1991 New Orleans Saints season

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. However, they lost their playoff opener at home in the wild card round to their bitter division rival, the Atlanta Falcons, and would have to wait another nine years before winning their first playoff game in franchise history.

1991 New Orleans Saints season
Owner	Tom Benson
General manager	Jim Finks
Head coach	Jim Mora
Home stadium	Louisiana Superdome
Results
Record	11–5
Division place	1st NFC West
Playoffs	Lost Wild Card Playoffs (vs. Falcons) 20–27
Pro Bowlers	LB Pat Swilling LB Sam Mills LB Rickey Jackson LB Vaughan Johnson ST Bennie Thompson
← 1990 Saints seasons 1992 →

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] This was also the first season where four linebackers from the same team made the pro bowl, which the Saints would do again the next season. Says Football Outsiders,

The Saints were led by their linebackers, 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?

The season saw the adoption of the Cha-Ching slogan from a Rally's advertising campaign.^[3]

Offseason

NFL Draft

Main article: 1991 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

^[4]

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 Offensive line – Paul Boudreau

Defensive coaches Defensive coordinator – Steve Sidwell Defensive line – John Pease Linebackers – Vic Fangio Defensive backs – Dom Capers Special teams coaches Special Teams/tight ends – Joe Marciano Strength and conditioning Strength and conditioning – Russell Paternostro

^[5]

Roster

1991 New Orleans Saints roster

Quarterbacks (QB) 16 Mike Buck  3 Bobby Hebert  4 Steve Walsh Running backs (RB) 22 Gill Fenerty PR 21 Dalton Hilliard 23 Buford Jordan FB 25 Fred McAfee 30 Cedric Smith FB Wide receivers (WR) 80 Wesley Carroll 89 Quinn Early KR 84 Eric Martin 86 Pat Newman 88 Floyd Turner Tight ends (TE) 85 Hoby Brenner 82 John Tice 87 Frank Wainright

Offensive linemen (OL) 67 Stan Brock T 71 Richard Cooper T 72 Jim Dombrowski G 61 Joel Hilgenberg 78 Mike Keim T 62 Brad Leggett C 70 Chris Port G 66 Larry Williams G Defensive linemen (DL) 91 Robert Goff NT 93 Wayne Martin DE 69 Les Miller 99 Joel Smeenge DE 97 Renaldo Turnbull DE 73 Frank Warren DE 94 Jim Wilks NT

Linebackers (LB) 52 Brian Forde OLB 57 Rickey Jackson OLB 53 Vaughan Johnson ILB 51 Sam Mills ILB 56 Pat Swilling OLB 90 James Williams ILB Defensive backs (DB) 28 Gene Atkins 29 Vencie Glenn FS 27 Reggie Jones CB 32 Mark Lee CB 24 Milton Mack CB 39 Brett Maxie SS 45 Stan Petry CB 37 Bennie Thompson SS Special teams (ST)  7 Morten Andersen K  6 Tommy Barnhardt P

Practice squad 43 Anthony Florence CB 38 Calvin Nicholson CB 55 Scott Ross LB 47 active, 10 inactive, 3 practice squad Reserve 26 Vince Buck (IR) 41 Toi Cook CB (IR) 74 Kevin Haverdink T (IR) 34 Craig Heyward FB (Susp.) 36 Stanford Jennings (IR) 60 Derek Kennard G (IR) 35 Bobby Morse RB (IR) 83 Greg Scales TE (IR) 65 Steve Trapilo G (IR) 92 DeMond Winston LB (IR) Rookies in italics

^[6]

Preseason

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance
1	August 3	Minnesota Vikings	W 18–3	1–0	Louisiana Superdome	58,593
2	August 10	Green Bay Packers	W 31–20	2–0	Louisiana Superdome	55,730
3	August 17	at Indianapolis Colts	L 28–34	2–1	Hoosier Dome	45,963
4	August 24	at Miami Dolphins	L 24–28	2–2	Joe Robbie Stadium	44,099

^[7]

Regular season

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance
1	September 1	Seattle Seahawks	W 27–24	1–0	Louisiana Superdome	68,492
2	September 8	at Kansas City Chiefs	W 17–10	2–0	Arrowhead Stadium	74,816
3	September 15	Los Angeles Rams	W 24–7	3–0	Louisiana Superdome	68,583
4	September 22	Minnesota Vikings	W 26–0	4–0	Louisiana Superdome	68,591
5	September 29	at Atlanta Falcons	W 27–6	5–0	Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium	56,556
6	Bye
7	October 13	at Philadelphia Eagles	W 13–6	6–0	Veterans Stadium	64,224
8	October 20	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	W 23–7	7–0	Louisiana Superdome	68,591
9	October 27	Chicago Bears	L 17–20	7–1	Louisiana Superdome	68,591
10	November 3	at Los Angeles Rams	W 24–17	8–1	Anaheim Stadium	58,713
11	November 10	San Francisco 49ers	W 10–3	9–1	Louisiana Superdome	68,591
12	November 17	at San Diego Chargers	L 21–24	9–2	Jack Murphy Stadium	48,420
13	November 24	Atlanta Falcons	L 20–23 (OT)	9–3	Louisiana Superdome	68,591
14	December 1	at San Francisco 49ers	L 24–38	9–4	Candlestick Park	62,092
15	December 8	at Dallas Cowboys	L 14–23	9–5	Texas Stadium	64,530
16	December 16	Los Angeles Raiders	W 27–0	10–5	Louisiana Superdome	68,625
17	December 22	at Phoenix Cardinals	W 27–3	11–5	Sun Devil Stadium	30,928
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Playoffs

Main article: 1991–92 NFL playoffs

Round	Date	Opponent (seed)	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance
Wildcard	December 28	Atlanta Falcons (6)	L 20–27	0–1	Louisiana Superdome	68,794

Standings

NFC West
view talk edit	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
(3) New Orleans Saints	11	5	0	.688	4–2	8–4	341	211	W2
(6) Atlanta Falcons	10	6	0	.625	5–1	7–5	361	338	L1
San Francisco 49ers	10	6	0	.625	3–3	7–5	393	239	W6
Los Angeles Rams	3	13	0	.188	0–6	2–10	234	390	L10

Regular season

Week 3

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

New Orleans Saints 24, Los Angeles Rams 7

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

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

Atlanta Falcons 27, New Orleans Saints 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. Saints go to the playoffs in 1992 but lost in the NFC Wild Card to the Eagles 36-20

Awards and records

• Pat Swilling, NFL Defensive Player of the Year
• Led NFL, Fewest Points Allowed, 211 points ^[8]

Milestones