It’s 2008. The Saints are 8-7, at home playing the Panthers, who sit at 11-4 and can clinch the division and a first-round bye with a win. Star QB Drew Brees has directed his team to more points through 15 games than all but one team would score in 16, and is 402 yards away from breaking Dan Marino’s 24-year-old single-season passing yardage record. However, this team sits in the NFC South basement, and even a win won’t lift them out, as Tampa holds all relevant tiebreakers. All that’s left to cheer for are a winning record and Brees’ pursuit of the yardage mark. This will surprise no one, but the Saints called 51 passes to 11 runs this game. Saints head coach Sean Payton’s intentions are obvious, and so too are those of Panthers head coach John Fox, who’s going to try to shorten the game by leaning heavily on his running backs. This will surprise no one, but the Panthers called 42 runs to 21 passes this game.
The Panthers’ plan is working. The Saints’ plan… is not going so well. Carolina’s first four possessions end in points, while the Saints have an opening drive three-and-out, an interception, and a fumbled kickoff returned for a TD putting them in a 23-3 hole. The Panthers have called more run plays than the Saints have called total plays, to this point. Something is very wrong with this defense; everyone knows runs are coming but they just cannot stop them. Even the final run before half goes for a big gain.
Remarkably, the Saints have taken a 31-30 lead late in the fourth quarter on Brees’ second touchdown pass to Lance Moore and fourth total, giving him 5,069 passing yards on the season. The crowd erupts and, with nothing else to root for, hope at least the defense can protect this lead and give Brees one last chance to break the record.
After the kickoff, former Saints QB Jake Delhomme comes to the line of scrimmage, inside his own 20. Unlike Brees, a spreader of the wealth — eight different Saints have a catch in this game — Delhomme has only completed passes today to Steve Smith, Muhsin Muhammad, and DJ Hackett, who you just remembered was ever in the league. Delhomme scans the defense and, despite the pressure closing in on him, thinks to himself “Steve down there somewhere, sha!” and launches a prayer that neither Roman Harper nor Jason David can break up. The Panthers, now running plays on the Saints’ side of the field, wring more clock before future Saints kicker John Kasay connects on a game-winner with :01 remaining.
Ten days later the Saints fired Gary Gibbs, the defensive coordinator for that and four other one-score losses in which either he couldn’t get a stop to prevent a broken tie, or the offense’s efforts to fight back out of the hole were halted by the defense’s inability to get a third-down stop. The 2009 defense played an aggressive, complementary style of football that led to a championship.
Sometimes all a middle-of-the-road team needs is a coordinator change.