NFL Notes : Saints Are Marching Toward Club Record

A win by the Saints in Los Angeles today and the city of New Orleans will be up for grabs. After shutting out the Rams in New Orleans two weeks ago, Saints Coach Jim Mora said his team had not yet turned the corner. But if they beat the Rams again, the Saints will have more than turned the corner.

On the opening weekend of the season, the Saints looked inept and frustrated against the Atlanta Falcons. Now they have equaled their club record with three straight wins, have given up just one touchdown in the last 10 quarters and stand one victory away from creating absolute mania in their hometown.

New Orleans has never been in the playoffs and has never had a winning season, but will take a 6-5 record into the Ram game.

Five times the Saints have won three games in a row. Last year they won their third, fourth and fifth games of the season and then lost six in a row.

The Rams, by the way, have not scored a touchdown against New Orleans in their last two meetings.

While New Orleans fans are warming up for the possible making of history, Indianapolis fans are growing more and more bewildered by the Colts.

Indianapolis is now threatening to become the first team since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule in 1979 to lose all 16 games. The old Baltimore Colts went 0-8-1 in the strike shortened year of 1982, but at least they tied a game. The last team to lose all of its games was Tampa Bay, which posted an 0-14 record in 1976.

Whatever the halftime pep talks might have been in Indianapolis this year, they haven’t worked. In 11 games the Colts have scored just 14 points in the third quarter.

There are still 40 series between NFL teams in which one team has not beaten the other. Two of those streaks are on the line this Sunday when St. Louis faces Kansas City (the Chiefs lead, 3-0-1) and Seattle faces Philadelphia (the Eagles are 2-0).

In addition, the two most one-sided series still going in the NFL could be turned around this year.

The Colts have beaten Atlanta in all eight of their meetings, but Atlanta will be the favorite when they play Dec. 7. And Pittsburgh has downed the New York Jets all eight times they have played, a situation that could easily be reversed in their Dec. 13 meeting.

If Atlanta and the Jets win those games, the most one-sided rivalry left will be Dallas vs. Tampa Bay. The Cowboys are 6-0 against the Bucs.

Elsewhere around the NFL:

--A trivia note. Name the only two NFL teams to have faced each other just once. The answer -- the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins won that lone meeting in 1972.

--It is hard to believe that Joe Montana could throw for 441 yards against Washington last Monday night and not produce a touchdown. But it is also hard to believe that Montana was more than 100 yards away from the single game NFL passing record. On Sept. 28, 1951, Norm Van Brocklin of the Los Angeles Rams threw for 554 yards against the New York Yanks. After that season, the Yanks folded -- the last NFL franchise to become extinct.

--Some NFL game officials may not be happy with instant replay, but former official Dick Ferguson has another gripe with the league. Ferguson, dismissed by the NFL after the 1984 season, is suing the league for close to $250,000. He claims breach of contract and emotional stress. The league says Ferguson wasn’t any good at his job. The case goes to trial next month in Santa Clara, Calif.

--Everybody seems to think they have a book in them, particularly pro football players. The latest two on the shelf come from former Dallas defensive end Harvey Martin, who tattles on some of his one-time teammates concerning their off-the-field activities, and from St. Louis quarterback Neil Lomax. Lomax puts most of the blame on the Cardinals’ 1985 collapse on Coach Jim Hanifan.

--Philadelphia seems headed for a dubious NFL record this year. The Eagles’ various quarterbacks have been sacked 64 times. The listed record is 70, suffered by Atlanta 18 years ago.

--Idle thought: There is surely a good reason, but why was the first Packers-Vikings game in September played in Minnesota, where there is a roof over the field. The second one, to be played in Green Bay on Dec. 7, will obviously be vulnerable to who knows what kind of weather.

--Eric Dickerson is apparently headed for another NFL rushing title, but his bid to break his own record of 2,105 yards in a single season is beginning to fade. Dickerson needs to average 161 yards over the last five weeks of the season to reach the record. It will be interesting to see how many yards Dickerson gains Sunday in the Rams’ key encounter with the Saints. In seven career apperances against New Orleans, Dickerson has been held under 100 yards four times. He gained 11 yards in 12 carries against the Saints two weeks ago.