Al Michaels had no use for the Saints’ first-half foolishness Thursday night.
Michaels sarcastically ripped the Saints for taking a timeout before a kneeldown to end the first 30 minutes in their 33-10 home loss to the Broncos on “Thursday Night Football.”
The sequence earned boos from the crowd and apparent disgust from Michaels.
“Boy, you take a timeout — that’s the only time I’d have ever seen and a kneeldown follows,” Michaels said during the Amazon broadcast.
The Saints, who have now lost five straight after a 2-0 start, received the ball at their own 30-yard line with 16 seconds left in the first half while trailing 16-3.
A one-yard pass led to a timeout before a five-yard throw seemingly should have ended the half since New Orleans sat at its own 36-yard line with just four seconds.
But that’s when the Saints opted to stop the clock, with head coach Dennis Allen later saying he did not know who called the timeout.
“That’s the way this half is going to end in all likelihood, but they’re going to take another timeout, I guess?” Michaels said. “Alright. For what practical purpose, you tell me?”
“I don’t know,” replied partner Kirk Herbstreit.
“Even you’re stumped,” Michaels said, eliciting a laugh from Herbstreit. “To stump you is hard.”
That’s when Herbstreit mentioned Michaels’ upcoming appointment with the halftime spread.
“You’re excited for what’s behind this wall right here at halftime, you hungry?” he said.
Michaels replied: “It depends, I gotta see what the spread is tonight. We going Cajun or creole?”
The Saints emerged from their timeout just to have quarterback Spencer Rattler take a knee, making the timeout rather pointless.
Herbstreit made a hard to discern comment while boos filled the Caesars Superdome and Michaels then revealed his frustration.
“Yeah, whatever. I know,” Michaels said. “Well, 16-3 is our halftime score.”
Allen admitted his team made a mistake.
“We shouldn’t have taken the timeout,” Allen said. “We had two plays to try to see if we couldn’t create something. After having a couple of check-downs and pressure on the quarterback, it was like let’s take a knee, let’s get out of the half and regroup.”
The game did not get any better for Michaels nor the Saints in the second half with the Broncos running away with the blowout victory.
Amazon halftime analyst Richard Sherman said the Saints played so poorly in the first 30 minutes that it seemed they were trying to get coach Allen fired.