Favorite Unsung/Underrated Moment in Franchise History... (1 Viewer)

The Saints go to Philadelphia in winter and win a road playoff game by running the ball down the throats of the Eagles to seal the game. That win tends to get lost because of the 3 seasons that followed. But I really feel that was a great win, especially overcoming turnovers.

I remember Keenan Lewis got hurt and they wouldn't let him go back in and he was really mad. Possible concussion. He shut DJax down, I don't think he had a single catch until Lewis left the game and that let the Eagles back into the game.
 
Saints 51 - Packers 29...............MNF ....11/24/2008.

In a season which was largely filled with maddening inconsistency and a constant rotation of wins and losses..........it was as if a curtain was temporarily pulled back and we were shown a vision of things we'd see in 2009.

It's also the game that kicked off a nice little 7-0 win streak at home on MNF, which ended exactly 6 years later on 11/24/2014 against the Ravens. During that 7-0 run....the Saints won only one of those games by single digits......which was an 8-point win over the Falcons in 2009.

A couple of things about that game, Jason David had 2 interceptions with one almost for a TD but Rodgers caught him from behind. And it was the first time I did a mohawk. I cut it the next day because I was unsure if I could have that at work. I made it my Saints season hairdo the following year. Bam Super Bowl. Been doing it ever since. In fact I'm bout to bring it back.
 
Kudos for NDCC with the Kilmer/Dodd throw/catch before Dempsey's kick.

Mine: last game of the 1981 strike-shortened season, we are 3-5 but still with a 0.000437 chance for our first playoff spot in the last game of the season. We are up 28-6 on the Falcons halfway through the fourth quarter, and Bum runs the fake FG for a TD and ran up the score. A glorious moment.

One other:

Shutting out Buffalo 13-0 in 1971, the year OJ Simpson ran for 2,003 yards and broke the single season record. We held him to 79 yards on 28 carries, and late in the fourth stopped him on fourth down inside our 15 to take the ball over and clinch the win.
 


I had forgotten about this one... YES!

And the rest of the story is: The Saints wound up stopping the Bucs with a goal line stand, even though they had 1st and Goal from the 1. IIRC, a 4th down stop by Cam Jordan sealed that deal!

Anybody have that clip?

:gosaints:
 
How bout this one: Dec 2006; Saints beat the Giants 42-7 in Grand Fashion - the Giants did not have a snap in Saints' territory all game.

-Rookie sensation Reggie Bush ran for a career-best 126 yards and
a touchdown,

-Deuce McAllister had 108 yards rushing and a TD

- and the defense limited New York to six first downs and 142 yards in a
rout that turned Giants Stadium into a ghost town in the fourth
quarter.

 
Loved this one. We have some great memories vs. the Rams in big games (90, 00 playoffs) and some awful ones (83 season finale, last year)

Eric Martin's catch and run to put the Saints in Andersen's range for the winning kick on New Year's Eve 1990. Waaaay 2nd to OP's PT's 4th & 1 in the NFCCG.
 
I actually thought of 2 more earlier, both from the Dome reopening against Atlanta......one taking place right before, and the other immediately following, the blocked punt heard 'round the world...

On 3rd and 4 ......Byron Scott had a dead-to-rights fumble recovery that he couldn't get ahold of, and it subsequently went out of bounds. If he's able to corral it at the right moment...he MIGHT have scored......but, at minimum, he recovers and gets pushed out of bounds. Either scenario would have robbed Steve Gleason of his huge moment. One of the rare times we can speak glowingly about an "under-rated" moment in which our defender failed to finish a play.......but with the long-term benefit of hindsight in Gleason's case, I think we can do so.

Then right after the blocked punt......Curtis DeLoach recovered it for the TD. His name rarely gets mentioned in that moment, but SOMEBODY had to score that actual TD. While I certainly wouldn't expect his name to get mentioned near as often as Gleason's with that play.......I would definitely concur that given how infrequently his name is mentioned, he fits the "underrated/unsung moment" narrative.
 
Saint J, I liked your choices but (1) it was the 1982 NFL season that was strike-shortened, not 1981. We did beat Falcons pretty badly and we did have a mathematical sliver of a chance at postseason that year, but we lost out due to a complicated set of tiebreakers to Detroit Lions at 4-5 in that year's Super Bowl Championship list. After the player's strike was settled and season saved, NFL divisional records were disregarded.

and (2) It was actually the 1973 season where we held NFL's leading rusher that year, O.J. Simpson, to just 79 yards in a single game. That ended up being the lowest single-game yardage amount Bills and O.J. were held to in his eventual 2,003 record-breaking season. Incidentally, you know the team that held O.J. to his second-lowest single-game amount of yards that year? Defending Super Bowl champs Miami Dolphins who would go on to repeat vs. Minnesota in SB VIII 24-7.

FWIW, several notable Miami players, including Nick Bounicatti, years later actually getting angry at Bills players and coaches for continuing to run the ball with O.J. instead of trying to adopt more aggressive play-calling, i.e. pass plays to try to get back like late in the game down by 2 TD's. They were upset because Buffalo considered O.J.'s single-season rushing record more important then winning a crucial AFC East game that could've determined whether Bills made the postseason that year. And they might've had a point, Buffalo finished with 9-5 record that season, but missed the playoffs ultimately
 
Great offseason thread; thx. :9:

Kilmer's accurate desperation throw and Al Dodd's exceptional stretch & catch toe-tapper.

Without that play, Tom Dempsey does not get a chance to kick the record-setting 63 yd. field goal. Watch at the 0:32 second mark.



:gosaints:

Footnote: This game also set an UNOFFICAL record for attendance at an NFL game. This is because a sample survey the following year of citizens in the Greater New Orleans area yielded a count of 297,403 people who claimed that they were physically at that game. :ezbill:

Thanks for posting that. Al Dodd was my favorite Saint as a six year old and I still have his football cards from the 71/72 seasons.
 
In 82, we need 3 things to go our way in the final week to make the playoffs. We needed to beat ATL (check), we needed the Eagles to lose (check), and we needed the Packers (who were a good team that would enter the playoffs as the 3 seed) to beat the Lions. The Lions would win 27-24 on a last-minute touchdown. As a small child, it would be my first experience of the parade of heartbreak that characterizes Saints fandom (minus the glorious exception of 09).

Saint J, I liked your choices but (1) it was the 1982 NFL season that was strike-shortened, not 1981. We did beat Falcons pretty badly and we did have a mathematical sliver of a chance at postseason that year, but we lost out due to a complicated set of tiebreakers to Detroit Lions at 4-5 in that year's Super Bowl Championship list. After the player's strike was settled and season saved, NFL divisional records were disregarded.

and (2) It was actually the 1973 season where we held NFL's leading rusher that year, O.J. Simpson, to just 79 yards in a single game. That ended up being the lowest single-game yardage amount Bills and O.J. were held to in his eventual 2,003 record-breaking season. Incidentally, you know the team that held O.J. to his second-lowest single-game amount of yards that year? Defending Super Bowl champs Miami Dolphins who would go on to repeat vs. Minnesota in SB VIII 24-7.

FWIW, several notable Miami players, including Nick Bounicatti, years later actually getting angry at Bills players and coaches for continuing to run the ball with O.J. instead of trying to adopt more aggressive play-calling, i.e. pass plays to try to get back like late in the game down by 2 TD's. They were upset because Buffalo considered O.J.'s single-season rushing record more important then winning a crucial AFC East game that could've determined whether Bills made the postseason that year. And they might've had a point, Buffalo finished with 9-5 record that season, but missed the playoffs ultimately
 

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