Re-accessing the Jim Mora Years (1 Viewer)

[Saintman2884]

Jim Mora was the New Orleans Saints best coach ever. Sure they may be other good guys like Payton and Haslett to a lesser degree, but Jim Mora was our man, he was the guy who ran this ship and ran it well. He was a guy who took up a huge challenge of making a losing franchise and a losing team and making it a great one. He had a great GM in Jim Finks Benson knew how to mind his own business back then, and mostly New Orleans prospered so much in the 10 years he was here. I dont think that I would been a Saints fan if not for Jim Mora, he made me one and the support that we got in the Dome Patrol years were incredible. WE were the team and the Superdome was a place nobody wanted to go too, no not even Joe Montana and the Niners.

He did it with good draft picks, good scouting, and with good oversight of the team. There was no BS, no nonsense on his teams and he made discipline the main focus of his tenure here. He was a coach that in a time of dynasties like the Niners and REdskins of the 1980's we were the underdogs, we had that role of being the second or third option, people wanted to root for us becuase we werent made out of money and we did the smart way. We invsted for the future and we won, and we won, and won some more.

So where do it go wrong? Thats a more compicated story to tell, I think free agency was one culpit, Mora didnt know to handle it and neither did Finks, plus we were getting old, and Mora didnt make up for losing Sam Mills and the Dome Patrol, plus we draftly badly and got mediocre draft picks in the last years of Mora'a regime. Mora never had a lot of playoff experience and wins in New Orleans or in Indy for that matter, but he knew how to make a team work and you make it work by being smart and building for the future and something the Saints didnt do for 20 years in their existence. I think New Orleans was greatly blessed by Mora and his tenure here and his winning atmosphere. He made us winners and it felt good for a long time in this town.

It isnt easy to make a losing franchise winners and dominant, Mora did in 2 years, Payton has started on a journey that hopefully makes it a experiecne even better the one Mora gave 20 years ago

 

[LtAldoRaine]

I have to agree with you, Mora did great things down here.

 

[GW93]

Accessing?

Jim Mora brought the most winning seasons of any Saints coach, and he presided over the best days of "The Dome Patrol," but those were also some of the most frustrating years. A ten win season but no playoff appearance? Not one playoff win in four appearances? AAARGH! I should have been bald by 1993.

If the Saints merely win one more playoff game during Sean Payton's tenure, he will have eclipsed everything Mora did. We'll see.

I'm not bagging on Mora, by any means. I mostly liked the guy. It just shows how bad the Saints have been, historically, that so far he is our "best ever."

 

[Saintman2884]

GW, Mora was in the same division as the Niners were and that caused problems whether some poeple want to admit it or not. The niners were the reason we never got farther. If you look at the 1980's the teams that won the most Super Bowls were the Skins and the Niners. Those teams owned the Lombardi in that time, plus it was the time before free agency, the time where parity wasnt exactly common place. Mora should be given more credit for winning in that era then he really does. He played some tough tough division foes for 10 years in New Orleans as our coach.

 

[GW93]

Like I said, not bagging on him. It was just frustrating to deal with the Niners and later, a resurgent Falcons team that almost always stood in the Saints way of winning the NFC West.

 

[llama]

Why am I "re-accessing" those years? That doesn't make any sense.

 

[Wolbrat]

Why am I "re-accessing" those years? That doesn't make any sense.

Just go with it, he's on a roll.

I agree with you, Saintman, to a certain extent. Mora was my guy, and I loved him and believed in him and I "knew" he would take the Saints "all the way." WHich is what made it so blindingly, maddeningly painful when it just didn't happen.

I think he was missing that something special, that "killer instinct" or whatever you want to call it, that Payton DOES have, which makes a huge difference. Payton would have handled the 49ers better.

 

[Phenomkart35]

Liv'in in the past, PAYTON THE BEST. !!!!! Playoffs..... Playoffs

 

[DadsDream]

GW, Mora was in the same division as the Niners were and that caused problems whether some poeple want to admit it or not. The niners were the reason we never got farther. If you look at the 1980's the teams that won the most Super Bowls were the Skins and the Niners. Those teams owned the Lombardi in that time, plus it was the time before free agency, the time where parity wasnt exactly common place. Mora should be given more credit for winning in that era then he really does. He played some tough tough division foes for 10 years in New Orleans as our coach.

Technically, because of all the salary cap irregularities, all the 49er Super Bowls from that era should be annotated with an asterisk * to denote that the team was illegal, since it was built with players obtained in violation of the salary cap rules.

Remember, we were in the NFC West with them and played them twice a year, too. But, the league deliberately turned a blind eye to what Eddie DeBartolo was doing...at least, until he got tangled up in a federal indictment with Edwards over casinos.

Until then, the Niners kept finding "loopholes" in the salary cap system which allowed him to build a team nobody could match...at least not legally.

In the end, thanks to the salary cap scandal, the casino/Edwin Edwards bribary scandal, the horse racing scandal over Louisiana Downs, the league told Eddie that he had to divest himself of all connection with the 49ers...he signed the team over to his sister...but not before the 49ers had established a dynasty.

Here's a story about the whole sorry mess:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/10/07/MN4647.DTL

 

[OldTimeGamer1966]

I wish we could have been illegal and won some championships J/K. I didn't like ED either or for that matter I detested the 49ers. The one thing I will say is that that franchise wanted and did win for 2 decades even at the cost of being where they are now.

I like what the saints are doing and how they are doing it.mark my words there will be a Lombardi trophy in New Orleans within 3 years.

 

[JackT.]

Mora brought respect to the franchise of the Saints. Teams didn't want to play against that defense. They would lay the wood to you. When Finks died the franchise went downhill. I think Benson lucked up with what he has now and he doesn't want to mess it up. I will always be grateful to Mora for what he has done for the franchise. He was too high strung to be a coach for too long and the crazyness finally caught up with him and he quit. Now after a few years of wandering in the desert of the NFL we have a leader who will get it done.

 

[lavered]

I liked Mora as coach of the Saints. I'll never forget that first winning season. He gave the Saints respectability with a great Dome Patrol Defense. Unfortunately, he had a stubborn streak that worked against. He rarely started rookies, even when they were obviously the better player. He also remained staunchly, crazily loyal to assistant coaches when it was also obvious they were in over their head. Remember his offensive coordinator? I felt Mora was a great head coach, but not what I would consider a good game day coach. Still, I'll thank him to the end of my days for those first winning seasons.

 

[Domeination]

I think you mean you want to re-assess the Mora years. If you actually do want to re-"access" them, then you really are lost. Payton has already taken the Saints further than Mora ever could, to the NFC Championship. I think we'll see the promised land with Payton at the helm.

 

[Shawn]

He rarely started rookies, even when they were obviously the better player.

That's not really true. Rookie's got plenty of playing time under Mora. I can think of about a dozen guys right off the top of my head...

Are you sure you're not confusing him with Haslett?

Nowdays, because of free agency, rookies tend to play much more than they did back then.

 

[Wheryat]

I think Mora was okay, but the REAL driver of our success was Jim Finks. We were bad before he got here and bad as soon as he "departed. This is the same think that happened whereever Finks went. He was a GREAT asset and I think even Ditka could have won under his leadership. Let's not forget what an amazing job he did for the Saints.