The Greatest In-Season NFL Turnaround For All 32 Teams
By Erik Lambert
New Orleans Saints: 1979
People will look at this season and claim they didn’t make the playoffs, so how can 1979 be considered the greatest in-year turnaround ever for the Saints. As always, context is needed. Going into this year, everybody expected the same results for New Orleans. Since their inception in 1967, the team had a losing record every single season. They’d never even reached .500.
This year didn’t look any different. The Saints stumbled out of the gates with a 0-3 record and were 2-4 by the start of October. Then the ultimate rarity happened. They won three straight games including a 28-point blowout over a good Tampa Bay team in which they ran for 234 yards led by Pro Bowl back Chuck Muncie.
The defense also got in on the action with 26 interceptions. Even so, a loss in Week 15 put them at 7-8. Only a win against the Los Angeles Rams on the road would avoid another losing season. Keep in mind this Rams team would play in the Super Bowl later that season. The Saints crushed them 29-14. It was one of the bigger moral victories in franchise history.