As opposing coaches, Kellen Moore and Jonathan Gannon haven’t faced each other in three years.
They were coordinators then, when Moore called plays for the Dallas Cowboys and Gannon did the same for the Philadelphia Eagles’ defense. But when the two were in the NFC East, there was a two-year stretch when their teams battled twice per year.
And Gannon still remembers the damage.
“If you go back and look at my track record against him,” said Gannon, now the coach of the Arizona Cardinals, “it’s not good, truthfully.”
Moore holds a 3-1 record over Gannon, which is why the Cardinals coach said he has such a “high opinion” of the New Orleans Saints’ newest coach ahead of their season-opening matchup Sunday. Moore will look to win his debut as a head coach, while Gannon enters his third year with the Cardinals.
In three of the four matchups, Moore’s unit hung 34, 51 and 40 points on Gannon’s defense — resulting in victories for the Cowboys.
The pieces, of course, will be much different Sunday, but the way Moore approached those matchups from a game-planning and play-calling standpoint clearly left an impression on Gannon.
“He’s very creative,” Gannon told reporters Wednesday in Arizona. “It makes it very hard on a defense, how he calls the game. He’s been in a couple of different stops and his offenses play in a way that’s hard to defend. It really is, and not just because he’s got good players. Take that out of it. Schematically, he’s hard to defend. The pace that he plays with is hard to defend. It puts you on your heels.
“And he’s always been ahead of me, so we’ve got our work cut out for (us).”
Gannon’s lone victory over Moore came in Week 6 of the 2022 season — when the Eagles held the Cowboys to just 17 points in a 26-17 win.
Dallas, however, notably played that game without starting quarterback Dak Prescott, with backup Cooper Rush filling in.
Moore obviously won’t have Prescott on Sunday either, as the Saints will start Spencer Rattler at quarterback. The 37-year-old also had high praise for Gannon, who Moore said designs an “innovative system” that relies on a “ton of flexibility within their structure.”
Sunday’s matchup won’t exactly be the same type of chess match as their previous meetings. In Arizona, Gannon elected not to call the defense’s plays and turned over the responsibilities to defensive coordinator Nick Rallis.
Moore, though, will call plays for New Orleans — keeping Gannon on his toes.
“He typically designs it the right way,” Gannon said. “You look back, the art of learning. Coaches aren’t always right in how they design a game plan. Whenever I played them, he was always right. Thought i was gonna be in this (type of defense) and sure as hell, I was in that, and he got me.
“He’s good. He’s really good. There’s no wonder he’s a head coach.”