black_floyd
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I'm gonna go with Brian Milne's recovery of Az-Zahir Hakim's muffed punt to secure our first playoff victory in the 2000 wildcard against the Rams. Going into that game, every Saints diehard was well aware that we were 0-4 all time in the playoffs. Most of y'all will remember that we'd choked away a 28-7 lead and were clinging to a 31-28 lead by the time the Rams were set to have that one final drive. Considering they had prime Kurt Warner leading them and had already scored 21 in the 4th quarter, I coulda built a silo with the bricks I was sheetting. I figured OT was our best possible scenario and it was probably at least a coin flip chance that they straight up beat us in regulation with a TD.
After dealing with getting stomped by the 8-7 Vikings whom we had a 4-game lead on in 1987 and choking away a 13-point lead to the Eagles in 1992 while allowing them to close out on a 29-0 run, all in about 20 minutes of game time, losing to the Rams after leading by 21 points in the 4th quarter could've had catastrophic ramifications. Even going into the '92 wildcard game against Philly, there was a narrative in the national and local media about whether or not the Saints were simply incapable of winning a playoff game. Stretch that string of futility to 0-5 followed by the fruitless 2001-04 stretch under Haslett and then add on the debacle that was 2005 (obviously still under Haslett; I just separated it since I figured some people would argue that he couldn't fairly be blamed considering the circumstances) and who knows if we get the same support from the NFL that we did to prevent the San Antonio relocation.
I don't mean that the NFL would've said "Hey guys, they lost that one playoff game in 2000 so fork New Orleans. Let San Antonio have 'em." I mean that the rabid loyalty of our fans probably factored humongously into their decision to intervene and prevent the move. They knew it would be much easier to make money with an already fiercely devout fan base than it would be to try to grow something from the ground up in an untested NFL market.
Considering how we were already fed up with Haslett by 2003 but had to hold in our vomit during the offseasons following the 2003 and 2004 seasons when we heard about Benson retaining him plus all the horrendous real life sheet many of us were dealing with post-Katrina, it's interesting to think what the overall climate of the fan base would've been if in early 2006 we were looking back on 39 years with zero playoff wins. We can't be 100% sure there would've been the exact same level of support for the team that we had instilled in us by that pivotal playoff win.
Anyway, as I all too often do, I've typed up way too long of a post so I'll cut it off here and eagerly wait to hear what y'all's single best plays are.
After dealing with getting stomped by the 8-7 Vikings whom we had a 4-game lead on in 1987 and choking away a 13-point lead to the Eagles in 1992 while allowing them to close out on a 29-0 run, all in about 20 minutes of game time, losing to the Rams after leading by 21 points in the 4th quarter could've had catastrophic ramifications. Even going into the '92 wildcard game against Philly, there was a narrative in the national and local media about whether or not the Saints were simply incapable of winning a playoff game. Stretch that string of futility to 0-5 followed by the fruitless 2001-04 stretch under Haslett and then add on the debacle that was 2005 (obviously still under Haslett; I just separated it since I figured some people would argue that he couldn't fairly be blamed considering the circumstances) and who knows if we get the same support from the NFL that we did to prevent the San Antonio relocation.
I don't mean that the NFL would've said "Hey guys, they lost that one playoff game in 2000 so fork New Orleans. Let San Antonio have 'em." I mean that the rabid loyalty of our fans probably factored humongously into their decision to intervene and prevent the move. They knew it would be much easier to make money with an already fiercely devout fan base than it would be to try to grow something from the ground up in an untested NFL market.
Considering how we were already fed up with Haslett by 2003 but had to hold in our vomit during the offseasons following the 2003 and 2004 seasons when we heard about Benson retaining him plus all the horrendous real life sheet many of us were dealing with post-Katrina, it's interesting to think what the overall climate of the fan base would've been if in early 2006 we were looking back on 39 years with zero playoff wins. We can't be 100% sure there would've been the exact same level of support for the team that we had instilled in us by that pivotal playoff win.
Anyway, as I all too often do, I've typed up way too long of a post so I'll cut it off here and eagerly wait to hear what y'all's single best plays are.
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