New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - Mickles: One defeat does not a season make for Saints

By SHELDON MICKLES
Advocate sportswriter
Published: Sep 11, 2007

How many times have you heard the old cliché that it’s not now you start, but how you finish that counts?

In the NFL, however, a good start usually means good things.

When you’re playing 16 games in a 17-week period, one game doesn’t mean that much in the grand scheme. But as recent history has shown, it can mean a great deal when the season winds down in late December.

Since 1978, when the NFL switched to a 16-game schedule, teams that win their season-opening games are more than twice as likely to make the playoffs than teams that fall in their opener.

Of course, that doesn’t mean anything today — just one day after the completion of the first week of the NFL season.

But if a team that lost on Kickoff Weekend winds up missing the playoffs by one game or loses a tiebreaker and winds up staying home, that loss will be magnified.

According to the NFL, of the 410 teams that won their opener since 1978 (excluding the strike-shortened 1982 season), 216 went on to earn playoff berths. Of that group, more than half — 123 — won division titles.

Of the 410 teams that lost their opener, only 96 advanced to the playoffs with 54 of them bouncing back to claim their division.

But it’s only an indicator, and nothing more, so you can believe the New Orleans Saints knew nothing about it when they went back to work Monday.

Not even a 41-10 season-opening loss to the Indianapolis Colts means anything at this point, so getting ready for Sunday’s matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is the only thing that matters at this point.

The most important thing is that the Saints don’t reach for the panic button over a loss to the defending Super Bowl champions, which probably won’t happen if Sean Payton has anything to do with it — and he does.

“It’s a loss and you move on to Week 2,” Payton said in the aftermath of the loss to the Colts.

“Nine weeks from now, you’re just going to look at the record. You’re not going to look at the margin of that game.”

In other words, how the Saints handle it this week and the next few weeks will make all the difference in the world — or at least in the standings.

Colts coach Tony Dungy, of all people, gave the Saints something to think about. He offered solid proof that a team coming off a loss in the season opener can go on to make lemonade out of lemons over the long haul.

In 2004, his Colts lost to the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots in the NFL Kickoff Weekend opener Thursday night and went on to a 12-4 record and AFC South title.

“I remember when we lost to New England that year, you just had the feeling it was going to haunt you all year,” he said. “And it did, but it’s just one game. We lost that game in New England and ended up with 12 wins.

“So it’s not anything you can’t come back from, obviously.”

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