So let us get first things first out the way. The Saints played a putrescent game yesterday. They were awful from top to bottom. Coaching, playing...hell...I think it was even putrescent in Tom Bensons suite. It was without a doubt the worst loss of the Sean Payton era. Worst loss ever? Not even close, oh ye of the short memories. September 16, 1973, the Saints open the season by hosting the Atlanta Falcons at Tulane Stadium. It looks like they are ready to break out and have a good year. Instead, 66,428 see the Falcons (led by a QB with the name of Dick Shiner) up 24-0 by the half en route to a 62-7 thrashing. The Saints actually recovered from that debacle and finished 5-9--their best record to date, but I am sure that many a patron went home from Uptown that afternoon wondering what team former astronaut, now front office general manager Dick Gordon, had assembled. How about opening day, September 21, 1975? The Saints go into the nations capital, apparently ready to take the next step. Instead, former Saints QB Bill Kilmer throws four touchdown passes for the R#dsk#ns and wins 41-3. Coach John North would be fired mid-season, and the Saints would finish 2-12. No? Those were not worse than yesterday? Okay. Then perhaps you might want to recall December 11, 1977. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers enter the Superdome 0-26 in their first two seasons. They left the Superdome 1-26 after a 33-14 rout in which Archie threw three interceptions, including a pick-six, and fumbled in the end zone for a Bucs TD; Bobby Scott threw three interceptions, including a pick-six; and what was left of the 40,124 fans in the Superdome began cheering for the Bucs. How about Sunday, December 9? The Saints had just come off that shattering loss to Oakland on Monday Night, and they looked shattered that following weekend against Don Air Coryell and the Chargers. Dan Fouts, John Jefferson, and Charlie Joyner lit up the Saints 35-0 and knocked them out of the playoff race. The implosion continued into the following year, which provides me with an excellent segue. 1980 may have been the greatest year in American sports history, the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team beat the Soviets, Jack Nicklaus came back from the dead to win the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship, and the Phillies and Astros put on the greatest NLCS of all time. 1980 was total crap for the Saints. Drug issues and locker room dissension caused a talented team to fall apart the moment Russell Erxleben went wide right against the 49ers in the Dome on September 7. Don Reese was cooking meth in his dorm room, Chuck Muncie was traded, Buddy D began donning bags as headgear, Dick Nolan was fired, and the legend of Joe Montana began in San Francisco when he led the 49ers back from a 35-7 halftime deficit to defeat the Saints 38-35 in OT. (The Saints finally won the following week against the Jets in a windy Shea Stadium.) You mean to say that yesterdays game was worse than some of the games under Bum Phillips? September 25, 1983, Texas Stadium. The Saints intercept Danny White in the end zone to preserve a 20-19 lead, then Bum uncharacteristically has a fossil in Ken Stabler drop back to pass only to have Anthony Dickerson sack him in the end zone for a safety and a 21-20 Cowboys victory. At the end of the season, the Saints have overcome all that and make the playoffs for the first time with a win against the Rams on December 18 in Superdome. The Rams scored no offensive points--unfortunately, they scored sixteen defensive points (two pick sixes and a Stabler sack in the end zone) and ten special teams points (including a Mike Lansford FG after Bum went all prevent defense), and the Superdome faithful went home in tears. (Well, at least I did.) Following year, 1984, the Saints have an even better team, but they struggle. Bum goes to a two QB system, which causes further problems. But then it looks like they have righted the ship as the surge to a 27-6 lead on the Cowboys in Dallas on October 21. Out goes Richard Todd with an injury. In comes an even more decrepit Snake. Sack and a fumble in the end zone to tie the game. Cowboys then win 30-27 in OT. Despite all that, the Saints manage to win three out the next four, including their first Monday Night win ever in the Dome against Pittsburgh. The city is reviving, hope is on the horizon. Montana and the 49ers squash it under foot with a 35-3 decimation of the Saints that finally convinces John Mecom to sell the football team. Ah, but that was all under Mecom. Tom Benson cannot claim such lowest of the low days can he? Well, there was Jim Mora, Mike Ditka, and Jim Haslett. Now Mora got the Saints to the playoffs four times, but that loss against Philadelphia in the wild card game was without a doubt a collapse. Who went home on January 3, 1993, thinking the New Year now really sucked big time? Mora was good for tirades, but none beat the one after the Carolina game on October 20, 1996. The Saints started 0-5 for the second straight year, but had rolled off two consecutive wins against a playoff-bound Jaguars team and an inspiring 27-24 win over the Bears in which Ray Zellars went nuts and ran over and through people for 174 yards. So then the Saints go into Carolina on a roll...and proceed to lay an egg so bad in a 19-7 loss that Jim Mora erupts, uses the word diddly-poo, and then resigns the next day. And of course, that brought in Mike Ditka, never one without a flair for the dramatic at times...or having games that just totally reeked. Who can forget his first year when after a 20-3 loss in Atlanta, Ditka groused that he was the wrong man for the job? No? Then 1999 must have been the lowest of his tenure. The Billy Joes, the bird at the fans, the Greatest Show on Turf in St. Louis steamrolling the Saints. The collapse against San Francisco in the second game when they led late. The collapse against the Bears the next week when they led late. The collapse against the Falcons the next week when they led late. Jumbo against the Titans the following week and another late loss. Clevelands first win as a new franchise when Tyrone Drakeford essentially tapped a Hail Mary pass from Tim Crouch to Kevin Johnson. And then there is our good friend and cheerleader friend Jim Haslett. Put aside the Katrina year because that was a freak, and we all know it. One of the good things to come out of Katrina, though, is that it convinced us that Jim Haslett needed to go. I do have to credit Haslett for the first Saints playoff victory; and now that I have done so, I can move to perhaps the lowest feeling as a Saints fan up to that point. The Saints need just one win in three games to make the playoffs. Jake Delhomme filled in admirably for an injured Aaron Brooks against Tampa Bay and then Baltimore the following week. But Brooks was a petulant brat who had no notion that joking and laughing on the sideline while your team has lost does not sit well with the ticket buyers, the front office had invested heavily in Brooks, and Jim Haslett regarded Brooks as his boy. So, on December 29, 2002, Aaron Brooks started under center and played the whole game even though he could not throw the ball more than ten yards. Delhomme stood on the sideline throughout and even started warming up until Brooks got whiny again. So we all went home that afternoon to find that Cleveland had given us the opportunity by beating Atlanta, and Jim Haslett took it away because being a players coach meant more to him than making the playoffs. (Maybe he had a cheerleader to see or something.) Jake goes to Carolina the next year and comes one Adam Vinatieri FG away from bringing the Lombardi home to Breaux Bridge. We get left with Aaron Brooks and a locker room filled with those like Wayne Gandy and Victor Riley for two and a half more years until Katrina washed out that Augean Stable. So, no, Who Dats. Yesterday was a pretty horrible game, but it was by no means the worst ever. It just feels like the worst ever because Sean Payton has established a standard of excellence in the organization that the team never even sniffed against the Panthers. By and large, that is a good thing for us because it means that we the fans no longer tolerate the shenanigans and malarkey that used to go on on the sidelines and in the locker room. Word has it that there are some in the locker room on whom the front office missed; that is, they enjoy the paychecks and prestige of playing professional football, but could care less about putting in the necessary work. So there is a bright side to all this in that we must remember the famous Buddhist mantra: This too shall pass. You might also want to remember the famous Big John mantra: It could be worse. Were not Oakland, San Francisco, or Washington right now.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:26:16 +0000
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