1991 New Orleans Saints season

1991 New Orleans Saints season
Head coach	Jim Mora
General manager	Jim Finks
Owner	Tom Benson
Home field	Louisiana Superdome
Results
Record	11–5
Division place	1st NFC West
Playoff finish	Lost NFC Wild Card

The 1991 New Orleans Saints season was the team's 25th season in the National Football League. The Saints won their first-ever division title, and reached the postseason for the second consecutive year.

The 1991 Saints had 48 defensive takeaways, tied for the most for any team in a single season in the 1990s.^[1] Statistics site Football Outsiders calculates that the 1991 Saints had the second-best defense in the NFL (behind the Philadelphia Eagles), and one of the top-ten defenses of all time, in terms of efficiency.^[2] "The Saints of course were led by their linebackers," says Football Outsiders, "with Sam Mills, Vaughan Johnson, and Pat Swilling all making the Pro Bowl and Rickey Jackson being awesome without getting a trip to Hawaii. It wasn't really the easiest year to find space on the NFC Pro Bowl defense, was it?"

Offseason

NFL Draft

1991 New Orleans Saints draft
Round	Pick	Player	Position	College	Notes
2	42	Wesley Carroll	Wide receiver	Miami (FL)
5	126	Reggie Jones	Cornerback	Memphis
6	154	Fred McAfee	Running back	Mississippi College
7	182	Hayward Haynes	Guard	Florida State
8	210	Frank Wainright	Tight end	Northern Colorado
9	237	Anthony Wallace	Running back	California
11	293	Scott Ross	Linebacker	USC
12	321	Mark Drabczak	Guard	Minnesota
Made roster

^[3]

Personnel

Staff

1991 New Orleans Saints staff
	Front office Owner/General Partner – Tom Benson President/General Manager – Jim Finks Vice President of Administration – Jim Miller Director of Player Personnel – Bill Kuharich Head coaches Head Coach – Jim Mora Offensive coaches Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks – Carl Smith Running Backs – Jim Skipper Wide Receivers – Steve Walters Tight Ends – Joe Marciano Offensive Line – Paul Boudreau			Defensive coaches Defensive Coordinator/Inside Linebackers – Steve Sidwell Defensive Line – John Pease Outside Linebackers – Vic Fangio Defensive Backs – Dom Capers Special teams coaches Special Teams – Joe Marciano Strength and conditioning Strength and Conditioning – Russell Paternostro

^[4]

Roster

1991 New Orleans Saints roster
	Quarterbacks 16 Mike Buck  3 Bobby Hebert  4 Steve Walsh Running backs 22 Gill Fenerty 34 Craig Heyward FB 21 Dalton Hilliard 36 Stanford Jennings 23 Buford Jordan FB 25 Fred McAfee 35 Bobby Morse 30 Cedric Smith FB Wide receivers 86 Gerald Alphin 80 Wesley Carroll 89 Quinn Early 84 Eric Martin 86 Pat Newman 88 Floyd Turner		Tight ends 85 Hoby Brenner 83 Greg Scales 82 John Tice 87 Frank Wainright Offensive linemen 67 Stan Brock T 71 Richard Cooper T 72 Jim Dombrowski G 74 Kevin Haverdink T 61 Joel Hilgenberg C 60 Derek Kennard G 62 Brad Leggett C 70 Chris Port G 66 Larry Williams		Defensive linemen 91 Robert Goff NT 93 Wayne Martin DE 69 Les Miller DE 97 Renaldo Turnbull DE 73 Frank Warren DE 94 Jim Wilks NT Linebackers 52 Brian Forde LB 57 Rickey Jackson OLB 53 Vaughan Johnson ILB 51 Sam Mills ILB 55 Scott Ross LB 99 Joel Smeenge OLB 56 Pat Swilling OLB 90 James Williams ILB		Defensive backs 28 Gene Atkins FS 26 Vince Buck CB 41 Toi Cook CB 29 Vencie Glenn FS 27 Reggie Jones CB 32 Mark Lee CB 24 Milton Mack CB 39 Brett Maxie SS 38 Calvin Nicholson CB 45 Stan Petry CB 37 Bennie Thompson SS Special teams  7 Morten Andersen K  6 Tommy Barnhardt P Rookies in italics

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Regular season

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Attendance
1	September 1, 1991	Seattle Seahawks	W 27–24	1–0	68,492
2	September 8, 1991	at Kansas City Chiefs	W 17–10	2–0	74,816
3	September 15, 1991	Los Angeles Rams	W 24–7	3–0	68,583
4	September 22, 1991	Minnesota Vikings	W 26–0	4–0	68,591
5	September 29, 1991	at Atlanta Falcons	W 27–6	5–0	56,556
6	Bye
7	October 13, 1991	at Philadelphia Eagles	W 13–6	6–0	64,224
8	October 20, 1991	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	W 23–7	7–0	68,591
9	October 27, 1991	Chicago Bears	L 20–17	7–1	68,591
10	November 3, 1991	at Los Angeles Rams	W 24–17	8–1	58,713
11	November 10, 1991	San Francisco 49ers	W 10–3	9–1	68,591
12	November 17, 1991	at San Diego Chargers	L 24–21	9–2	48,420
13	November 24, 1991	Atlanta Falcons	L 23–20	9–3	68,591
14	December 1, 1991	at San Francisco 49ers	L 38–24	9–4	62,092
15	December 8, 1991	at Dallas Cowboys	L 23–14	9–5	64,530
16	December 16, 1991	Los Angeles Raiders	W 27–0	10–5	68,625
17	December 22, 1991	at Phoenix Cardinals	W 27–3	11–5	30,928

Playoffs

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Attendance
1	December 28, 1991	Atlanta Falcons	L 27–20	68,794

Standings

NFC West
	W	L	T	PCT	PF	PA	STK
^(3) New Orleans Saints	11	5	0	.688	341	211	W2
^(6) Atlanta Falcons	10	6	0	.625	361	338	L1
San Francisco 49ers	10	6	0	.625	393	239	W6
Los Angeles Rams	3	13	0	.188	234	390	L10

Regular Season

Week 3

New Orleans Saints 24, Los Angeles Rams 7

	1	2	3	4	Total
Rams	0	0	7	0	7
Saints	7	0	7	10	24

at Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana

• Game time: 8:04 p.m. EST
• Game weather: Played indoors, domed stadium
• Game attendance: 68,583
• Referee: Tom Dooley
• TV: TNT

Rams Jim Everett completed only 6 passes against the Saints defense, while Craig Heyward scored 2 touchdowns to send the Saints to a 3-0 record.

Playoffs

NFC Wild Card Game

Atlanta Falcons 27, New Orleans Saints 20

	1	2	3	4	Total
Falcons	0	10	7	10	27
Saints	7	6	0	7	20

at Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana

• Game time: 4:00 p.m. EST/3:00 p.m. CST
• Game weather: Played indoors, domed stadium
• Game attendance: 68,794
• Referee: Howard Roe
• TV announcers (ABC): Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, and Dan Dierdorf

Falcons quarterback Chris Miller completed the game-winning 61-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Michael Haynes with 2:41 left in the contest. Miller completed 18 out of 30 passes for 291 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Awards and records

• Pat Swilling, NFL Defensive Player of the Year
• Led NFL, Fewest Points Allowed, 211 points ^[6]

References

1. Pro-Football-Reference.com: In a single season, from 1990 to 1999, in the regular season, sorted by descending Takeaways, tied with the 1991 Philadelphia Eagles.
2. Football Outsiders: 1991 DVOA Ratings and Commentary
3. "1991 New Orleans Saints Draftees". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
4. "All-Time Roster". NewOrleansSaints.com. Retrieved February 28, 2011.
5. "1991 New Orleans Saints starters and roster". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
6. NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book. Workman Publishing Company. p. 457. ISBN 0-7611-2480-2.

External links

• Saints on Pro Football Reference
• Saints on jt-sw.com