- Joined
- Jan 22, 2000
- Messages
- 56,866
- Reaction score
- 53,963
Offline
If you are relatively new to this fan forum you may not be familiar with the origin of these Know Who To Pull For (KWTPF) series of (semi)weekly columns. Actually, the story goes back over 50 years… which was long before any of us were sharing Saints news and opinions in a world of electronic socializing on personal computing devices. For reasons you are soon to discover this seems like the perfect opportunity to go back in time and get a sense of what life was like back when knowing who to pull for was a vital part of being a Saints fan.
The first thing we notice on our trip back are football seasons where our team’s success was measured more by pulling off a 2-3 game winning streak than by earning any sort of playoff berth. It may help to note that back when the Saints entered the league it was unheard of for any expansion team to seriously contend for a championship. All the chips were stacked against franchises that were in their infancy because few rules were in place to help level the playing field for these fledglings. Those new teams back then would generally need a decade or more just to acquire the right combination of coaches and players in order to put a competitive team on the field. And the Saints were no exception.
However, our Saints were actually better than they appeared. In fact New Orleans actually had the best record (12 wins) of any 3rd year expansion team (’67-’69). It was during the following 17 years that our reputation for unparalleled ineptitude was chiseled into NFL folklore. While there were occasional rays of light that diehard Saints fans could bask in, phrases like “we control our own destiny” never became our motto. As one season after another winded down to its finish, we always needed to rely on the help of other teams to keep our flame of postseason desires flickering.
It was throughout those lean & disappointing football campaigns that many of us would create a mental spreadsheet of what would be necessary for our team to rise from the depths of despair and into the ranks of playoff contenders. Naturally we all knew that the Saints would (likely) have to win their remaining games for our ridiculous formulas to work out, but we held true to our dream until we were finally hit with those hope-crushing words: ‘mathematically eliminated’. These were the memory lanes that us older Who Dats never wished to travel again.
Passing through the landscape of the 70s it’s easy to see the difference of the NFL scenery from most have grown accustomed to. You are no longer in a world where we enjoy our annual ‘destiny control’ for the playoffs. You no longer watch football games to experience the empowering feeling of gaining Home Field Advantage throughout. It wasn’t until early in the new millennium that our resident sage, st dude, took us back to these early days to remind us all how different life once was for fans of the Black & Gold by posting his original KWTPF thread. Though our Payton-era Saints were no longer struggling to meet those lofty postseason requirements as in past regimes, it was quite nostalgic for me to read his column and relive what football life as a Saints fan was like back then. I quietly cried to myself.
But I probably did so more because I realized we were no longer in that hopeless dungeon of gridiron incompetence. His informative threads represented lighthearted comedy rather than the unrealistic whims that was part of those early years. The premise of our KWTPF posts of late are generally based on fighting for a higher playoff seeding rather than finding a measure of respectability. But alas, those days of grief have officially returned. We now find ourselves in a time warp that few thought they would ever see… and others felt they’d never see again.
We’ve gone back to the time when the Black & Gold needs help. Lots of it. The mighty Saints have fallen, and we are once again reduced to relying on the mercy of others. Now our team must win,.. and specific teams must lose. The formula for playoff appearances has reverted to the days of old. We have returned to the place where we began. Our foes scoff & taunt as they watch us slowly settle into the mire of mediocrity. Our arduous path to the postseason now is strewn with the injured bodies of vanquished starters and diminishing depth. This ugly return to the past truly bites… hard!
Yet there is one thing that remains the same just as it was from the beginning: HOPE. Whether you see the glass half empty or half full, you still inject genuine hope into your personal formula for a successful season as you yearn to return to the days of postseason promise. For even though our situation today may look as bleak as the era of baghead lore, this time machine doesn’t require a miraculous bolt of lightning to find our way back to the future. A five or six game winning streak will do just fine!
*Note* - As of our loss last week there has been a significant number of SSF members who have recently joined the ‘tank for a better draft pick’ bandwagon. There has even been a thread made to suggest pulling for the right combination of Saints losses that will send our team up to the top of the draft board next spring. However, the premise of this version of KWTPF will always be for the advancement of our team to the highest possible playoff seeding without any consideration of how it will affect our draft position. Thus the suggestions represented in the evaluations below are presented solely for those who are still in favor of wanting the best possible outcome for our team leading to playoff contention & success this season. No scenarios are given with the objective of improving the Saints’ draft position.
Vikings (5-6) at Lions (0-10-1) – Minnesota has become a genuine threat to take a playoff spot in the NFC. It would be hard to imagine the Lions remaining competitive for 60 minutes and pulling out a win in our behalf. But this is what we need from them to help keep one of those coveted playoff slots open. Pull for Detroit to finally get their first win of 2021. A loss by the Vikes always feels good for what ails you!
Giants (4-7) at Dolphins (5-7) – The Giants are yet another team that could spoil the Saints playoff chances due to their much improved performances over the last month. As a team that holds a tiebreaker advantage over the Saints, it is imperative that the saints finish at least one game above the Giants in the standings. Pull for the Dolphins to hang a very necessary loss on the G-men! It could make a difference for us down the line.
Buccaneers (8-3) at Falcons (5-6) – Since there is no provision in KWTPF language for requesting a tie game, what makes this call tough is that pulling for either of these divisional foes to win is potentially detrimental to the Saints playoff aspirations. Since the best scenario for the Saints would be to take the NFC South, this can only be accomplished by having the Bucs drop a few critical games in the weeks ahead. Since the Saints still have it in their power to take a game back from both teams, it’s probably best at this stage for the Bucs to be vanquished at the Sphincter Dome on Sunday. If the Saints were already eliminated from winning the NFC South crown, the pick would be quite different.
Eagles (5-7) at Jets (3-8) – Another team with a tiebreaker edge over us is the Eagles. Though they are ½ game behind us at present, it wouldn’t hurt us one bit if Philly was to take a tumble to an AFC team and reduce their chances of grabbing one of the Wild Card spots at the end of the season. We should all want the Jets to bomb the Eagles and help make them irrelevant down the stretch. J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!!!
Cardinals (9-2) at Bears (4-7) – In another week from now this game would have demanded a win by the Cardinals to ensure the Bears cannot become a threat to the Saints playoff chances. So this game will mean a lot toward future ‘pull for’ suggestions. If the Saints vanquish the Cowboys on Thursday night and Arizona gets mauled by the Bears, the Saints could still surpass the Red Birds. But if the Cardinals win this one, we will likely be calling for them to eliminate other potential playoff teams the rest of the way. For now however, we’ll hope for one more week that they aren’t the shoe-in for the #1 Seed.
Jaguars (2-9) at Rams (7-4) – Anything that would send the Rams home early after the regular season would be a joy to experience! It’s not written in stone that the Rams can topple the Cards for ‘Best in the West’, and they've looked rather pedestrian to me when I’ve seen them play this year. But this week would be a perfect time to see an AFC team give the Rams a hard time. Pull for the Jaguars to knock them down a rung or two.
WFT (5-6) at Raiders (6-5) – The Football Team is starting to show some flashes of what makes Ron Rivera worth his weight as an NFL head coach. He certainly has Heineken and the Boys playing some very inspired football of late. Though we do possess the tiebreaker over WFT this year, it still would be a big help to have the Silver & Black stop Washington from dragging the pot this weekend in Vegas. Go Raidahs!!!
49ers (6-5) at Seahawks (3-8) – I must say that it is quite surprising to see Russell Wilson struggling to the extent we have seen this year as Seattle’s signal caller. It just shows what happens when all the critical pieces of a football team are not in place. We can certainly relate. That said, it would definitely benefit the Saints to have the Golddiggers fall back a game or two in the standings. And with the Seahawks barely keeping their noses above the water, they are just the team we need to pull this off! Let’s keep that 12th Man cheering all night long!
Cowboys (7-4) at Saints (5-6) – How ironic that the very Covid issue which caused the Saints to drop their first game this year might be what Ropes the ‘Pokes this week. I don’t know how much stock you can put in being hamstrung by infected coaches, but it sure seemed to set us back during our trip to Charlotte earlier this year. Frankly the Saints need a victory right now any way they can get one. And how gratifying it would be to begin a new win streak against the hated Cowboys! This is the game that kicks off Week 13, and we all know that a mid-week win would give us 10 days to prepare for our visit to the Big Apple for an encounter with the Jets. Hopefully this Thursday Night matchup versus Dallas will be the start of a great winning streak. If not... we may be stuck in the 70s for a very long time!
The first thing we notice on our trip back are football seasons where our team’s success was measured more by pulling off a 2-3 game winning streak than by earning any sort of playoff berth. It may help to note that back when the Saints entered the league it was unheard of for any expansion team to seriously contend for a championship. All the chips were stacked against franchises that were in their infancy because few rules were in place to help level the playing field for these fledglings. Those new teams back then would generally need a decade or more just to acquire the right combination of coaches and players in order to put a competitive team on the field. And the Saints were no exception.
However, our Saints were actually better than they appeared. In fact New Orleans actually had the best record (12 wins) of any 3rd year expansion team (’67-’69). It was during the following 17 years that our reputation for unparalleled ineptitude was chiseled into NFL folklore. While there were occasional rays of light that diehard Saints fans could bask in, phrases like “we control our own destiny” never became our motto. As one season after another winded down to its finish, we always needed to rely on the help of other teams to keep our flame of postseason desires flickering.
It was throughout those lean & disappointing football campaigns that many of us would create a mental spreadsheet of what would be necessary for our team to rise from the depths of despair and into the ranks of playoff contenders. Naturally we all knew that the Saints would (likely) have to win their remaining games for our ridiculous formulas to work out, but we held true to our dream until we were finally hit with those hope-crushing words: ‘mathematically eliminated’. These were the memory lanes that us older Who Dats never wished to travel again.
Passing through the landscape of the 70s it’s easy to see the difference of the NFL scenery from most have grown accustomed to. You are no longer in a world where we enjoy our annual ‘destiny control’ for the playoffs. You no longer watch football games to experience the empowering feeling of gaining Home Field Advantage throughout. It wasn’t until early in the new millennium that our resident sage, st dude, took us back to these early days to remind us all how different life once was for fans of the Black & Gold by posting his original KWTPF thread. Though our Payton-era Saints were no longer struggling to meet those lofty postseason requirements as in past regimes, it was quite nostalgic for me to read his column and relive what football life as a Saints fan was like back then. I quietly cried to myself.
But I probably did so more because I realized we were no longer in that hopeless dungeon of gridiron incompetence. His informative threads represented lighthearted comedy rather than the unrealistic whims that was part of those early years. The premise of our KWTPF posts of late are generally based on fighting for a higher playoff seeding rather than finding a measure of respectability. But alas, those days of grief have officially returned. We now find ourselves in a time warp that few thought they would ever see… and others felt they’d never see again.
We’ve gone back to the time when the Black & Gold needs help. Lots of it. The mighty Saints have fallen, and we are once again reduced to relying on the mercy of others. Now our team must win,.. and specific teams must lose. The formula for playoff appearances has reverted to the days of old. We have returned to the place where we began. Our foes scoff & taunt as they watch us slowly settle into the mire of mediocrity. Our arduous path to the postseason now is strewn with the injured bodies of vanquished starters and diminishing depth. This ugly return to the past truly bites… hard!
Yet there is one thing that remains the same just as it was from the beginning: HOPE. Whether you see the glass half empty or half full, you still inject genuine hope into your personal formula for a successful season as you yearn to return to the days of postseason promise. For even though our situation today may look as bleak as the era of baghead lore, this time machine doesn’t require a miraculous bolt of lightning to find our way back to the future. A five or six game winning streak will do just fine!
*Note* - As of our loss last week there has been a significant number of SSF members who have recently joined the ‘tank for a better draft pick’ bandwagon. There has even been a thread made to suggest pulling for the right combination of Saints losses that will send our team up to the top of the draft board next spring. However, the premise of this version of KWTPF will always be for the advancement of our team to the highest possible playoff seeding without any consideration of how it will affect our draft position. Thus the suggestions represented in the evaluations below are presented solely for those who are still in favor of wanting the best possible outcome for our team leading to playoff contention & success this season. No scenarios are given with the objective of improving the Saints’ draft position.
Vikings (5-6) at Lions (0-10-1) – Minnesota has become a genuine threat to take a playoff spot in the NFC. It would be hard to imagine the Lions remaining competitive for 60 minutes and pulling out a win in our behalf. But this is what we need from them to help keep one of those coveted playoff slots open. Pull for Detroit to finally get their first win of 2021. A loss by the Vikes always feels good for what ails you!
Giants (4-7) at Dolphins (5-7) – The Giants are yet another team that could spoil the Saints playoff chances due to their much improved performances over the last month. As a team that holds a tiebreaker advantage over the Saints, it is imperative that the saints finish at least one game above the Giants in the standings. Pull for the Dolphins to hang a very necessary loss on the G-men! It could make a difference for us down the line.
Buccaneers (8-3) at Falcons (5-6) – Since there is no provision in KWTPF language for requesting a tie game, what makes this call tough is that pulling for either of these divisional foes to win is potentially detrimental to the Saints playoff aspirations. Since the best scenario for the Saints would be to take the NFC South, this can only be accomplished by having the Bucs drop a few critical games in the weeks ahead. Since the Saints still have it in their power to take a game back from both teams, it’s probably best at this stage for the Bucs to be vanquished at the Sphincter Dome on Sunday. If the Saints were already eliminated from winning the NFC South crown, the pick would be quite different.
Eagles (5-7) at Jets (3-8) – Another team with a tiebreaker edge over us is the Eagles. Though they are ½ game behind us at present, it wouldn’t hurt us one bit if Philly was to take a tumble to an AFC team and reduce their chances of grabbing one of the Wild Card spots at the end of the season. We should all want the Jets to bomb the Eagles and help make them irrelevant down the stretch. J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!!!
Cardinals (9-2) at Bears (4-7) – In another week from now this game would have demanded a win by the Cardinals to ensure the Bears cannot become a threat to the Saints playoff chances. So this game will mean a lot toward future ‘pull for’ suggestions. If the Saints vanquish the Cowboys on Thursday night and Arizona gets mauled by the Bears, the Saints could still surpass the Red Birds. But if the Cardinals win this one, we will likely be calling for them to eliminate other potential playoff teams the rest of the way. For now however, we’ll hope for one more week that they aren’t the shoe-in for the #1 Seed.
Jaguars (2-9) at Rams (7-4) – Anything that would send the Rams home early after the regular season would be a joy to experience! It’s not written in stone that the Rams can topple the Cards for ‘Best in the West’, and they've looked rather pedestrian to me when I’ve seen them play this year. But this week would be a perfect time to see an AFC team give the Rams a hard time. Pull for the Jaguars to knock them down a rung or two.
WFT (5-6) at Raiders (6-5) – The Football Team is starting to show some flashes of what makes Ron Rivera worth his weight as an NFL head coach. He certainly has Heineken and the Boys playing some very inspired football of late. Though we do possess the tiebreaker over WFT this year, it still would be a big help to have the Silver & Black stop Washington from dragging the pot this weekend in Vegas. Go Raidahs!!!
49ers (6-5) at Seahawks (3-8) – I must say that it is quite surprising to see Russell Wilson struggling to the extent we have seen this year as Seattle’s signal caller. It just shows what happens when all the critical pieces of a football team are not in place. We can certainly relate. That said, it would definitely benefit the Saints to have the Golddiggers fall back a game or two in the standings. And with the Seahawks barely keeping their noses above the water, they are just the team we need to pull this off! Let’s keep that 12th Man cheering all night long!
Cowboys (7-4) at Saints (5-6) – How ironic that the very Covid issue which caused the Saints to drop their first game this year might be what Ropes the ‘Pokes this week. I don’t know how much stock you can put in being hamstrung by infected coaches, but it sure seemed to set us back during our trip to Charlotte earlier this year. Frankly the Saints need a victory right now any way they can get one. And how gratifying it would be to begin a new win streak against the hated Cowboys! This is the game that kicks off Week 13, and we all know that a mid-week win would give us 10 days to prepare for our visit to the Big Apple for an encounter with the Jets. Hopefully this Thursday Night matchup versus Dallas will be the start of a great winning streak. If not... we may be stuck in the 70s for a very long time!
