Stram and Ditka's stints as Saints' HC

[74_75_78_79_]

Dick Nolan and Bum Phillips, two HCs who led each of their previous teams to multiple playoff appearances (2 back-to-back CCGs each), failed to do so in each stint in the Big Easy. The same goes for both SB-winning HCs, Hank Stram and Mike Ditka. Both failed to lead the Saints to the playoffs when it was their turn. An understatement, actually, for Nolan and Phillips, at least, came much closer in doing so ('79, '83 respectively).

For Stram, neither of his two seasons so much as offered a hint of success to come. Four wins in his first year there, '76, but none were against a winning team. Yes, Manning was out for that season. But he was back in '77. Okay, maybe there were a couple…”hints”. FWIW, they did convincingly best playoff-team-to-be, the Bears, at Soldier Field in Wk#3, 42-24! Archie rushed for 3 TDs along with throwing a 35-yard TD pass to Chuck Muncie! Two big defensive TDs as well! And, without Manning, they top the also-playoff-bound Rams a few weeks later, making it a split with them. Then a few weeks after that, Archie back, they become the first team to score more than 20 against that Gritz Blitz D in a 21-20 win.

But, again, "for what it's worth" for they were just 3-7 at that point and did their share of losing to bad teams. They wouldn't win another game the rest of the season. But WORST of all - one of those losses being at home, penultimate week, to...0-26 TAMPA BAY!! That, safe to say, sealed Hank's fate in the Big Easy, not making it to a third season there - career over.

Ditka's time there ('97-thru-'99)? First season 6-10, 30th in offense in both yards and scoring, but FWIW the 4th best defense! In '98 they actually start 3-0, and FWIW were actually in control of their own destiny at 6-7 with three games to go coming off a convincer over playoff-bound Dallas. However, they lost the rest to again finish 6-10. And then, of course, picking ONLY Ricky Williams that off-season, 3-13 finish in '99 - career over.

And not only did his Saints, in '98, suffer what Hank did in his last year and that's lose to the last-remaining-win-less-team (a loss at 0-7 Carolina), but Ditka did it AGAIN his last year! Saints lost, at home, to 0-7 re-expansion Cleveland!!

So what are your takes on these two stints? And as for you Saints-fans, or non-Saints-fans, what stint do you feel was more disappointing? I'm going to guess, Hank's was more disappointing. By the time Ditka got the axe in '92, sure-enough no one was annointing him as a HOF-caliber HC though many may have still seen him as 'good'.

Not sure what I was thinking at the time. But my guess is Iron Mike at least leads them to the playoffs just once. But as for Stram, I can imagine much greater expectations though I, of course, wasn't at all following at the time. Though I feel he is a deserving HOFer even if merely, some on this site have opined he underachieving with KC as well as Ditka with Bears after '85. So perhaps it may be no real surprise that it didn't work out.

What both have in common in addition to those losses to 'last-win-less-teams', of course, is each going into their old stadium early in each of their first years and beating their old team. Stram did it at Arrowhead in Wk#3 '76, his first win, having his players carry him off the field, and Ditka won at Soldier in Wk#6 '97 to make it 2-4.

[CSKreager]

The 98 Saints even at 6-8 actually could have controlled their destiny. Their week 16 game at Arizona was essentially an elimination game.

They were in the running for a 6 seed with Tampa Bay (and remember the Saints had H2H tiebreaker)

Had they gotten out of the desert with a win (and they nearly did) they would have controlled their destiny going into week 17 vs Buffalo

[Halas Hall]

I want to say one difference between the Hank Stram and Mike Ditka eras is that Ditka's came after Jim Finks and Jim Mora introduced professionalism into the Saints franchise? Some of that winning culture was still around.