Monday is All Saints Day and the 55th anniversary of the New Orleans Saints becoming an NFL franchise.
On Nov. 1, 1966, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced at the Pontchartrain Hotel that New Orleans would become the league’s 16th franchise. There’s been some rough sledding in these last 55 years, for sure, but in 2006, Sean Payton’s first year as a head coach, the Saints took the first and most important step in creating a winning culture.
Along with Drew Brees and what turned out to be an outstanding 2006 draft class, the Saints went all the way to the NFC Championship game. And from that season on, winning wasn’t desired, it was expected. Creating a winning culture is hard. Maintaining one is even harder, but now that we’ve tasted it, we are not going back.
And even though the team has changed significantly over the last season, the expectations have not changed. We, the fans, and they, the organization, expect to win and plan to be in the playoffs. That’s not ultimate goal, it’s where the conversation begins.
The defending champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in town, looking every bit as good as their 6-1 record says they are. If you look at the Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay offense, it is the league’s best in passing yards per game (333), in touchdown scoring (21), and No. 3 in points with an average of more than 33 per game.
I used to say that sentence all the time, except it was the Saints owning the impressive offensive figures, not the Bucs. The Saints offense numbers are at the other end of the spectrum, literally.
New Orleans is 31st in the NFL in passing, averaging 187.7 yards a game. They are last in the league when on completions of 20 yards or more (11), and No. 29 with an average of 308 offensive yards a game. This is not something we are used to seeing, but six games is hardly a complete resume.
There is only one number that really matters, and that’s 4-2. OK, fine, that’s two numbers. Frankly, it’s an impressive figure when you factor in five of those games were played outside of New Orleans, and the lone game played in the Caesars Superdome was an overtime loss.
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Let us pause here and thank Dennis Allen and the Saints defense for being one of the NFL’s best, really across the board. That steady dominance has allowed time for the offense to grow and find its identity. Without the play of this defense, we’d be looking at a team far worse than 4-2.
Every goal Sean Payton talked to this team about in training camp and preseason remains in front of them. Everything they want to happen in the 2021 season remains within their control. But that could change, beginning today with Tampa. There are 11 Saints games left in the regular season, and five of those games are against the NFC South. Five are at home. You don’t typically talk about a team controlling its destiny this early in the season, that’s usually a December conversation. But this is not a typical Saints team, and it’s not been a typical year.
But here we are on All Hallows’ Eve. If the Saints do their job, they won’t have to rely on anyone else to get the job done.
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The Bucs enter as 4.5-point betting favorites. That’s ok, they’ve earned it. I’ve seen very few “experts” or “prognosticators” picking the Saints to win this game. That’s ok too. I like being the underdog and people counting this team out.
It will just make victory that much sweeter. We’ve still got Halloween candy to fall back on either way, but I don’t think we’ll need it.