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Adversity faced: The Saints mortgaged the present and future to get RB Ricky
Williams in the draft, thereby raising short-term expectations and scrutiny. Head coach
Mike Ditka called Williams the "final piece of the puzzle" and boldly predicted,
"I’m going to say it, so listen, because I’m going to say it loud:
We’re going to win the Super Bowl, and I’m not talking 10 years from now either,
gang." Troubles arose quickly in training camp, though, as Williams began having an
assortment of injury problems. Plus, DRE Joe Johnson, one of the unit’s best players,
ruptured a patellar tendon and was lost for the year.
How the team coped: Extremely poorly. After winning the first game of the season
the Saints lost their next seven outings and never came close to rebounding. The Saints
did not get anywhere near the production they expected from Williams.
If you are big on symbolism, then the Saints’ Week Four game against the Bears
marked the beginning of the end for New Orleans head coach Mike Ditka and his team.
The Saints were 1-1 at the time, having defeated Carolina in the season opener before
losing by the respectable score of 28-21 against a 49ers team that still had lofty goals
at the time.
Coming off their bye week, the Saints traveled to Chicago — Ditka’s old
stomping grounds — to play the Bears.
Ditka was fired as head coach of the Bears following the 1992 season, but he still
casts an enormous shadow in the Windy City. His fierce style as a player in Chicago
(1961-66) and blue-collar, in-your-face, regular-guy style as a coach (1982-92) made him a
larger-than-life icon among Bears fans. Most of all, he was the head coach who had guided
the Bears on their magical, raucous, fun-filled path to a Super Bowl title during the 1985
season.
Ditka’s shadow was something his successor, Dave Wannstedt, could never escape.
Now Wannstedt was gone, and Dick Jauron was the Bears’ first-year head coach. The
question became: Would the Ditka legend blanket yet another regime?
It certainly looked that way late in the game, when the Saints had a 10-0 lead. Ten
points seemed as insurmountable as 100, given how little the Bears’ offense had
accomplished. Then, out of nowhere, Bears QB Shane Matthews threw two TD passes to WR
Curtis Conway in the last 1:48, and the Bears won 14-10.
After Matthews found Conway with the game-winner with only seven seconds left, Bears
fans, who had been booing their club a quarter earlier, were on their feet. Ditka threw
his clipboard in disgust.
Ditka’s Curse or Ditka’s Revenge or Ditka’s Legend, call it whatever you
will, was finally erased.
"That’s why I’m talking to you guys now. I don’t have to hear any
Ditka questions," Bears OT James "Big Cat" Williams said after the game.
"Chicago loves Mike Ditka, and that’s just the way it is. … But you have to
move on."
Conway said: "It’s not like Ditka was out there playing. I respect what he
did here as a coach and a player, but you can’t worry about him."
Ditka’s shadow got a lot smaller that day. It wouldn’t get any larger the
rest of the season.
The Saints still played in closely contested games the next two weeks but couldn’t
get over the hump.
Against the Falcons, the Saints held a 17-14 lead going into the fourth quarter but saw
Atlanta pull out the 20-17 victory thanks to a pair of Morten Andersen field goals.
The trends were not pretty. It was the third straight loss for the Saints, who had not
scored in the fourth quarter all season up to that point. It was also the third straight
game in which New Orleans blew a lead in the fourth quarter.
"I’m aware of it," Saints QB Billy Joe Hobert said. "You’d
have to say it’s an embarrassment, not scoring in the fourth quarter. Putting teams
away when you’re ahead is totally a mindset."
The following week meant a home game against the Titans. Different opponent, same
frustrating result. The Saints took a 13-7 lead into the fourth quarter but got their
pocket picked again in a 24-21 loss.
Two interceptions by Saints QB Billy Joe Tolliver in the fourth quarter brought down
the curtain on yet another late Saints collapse.
"It’s frustrating," Tolliver said. "You go out there, you got 53
guys battle all day, you make two bad throws that determine the outcome of the game. Every
game in this league comes down to two or three plays, and those were the two plays."
After the game, a small crowd jeered at Ditka as he and his team left the field. As
Ditka walked by, he stopped, turned and grabbed his crotch. Ditka had also made an obscene
gesture and shouted an obscenity at booing fans as he left the field at halftime of this
game.
"Sometimes, getting old is not getting smart," said Ditka, who would get
fined $20,000 for his actions. "What I did was probably as stupid as anything
I’ve ever done. I make no excuse for it, no alibi. I apologize to everybody —
the fans, the city, the organization, my players and the league. There’s no place for
anything like that, regardless of the amount of frustration or disappointment or
anger."
By now, the Saints had to be wondering what the phrase "happy endings" meant.
By now, the Saints were getting a little jumpy after living through so many late-game
horror shows.
"When you’re 1-4, St. Mary’s High School scares you, believe me,"
Ditka said in anticipation of the 3-3 Giants.
Saints OT William Roaf said: "It’s not just frustrating, it’s
embarrassing, especially the way we’re losing them.
Saints S Sammy Knight said: "I don’t know that I’d use the word
‘desperate,’ but I’d certainly say we have a sense of urgency."
A sense of humor is what they probably needed after their debacle against the Giants.
The, ahem, good news was that the Saints did not blow another fourth-quarter lead. The
bad news was that there was no fourth-quarter lead to blow in a crushing 31-3 loss.
"We can’t do anything right," said Roaf, who, fed up with the
team’s losing ways, would also say after the game that the time had come for the
Saints to consider trading him. "You build up for a game, then you go out and nothing
happens. You can’t hold a lead late. You fall behind, and you can’t catch up. Is
this my lowest time as a Saint? I can’t think of a lower one."
Ditka said: "This is my lowest point. I can’t let it get me any lower."
Continued on Page 2
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