Another mea culpa came when former Eagles center Jason Kelce began the ESPN broadcast of “Monday Night Countdown” on acknowledge he shouldn’t have returned an anti-gay slur to a Penn State football fan who heckled him Saturday about his brother, Travis, dating Taylor Swift.

“In a heated moment, I chose to greet hate with hate,” Jason Kelce said. “And I don’t think that’s a productive thing.”

regrettable decisions

What happened to the axiom that you play to draw at home and win away from home?

He Buccaneers lost 30-24 in Kansas City in overtime Monday night after Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles decided to go for the tie instead of the win following Baker Mayfield’s touchdown throw with 27 seconds left in regulation.

The Bucs were the third team to lose in Week 9 after kicking the game-tying extra point following a TD in the final minute of regulation. The others were the Patriots at Tennessee and the Seahawks at home against the Rams.

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AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow in San Francisco and AP Sports Writers Steve Reed in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Brett Martel in New Orleans contributed to this report.

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