I heart football statistics

I’m not hating on the Saints, but I’ve been looking over the statistics recently and I found a few interesting discoveries. For my purposes I’m not counting statistics from 1982 or 1987 as both were shortened and affected by players’ strikes.

1) The saints have never gone undefeated at home. Their best effort is 6-2 – accomplished 1991, 1992, 2008, 2009. Not a huge deal, but the Patriots have been undefeated at home 3 out of the last 4 years (2010, 2009, 2007).  I know, I know the Patriots aren't the defending world champions (but we don't have tickets, so we play the subway eat fresh mumble mumble mumble mumble) - but they did win those 3 Superbowls a few years ago

2) 1980 the saints had 0 home wins

3) The saints have never gone undefeated in their division. Their best effort is 6-2 (when they had 4 division opponents) and 4-2 (when they had 3 division opponents). – Accomplished 1979, 1990-92, 1994, 2000, 2006, 2009-10. Not a big deal to go undefeated in your division, I know, but the Raiders did it this year, and the Bengals did it last year…doesn’t seem that hard.  Just like "following orders" wasn't an acceptable excuse at Nuremburg, "but San Francisco was in our division" is not an acceptable excuse.  Cincinnati went undefeated last year and had to beat Pittsburgh and Baltimore twice.

4) 1970, 1980, 1996 the saints had 0 wins against divisional opponents

5) 1970, 1975, 1999 the saints had 0 road wins

6) When the Saints played at Tulane Stadium they always had a better home record than road record. All 8 seasons played at Tulane Stadium were losing seasons, the best of which was 6-8 in 1971.

7) Dome field advantage is largely a myth: the Saints have only had a better record at home than on the road, and had a winning record (because lets face it if you’re .500 or below it doesn’t matter anyway) twice: 1989 and 1991

8) The Saints didn’t have a winning season or make the playoffs until 1987 (strike year), but they almost made the playoffs in 1983 when they finished 8-8 (their 2nd non-losing season – the 1st being 1979). In the last game of the season, with the playoffs on the line, the Los Angeles Rams scored 26 points on one safety, two INT returns for TDs, one punt return for a TD and one field goal to win.

9) The Saints have played in 4 divisions in the NFC and don’t have a winning record in any of them:

1 year in the Century division: 2-3-1 [1968]
2 years in the Capital division: 3-9 [1967, 1969]
9 years in the South: 27-27 [2002-present]
31 years in the West: 79-122-4 [1970-2001]

10) Saints have tied five games in team history, only once at home (Tulane Stadium):

20-20 @ Detroit Lions – 11th game 1968 season (Lions 4-8-2)
20-20 @ San Francisco 49ers – 5th game 1970 season (49ers 10-3-1, the other game that year the 49ers won 38-27)
13-13 @ Houston Oilers – 3rd game 1971 season (Oilers 4-9-1)
21-21 Oakland Raiders – 8th game 1971 season (Raiders 8-4-2)
20-20 @ San Francisco 49ers – 6th game 1972 season (49ers 8-5-1, the other game that year the 49ers won 37-2)

11) The Saints have played with these div opponents, with the following records as div opponents:

Browns – 1 (1968): 0-2
Cardinals – 1 (1968): 0-2
Steelers – 1 (1968): 2-0
Cowboys – 2 (1967, 1969): 0-4
Eagles – 2 (1967, 1969): 2-2
Redskins – 2 (1967, 1969): 1-3
Buccaneers – 9 (2002–present): 9-9
Panthers – 16 (1995-present): 15-17
49ers – 32 (1970-2001): 18-44-2
Rams – 32 (1970-2001): 28-34
Falcons – 42 (1970-present): 37-44

The only winning record against a division opponent is against the Steelers.  When the Saints and Steelers were both in the Century Division in 1968 the Saints were undefeated against them, and then the Saints and Steelers parted ways, and have been in different divisions ever since.  The Saints also have the opportunity to tighten up this record by beating Tampa Bay the first time they play this year.  And if the Saints can stop giving the 2nd game against the Panthers away every year they should be able to right this ship against Carolina by 2012.