Tag: 2009 season

Where ESPN ranked the 2009 Saints among 57 Super Bowl-winning teams

Did ESPN get it right? Where they ranked the 2009 Saints among 57 Super Bowl-winning teams:

Where do you rank the New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl XLIV-winning squad among the greatest teams of all time? Or at least, among the NFL’s other 57 champions?

That’s a question that ESPN writer Aaron Schatz set out to answer. Using his advanced-stat DVOA ratings (which you can read more about here), Schatz estimated the play-by-play efficiency for every team to win a Super Bowl.

And his findings have the 2009 Saints at No. 32. New Orleans fielded a high-powered offense and an opportunistic defense that year, outscoring the next-best team by 40 points (at 510, far above the second-place Minnesota Vikings at 470) and nearly tying the league lead with 39 takeaways (the Green Bay Packers had 40).

The Saints achieved a level of dominance that season that’s only rarely seen. We’ll let Schatz explain it further:

The Saints led the NFL in DVOA after a 13-0 start but fell to sixth because of a three-game losing streak to finish off the regular season. (Their starters played in the first two of those three losses, but not the third.) The Saints were second on offense, narrowly behind the Patriots, but 13th on defense and 28th on special teams.

Their DVOA moves up nicely thanks to some big playoff victories. They dominated Arizona 45-14 in the divisional round. The NFC championship required overtime and a Brett Favre interception for a 31-28 victory over the Vikings. But then the Saints beat the Colts 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV, capped off by a Tracy Porter pick-six off Peyton Manning.

It’s disappointing that the 2009 Saints were not ranked higher, but the numbers back it u p. They allowed the 12th-most yards per play that season on defense. No team gave up more yards per punt return (14.3) and they were fourth-worst in yards per kick return (24.5). But they made up for it with an offense that few teams could match and, critically, key stops on defense with sacks and turnovers.

That may have been a difficult strategy to sustain, but it took the Saints all the way to the Super Bowl. And when the chips were down, that same hungry defense sealed the win with one of the most memorable plays in franchise history. And we shouldn’t overlook the benefits of having a Hall of Fame quarterback in the prime of his career leading the way, either.

Now, what’s frustrating — and we’re twisting the knife here, so stop reading if you are not in the right headspace to receive information that could possibly hurt you — is how low Schatz ranked some of the teams that won the Super Bowl in years that got away from New Orleans. The 2011 New York Giants, who advanced on a miracle overtime run over the San Francisco 49ers (and who lost to the Saints in a regular season blowout) clocked in at No. 56 out of 57 Super Bowl winners. If Gregg Williams’ defense had held up against the 49ers in the final minutes of their divisional round classic, Drew Brees might have two Super Bowl rings.

Heck, he could have had three. The 2018 Patriots knocked out the Los Angeles Rams to win a championship after L.A. got through with a lot of help from a botched officiating decision in New Orleans in the conference title game. New England won that title in the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in the history of the sport. Schatz ranked them all the way down at No. 48 in this list. That’s a matchup they could have handled better than the Rams, who lost in a pathetic effort 13-3. Ah well.

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Amari Cooper out; Could another Cowboys WR have a Miles Austin moment vs Chiefs?

In 2009, a bench WR stepped up in Kansas City and became a superstar; which current Cowboys player could repeat the feat this Sunday? | From @ToddBrock24f7

In the final hours leading up to an away game at Arrowhead Stadium, the Dallas Cowboys lose their biggest name at wide receiver. Winning on the road in Kansas City is a challenge for a team at full strength, but depending on a little-known depth player to step up at a key playmaking position in the notoriously-hostile environment puts the Cowboys at a distinct disadvantage.

Yes, that is the scenario enveloping the Cowboys this week as four-time Pro Bowler Amari Cooper has been declared out of Sunday’s matchup after being placed on the Reserve/COVID list.

But that opening premise is actually describing the 2009 season, when Dallas and Kansas City were set to square off in a Week 5 meeting. By the time the dust had settled that day, a 25-year-old Cowboys benchwarmer named Miles Austin had become an instant celebrity.

Could history repeat itself this weekend to produce a new Cowboys legend? Who in the current Dallas locker room is best-suited to play the role of Austin in the 2021 reboot?

The Cowboys were 2-2 coming into that October contest 12 years ago. It was the third year on the job for head coach Wade Phillips. Wide receiver Roy Williams, in his first full season in Dallas after being acquired by trade from Detroit the previous October, was to become the team’s top pass-catching threat after the release of Terrell Owens. But a ribs injury suffered against Denver caused Williams to miss several days of practice the following week. On Saturday, the day before their game versus the Chiefs, Williams was not on board the team plane to Kansas City. Someone named Miles Austin was to get his first NFL start.

Most Cowboys fans know the rest of the story. Austin absolutely exploded that day, hauling in ten catches from quarterback Tony Romo for 250 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including the 60-yard walkoff game-winner in overtime.

A star was born.

Williams was never again the undisputed WR1 for the rest of his short Dallas tenure. Austin, though, went on to lead the NFL in receiving yards that year and earned a Pro Bowl nod, the first of two straight. His 250-yard day at Arrowhead still stands as the franchise record for a receiver.

Austin was not a total unknown on his breakout day, though. He was officially listed as the team’s third receiving option after Owens’s release. The undrafted free agent was in his fourth season as a Cowboy, having seen action in 41 games. He had logged 23 catches on 45 targets for 435 yards and four touchdowns.

Clearly, though, Phillips and Romo and the rest of the offense thought enough of Austin to give him the opportunity when Williams was suddenly declared out.

So who is the under-the-mainstream-radar guy that the 2021 Cowboys might turn to for an Austinesque coming-out party in Kansas City? A look at the career stats of the current depth chart shows three players who all have not-dissimilar bodies of work coming into Sunday’s game.

Name Gms Tgts Recs Yds TDs
Miles Austin (entering 2009 KC game) 41 45 23 435 4
Cedrick Wilson 31 63 41 515 5
Noah Brown 45 52 31 358 0
Malik Turner 33 34 23 305 3

Wilson is the best-known of the bunch, both for his recent fill-in receiver work during Michael Gallup’s injury and for his current usage in many of the Cowboys’ gadget plays under offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Turner just made a minor splash with two late scores in Week 9 to make the 30-16 loss to Denver seem less horrific than it actually was. And Brown has seen more playing time than any of them, although he hasn’t yet done anything that would light up a box score.

Wilson looks to be the primary beneficiary of Cooper’s COVID absence, but Dallas has shown a willingness to ride the guy with the hot hand. Should Brown or Turner catch fire by catching a few Dak Prescott passes in what promises to be a shootout, either could just as easily get their Miles Austin Mojo Moment this Sunday and provide the Cowboys with another weapon in the arsenal for when Cooper returns.

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Florida football’s 2009 among best teams without a national championship

In a ranking of the best college football teams without a national championship win by ESPN, the 2009 Florida squad made the top-50 cut.

Winning a national championship in college football is no easy feat, and since the institution of the College Football Playoff in 2014, it’s only become more difficult. Because of this, there are some truly phenomenal teams that fall through the cracks and miss out on a championship.

Florida has had a couple of those teams. In 1995, it went undefeated with quarterback Danny Wuerffel before a blowout loss to eventual national champion Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl. That was a great team, but likely not as great as the Gators’ 2009 team.

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Coming off a national title in 2008, the Gators returned a lot of key starters on both sides of the ball, including quarterback Tim Tebow, who made the surprising decision to forego the 2009 NFL draft and return to Florida for his final season.

Florida wasn’t quite as dominant throughout the regular season, but it did manage to cap off its first 12-0 season in program history. Heading into an SEC Championship game against Alabama — who it defeated in Atlanta the prior year — another national championship appearance was on the horizon.

But the Crimson Tide beat down UF and took the BCS Championship bid themselves, later defeating Texas as Nick Saban won his first title at ‘Bama. Florida, meanwhile, had to settle for a blowout Sugar Bowl win over Cincinnati.

According to a list of the greatest teams to not win a national championship from ESPN, the 2009 UF squad comes in at No. 46.

After a national title run in 2008, Florida’s 2009 campaign felt a bit like a hangover and included some closer-than-expected results — 23-20 against Arkansas, 24-14 against South Carolina, etc. When the Gators lost to Nick Saban and Alabama in the SEC championship, it felt like a changing of the guard. But that takes away from the fact that this team was still tremendous. The Gators beat two top-five-at-the-time teams by a combined 64-27, destroyed rivals Florida State and Georgia and finished 13-1.

That season signaled the post-Urban Meyer decline at Florida. The program hasn’t won 12 games since, and it has suffered two losing seasons after not having any since 1979. But coach Dan Mullen seems to be turning things around, and 2009 may not be the last great Florida team for long.

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Saints beat Chargers, improve to 3-71 when trailing by 17 points

The New Orleans Saints have won just 3 of 74 games in team history when down 17 or more points, including their win over the Chargers.

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Well, that was an ugly win. But it joins one of the most memorable victories in New Orleans Saints history. The Saints have improved to 3-71 when trailing by 17-plus points after defeating the Los Angeles Chargers, who held a commanding 20-3 lead late in the first half (which Drew Brees narrowed with a leaping touchdown “run” over the goal line). Saints coach Sean Payton was understandably gassed after the game.

It’s just the second time the Saints have overcome that kind of deficit in the Brees-Payton era, and the third occurrence in team history. The last instance was an iconic win in their Super Bowl XLIV campaign, when the Saints rallied to defeat the Miami Dolphins on the road after going down 24-3 (final score: Saints 46, Dolphins 34). That’s a comparison Saints radio announcer Zach Strief, a veteran of that same 2009 Saints team, pointed to often during the game broadcast.

If nothing else, that illustrates how rare these sort of comebacks are.

This is also the second week in a row in which the Saints rallied back after going down multiple scores. Last week, the Detroit Lions jumped out to a 14-0 lead that they couldn’t hold onto. This time around, the Chargers tried to push the envelope, but the Saints were up to the task.

That isn’t the kind of good fortune they should count on week in and week out. Serious adjustments must be made during the bye week, both on offense (where yards have been hard to come by) and on defense (where too many yards have been given up uncontested).

Ugly as it is, a win is a win. The Saints are 3-2 and in the thick of the NFC South title race. Let’s see what they look like on the other side.

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