One thing that every New Orleans Saints fan has in common is heartbreak. An unfortunate cornerstone of the franchise over the last decade and some change has been disappointing playoff losses. In a recent Touchdown Wire article, Mark Lane went through every team’s best playoff run that didn’t end in a Super Bowl and tabbed the 2006 season for the Saints. Here was his reasoning:
The Saints were rising out of the nadir of their existence as the club played all of their “home” games away from New Orleans in 2005 due to Hurricane Katrina. A weak NFC allowed them to secure a first-round bye with a 10-6 record, and the Saints put it to good use.
In the divisional round, New Orleans wouldn’t let the Philadelphia Eagles spoil a return to the Superdome for postseason play. The Saints overcame a 21-13 third quarter deficit to outlast the Eagles 27-24 and punch their ticket to their first NFC Championship Game. Sean Payton and Drew Brees didn’t just bring football back to the Big Easy; they set the tone that it was a new era entirely in New Orleans.
The 2006 season was magical, but I don’t think it was their best chance at a Super Bowl. The easy choice for that is of course the tragic 2018 season that saw the Los Angeles Rams move on to lose to the New England Patriots in one of the worst Super Bowls of all time.
An underrated choice would be the 2017 Saints team that lost on the last play against the Minnesota Vikings. Drew Brees led one of the best offenses in the league and was honestly one of the more balanced teams in terms of defense as well. The Vikings, of course, went on to get dominated by the eventual Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles that the Saints might have matched up against better.
