Did the Niners prevent the Saints from being better in the 80's and 90's
 

I always have thought that Jim Mora was the best HC for this Franchise ever. He just never could quite cut it in the playoffs in New Orleans or in Indy. and your left to wonder: Why? We had a great core of LB's in the Dome Patrol and a great Offensive Line and what did we accomplish? No playoff wins and just one division title. That bothers me honestly, becuase we had perhaps a good team but stuck in the time frame of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If anyone remembers the great Niners teams of the 80's and 90's, you remember greatness in Montana and Young and the 5 SB titles they won and yes I think they stopped us from being a better team, I really do. If we had been in the Central Division at the time, we would have accomplished more I think, and perhaps its bitterness and a regret that we have to reflect on it now because very little has changed. We are still in a tough division and nothing ever comes easy for the Saints if ever.

but think about it if you could, if the Saints had been in another division and not in the same division as San Fran, would we have accomplished more?

In that I mean playoff wins and perhaps a SB title or two, we had a great defense just not great timing I think, and we played some teams like the Rams and the Niners that were great and made winning tough and perhaps more difficult then lets say the Philadelphia Eagles of the same time era.

You're right about one thing, being in the same division as those Niner teams drove me crazy. But most of our playoff defeats didn't come at the hands of the Niners, hell, Montana, Rice, Rathman, Craig, and the rest of those great offenses admitted they hated playing against the DOME PATROL and those great defenses, I even heard the great Ronnie Lott comment on how he would get on the front seven if they didn't get a hat on RB Dalton Hilliard and he had to take him down one on one because he was one of the toughest RBs in the league. The Niners were a thorn in everybody side in those days, but just think about the NFC East at that time, the Redskins, Cowboys, and the Giants were Superbowl dominating teams at that time. So I think if we were in a different conference we would've won a playoff game or two but eventually we would have came up on those Niners again. You just have to face it, those were teams of destiny.

Yeah I am sure the Dolphins feels the same way -if they weren't in the same Confrence as the COLTS, PATS and STEELERS they might have a better chance to.

Its nice to think about the past but make sure you aren't living it.

All the 49ers did was prevent us from winning some division titles by default. We still failed to capitalize on our own playoff chances, which had nothing to do with the 49ers, other than where we seeded.

I love those games during the season where we gave the Niners some tough runs. It is too bad we fell apart in that Eagles post season game.

I don't think being in a different division would have helped as far as winning a Super Bowl, but I do agree that it could have made a difference in the number of division championships that we won. But I'm not even sure of the likelihood of that, because as one of the posters put it, we could have been in the NFC East instead, where the Cowboys, Redskins, and Giants won a total of 8 Superbowls during the 80's & 90's, rather than the 5 that the 49er's won. So, actually if you go by the number of SB's, we would have been worse off. And like another member said eventually we would have had to cross paths with the 49er's or whomever was great enough to beat them. On top of that, as one person put it, none of the playoff losses during that period were at the hands of the Niners, including in 1991 when we won the division title and the 49er's did not even make the playoffs.

Mora biggest problem was he relyed on Morton to kick a FG way too much. Was it without a doubt that Morton would put three points on the board, sure it was, the guy was money in the bank, but when you are down by two or more touchdowns.... three points per quarter don't win 100% of ball games.

As far as the Niners thing goes....who knows. I still hate the Niners. N.O. is a hellava lot closer to the east coast than the west coast.

I think it was a conspiracy to keep us out of the hunt. ;-)

Personally, I believe the NFC is a screwed-up conference. Even with realignment you still have Dallas in the East and the Saints are further east than Dallas.

I also feel that the Saints would have been able to break in if they were in another division prior to 2002. (Man, I can't wait to finally burn those "AINTS" bags!!)

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They didn't win all those Super Bowls accidentally. They were like the Steelers in the 70's, complete teams that were well coached.