If The Saints Weren't In The West During The Montana/Young Years (1 Viewer)

[Saint Jack]

So many of those division races came down to one game or a tiebreaker.
If the NFC South was created by that time and the Mora Saints and the Walsh Niners were in separate divisions, do you see the Saints going further than they did? Playoff win? Conference championship? Possibly even a Saints championship in the late 80s/early 90s?

 

[Groovepro]

If Carl Smith wasn't the OC during those years.

 

[football]

I don't think it matters all that much. We were one of the top teams during that era and we had our chances to move on. We never met the 49ers in the playoffs. Teams that beat us were mostly from other division, except for Atlanta. The NFC East, in my opinion at the time, was the strongest division. But I do think if we had been in the Central division, we would of won more division title.

 

[44slayer]

Youd have to get past the 49ers at some point. I don't think it would've changed anything. Carl Smith was probably a bigger obstacle than playing in the same division as the 9ers.

 

[Trey W.]

We had some really good seasons under Mora but couldn’t come up big when it counted “Playoffs!”

I believe competition breeds excellence, playing against the best should make you better.

 

[Saint Greg]

We may have had an easier road and I think we’d have some more division championships... 88 team probably would’ve been in the playoffs...but let’s be honest, we weren’t playing the 49ers in those playoff games. And it’s not like we were always on the road either. We lost to the Vikings, Falcons, and Eagles in the dome.

 

[SweetT]

Not sure if Hebert was the QB to get us deep

 

[Saint Greg]

Not sure if Hebert was the QB to get us deep

Certainly a better chance than with Dave Wilson or John Fourcade or Steve Walsh or Wade Wilson. Our whole offense was mediocre. It’s not like we had Jerry Rice and Roger Craig. Defense wins championships right?

 

[SweetT]

Certainly a better chance than with Dave Wilson or John Fourcade or Steve Walsh or Wade Wilson. Our whole offense was mediocre. It’s not like we had Jerry Rice and Roger Craig. Defense wins championships right?

Anyone QB was better than those dudes and that doesn’t say much. I never really cared for Hebert. We had some good weapons on offense, but Hebert was just above average.....barely. I remember wanting to fight him as a kid. Couldn’t believe how inept he was at times

 

[Nutria]

1988: Three-way tie at 10-6, Niners, Rams, Saints. Tie-breakers gave the Niners the division title, Rams got a wild card, and the Saints . . . went home.

Ugh!

 

[sainthood]

The Saints record during that period against the AFC was insanely good. Missing out on byes and the inability to get that first playoff win to get the ball rolling was impacted by the 49ers being in the Saints division. Bill Walsh was running a professional offense. The Saints had a high school playbook in comparison. So did much of the NFL, but the complete inability to adapt when your offense when your defense has to game plan against the West Coast offense twice a year is to me the reason those Saints teams never won in the playoffs. I also blame Jim Finks playing hardball with Bobby Hebert and going down the John Fourcade wormhole. It reminds me of Bounty Gate in hijacking a dynasty's prime.

 

[Saint Greg]

Anyone QB was better than those dudes and that doesn’t say much. I never really cared for Hebert. We had some good weapons on offense, but Hebert was just above average.....barely. I remember wanting to fight him as a kid. Couldn’t believe how inept he was at times

Maybe the problem was the person who signed, drafted, and traded for those dudes to be our other quarterback options. Imagine how bad we would’ve been if Hebert signed with the Seahawks as originally planned.

 

[J.T.]

If the Saints had been in the AFC, we might have lost four Super Bowls in a row......

 

[Scott B]

Jim Mora was 0-6 all time in playoff games, two of which was with Peyton Manning at QB

 

[SaintJ]

I suffered as much non-important pain as I could possibly feel with those three home playoff losses. Two thoughts:

1. There was TREMENDOUS pressure to win the first playoff game ever, especially at home. Hebert was pressing too hard, as to his credit he's later admitted. If it didn't have to be our first playoff win, I wonder if things would have worked out differently.

2. Mora later admitted he thought he practiced the guys too hard in the week before the playoff games. If we'd have had a bye week (twice we won 12 games without a bye, which is very hard to do statistically; in both seasons we had the third-best point differential in the NFL) maybe he'd have laid off a little and we could have been a little fresher.

Too long ago and too far away. If we're going down memory lane, I prefer to stick with the 1987 Steelers game, the 1971 Bills game at home, the Dempsey (RIP) field goal, and the last game of the 1981 strike season when Bum called a fake FG for a TD against the Falcons with seven minutes to go in the game when we were already up 28-6 ("It was in the playbook and I didn't see any reason to waste it," Bum said later).