1971 New Orleans Saints season

1971 New Orleans Saints season
Owner	John W. Mecom, Jr.
General manager	Vic Schwenk
Head coach	J. D. Roberts
Home stadium	Tulane Stadium
Results
Record	4–8–2
Division place	4th NFC West
Playoffs	Did not qualify
Pro Bowlers	None
←  1970 Saints seasons 1972  →

The 1971 New Orleans Saints season was the Saints' fifth season. The Saints drafted Archie Manning with their first round pick, the second overall.

Manning led the Saints to their first opening day victory in franchise history, scoring a touchdown run on a rollout on the final play of a 24–20 victory over the Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans' first over Los Angeles following four consecutive losses, including the Saints' inaugural game in 1967. Four weeks later, Manning engineered a 24–14 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, who would return to Tulane Stadium in January and win Super Bowl VI over the Miami Dolphins.

Offseason

NFL draft

Main article: 1971 NFL draft

1971 New Orleans Saints draft
Round	Pick	Player	Position	College	Notes
1	2	Archie Manning *	Quarterback	Mississippi
Made roster    *   Made at least one Pro Bowl during career

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Personnel

Staff

1971 New Orleans Saints staff

Front office President – John W. Mecom, Jr. General manager – Vic Schwenk Head coaches Head coach – J. D. Roberts Offensive coaches Offensive Coordinator – Ken Shipp Offensive Backfield – Charlie Tate Offensive Line – Jim Royer

Defensive coaches Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line – Jim Champion Linebackers – Marv Matuszak Defensive Backfield – Bud Whitehead

^{[2] [3]}

Roster

1971 New Orleans Saints roster

Quarterbacks (QB) 14 Edd Hargett  8 Archie Manning Running backs (RB) 40 Hoyle Granger 35 Bob Gresham 43 David Kopay 42 Jim Strong 47 Virgil Robinson Wide receivers (WR) 46 Danny Abramowicz 41 Bob Newland Tight ends (TE) 34 Carlos Bell 36Don Burchfield 83 Dave Parks

Offensive linemen (OL) 51 John Didion C 78 Glen Ray Hines T 70 Sam Holden T 50 Jake Kupp G 76 Don Morrison T 65 Remi Prudhomme C 67 John Shinners G 61 Del Williams G Defensive linemen (DL) 77 Dan Goich DT 89 Dave Long DT 87 Richard Neal DE 72 Joe Owens DE 82 Bob Pollard DT 80Mike WalkerDE

Linebackers (LB) 53 Dick Absher MLB 59 Wayne Colman OLB 60 Carl Cunningham OLB 55 Jim Flanigan MLB 64 Ray Hester OLB 54 Tom Roussel OLB Defensive backs (DB) 18 Hugo Hollas FS 20 Delles Howell CB 11 Bivian Lee CB 22 Dee Martin CB 21Reynaud MooreSS 23 Doug Wyatt SS Special teams (ST) 15 Charlie Durkee K 10 Julian Fagan P

Practice squad 29 Richard Harvey CB 12 Bobby Scott QB 86 Creston Whitaker WR Reserve 88 Leo Carroll DE (IR) 25 Al Dodd WR (IR) 84 Larry Estes DE (IR) 28 James Ford RB (IR) -- Bart Graves DE (IR) 52 John Huard LB (IR) 74 Doug Mooers DT/DE (IR) 57 Mike Morgan LB (IR) Rookies in italics

Regular season

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Venue	Attendance
1	September 19	Los Angeles Rams	W 24–20	1–0	Tulane Stadium	70,915
2	September 26	San Francisco 49ers	L 20–38	1–1	Tulane Stadium	81,595
3	October 3	at Houston Oilers	T 13–13	1–1–1	Astrodome	47,966
4	October 10	at Chicago Bears	L 14–35	1–2–1	Soldier Field	55,049
5	October 17	Dallas Cowboys	W 24–14	2–2–1	Tulane Stadium	83,088
6	October 24	at Atlanta Falcons	L 6–28	2–3–1	Atlanta Stadium	58,850
7	October 31	at Washington Redskins	L 14–24	2–4–1	RFK Stadium	53,041
8	November 7	Oakland Raiders	T 21–21	2–4–2	Tulane Stadium	83,102
9	November 14	at San Francisco 49ers	W 26–20	3–4–2	Candlestick Park	45,138
10	November 21	Minnesota Vikings	L 10–23	3–5–2	Tulane Stadium	83,130
11	November 28	at Green Bay Packers	W 29–21	4–5–2	Milwaukee County Stadium	48,035
12	December 5	at Los Angeles Rams	L 28–45	4–6–2	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	73,610
13	December 12	Cleveland Browns	L 17–21	4-7-2	Tulane Stadium	72,794
14	December 19	Atlanta Falcons	L 20–24	4-8-2	Tulane Stadium	75,954
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

Week 1

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Rams	0	3	3	14	20
•Saints	0	3	14	7	24

• Date: September 19
• Location: Tulane Stadium • New Orleans, Louisiana
• Game start: 1:00 p.m. CDT
• Game weather: 86 °F (30 °C) • Wind 6 mph (9.7 km/h) S
• Referee: Bob Frederic

Scoring summary

2		NO	Skip Butler 32 yard field goal	Saints 3–0
2		LA	David Ray 31 yard field goal	Tie 3–3
3		NO	Dave Parks 6 yard pass from Archie Manning (Skip Butler kick)	Saints 10–3
3		NO	Bob Gresham 2 yard run (Skip Butler kick)	Saints 17–3
3		LA	David Ray 27 yard field goal	Saints 17–6
4		LA	Les Josephson 29 yard pass from Roman Gabriel (David Ray kick)	Saints 17–13
4		LA	Les Josephson 1 yard run (David Ray kick)	Rams 20–17
4		NO	Archie Manning 1 yard run (Skip Butler kick)	Saints 24–20

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Standings

NFC West
view talk edit	W	L	T	PCT	DIV	CONF	PF	PA	STK
San Francisco 49ers	9	5	0	.643	2–4	7–4	300	216	W2
Los Angeles Rams	8	5	1	.615	4–1–1	7–3–1	313	260	W1
Atlanta Falcons	7	6	1	.538	3–2–1	4–6–1	274	277	W1
New Orleans Saints	4	8	2	.333	2–4	4–7	266	347	L3

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

References

1. "1971 New Orleans Saints draftees". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
2. "All-Time Roster". NewOrleansSaints.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2012. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
3. "Scouting Report ... New Orleans Saints". Corsicana Daily Sun . Corsicana, Texas. October 14, 1971. p. 27. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
4. Pro-Football-Reference.com

External links

• Saints on Pro Football Reference