Banner Graphic, Volume 19, Number 50, Greencastle, Putnam County, 2 November 1988 — Page 11

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Jim Mora blasted by Saints’ fans after loss

New Orleans fans expect to win every game

By DAVE GOLDBERG AP Football Writer Nearly two years ago, after going 7-9 in his first season, Coach Jim Mora was asked about his hopes for the 1987 New Orleans Saints. ; “I’d take 9-7,” he smiled. SO THE SAINTS went 12-3, raising expectations to an almost impossible level for fans who had never experienced a winning season in the team’s 21-year history, something the New Orleans brass knew well. “We would have been as well off going 9-6 as 12-3,” General Manager Jim Finks, who with Mora has turned the Saints in three years •from a joke to one of the NFL’s powers, said last January before reality set in with a 44-10 playoff loss to Minnesota. “But you just can’t do that. You don’t go out there and say, ‘Enough, we’ve got our quota of wins.’ ” Now, the predictable has happened. A single loss becomes a disaster to New Orleans’ once victory-star-ved fans, who have made the little ditty “Who ’Dat say ’dey gonna beat ’dem Saints?” part of the Cajun-Creole patois of one of the nation’s most distinctive cities. SO THERE IT was in the New Orleans Timcs-Picayune Monday, the anonymous critiques of fans queried after the Saints had lost 1210 to the Rams Sunday their second defeat in nine games this season; their fifth in the last 24 over two years. “I don’t think the Saints are as good as everybody around here thinks they are,” one unnamed fan was quoted by the newspaper. “I

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think they’ll be lucky to win two of their next seven games.” “The Saints’ play-calling is the sorriest in football,” said another. And so on, even to criticism of Mora, last season’s NFL Coach of the Year and one of the top six coaches in the NFL. Why? Probably because they were 12-3 instead of 9-6 last year. Finks and Mora know they’ve made a winner of a team that, with few exceptions like Pro Bowl linebacker Rickey Jackson, is made up of average talent, particularly with Jackson’s bookend on the other side, Pat Swilling, sidelined with a pulled abdominal muscle. THEY KNOW THAT in a balanced league, one tom ligament or sprained ankle can turn the Washington Redskins into the Detroit Lions or Atlanta Falcons. Washington, with both its cornerbacks playing injured, hardly looked like Super Bowl winners in their 41-17 loss to Houston Sunday night. They know that the New York Giants went from NFL champion to 6-9 in one season and that week-to-week results are hardly more predictable. A week after they had been anointed as this year’s Super Team, the Bears lost 30-7 to New England, a team that three weeks earlier had been beaten 45-3 by 2-7 Green Bay. And while New Orleans fans seem to have things in better perspective than, say, those in Denver, who seem to think the presence of John Elway guarantees them the right to get clobbered in the §uper Bowl every year, Finks, et al., knew the backlash was coming.

Colts can reach .500 Sunday

By STEVE HERMAN AP Sports Writer INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Glad with the 55-23 blowout of Denver, Indianapolis Colts Coach Ron Meyer is quick to point out there are still seven games left. Plus that the Colts are four games behind AFC East leader Buffalo. EVEN WITH LOSSES in five of their first six games, Meyer always contended the Colts weren’t that bad. “It’s always nice to have a victory. But the simple fact is we’re 45 and have a game on Sunday (against the New York Jets) to get back to .500,” Meyer said Tuesday. “We’re still in the hunt, but one game does not make a season either way.” With Eric Dickerson’s 159 rushing yards and four first-half touchdowns Monday night, Indianapolis raced ahead 31-0 before Denver ever crossed midfield. The Colts built the leead to 45-10 at halftime and finished with the most points ever scored in a Monday night NFL game. DICKERSON, NOW WITH a league-leading 1,038 yards, became the first player to rush for at least 1,000 yards in each of his first six seasons in the league and only the third to reach that total six years in a row. “It was a good, solid victory. The defense played really well, especially early when they gave us

The big change in long-distance is coming.

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RON MEYER Settling down Colts

those turnovers, and our offensive mix was good. It was nice to see us complement each other the way a team that is coming together should,” Meyer said. The game also marked the oneyear anniversary of Dickerson’s arrival in a trade with the Los Angeles Rams. None of the first four Indianapolis losses this season was by more than six points, and three of them resulted in part from key fumbles by Dickerson when the Colts were in a position possibly to win. “THIS WIN HELPS out tremendously,” said rookie quarterback Chris Chandler, who was

you choose the company you prefer for “Oneplus" dialing. In the next few days, we will send you information explaining Equal Access, plus a ballot to let you choose among the long-distance companies serving your area. (If you don’t make a choice, we’re required to select a company for you.) Read the material carefully. Then mark the ballot with the company of your choice and return it to us.

elevated past veteran Gary Hogeboom into the starting spot when Jack Trudeau went out with a knee injury in September. “The offense played well and the defense was great. It gives us a real boost of confidence for the rest of the year.” Chandler completed 10 of 13 passes for 167 yards, including 40 yards for a touchdown to Clarence Verdin. Hogeboom, who came in whenever the Colts went to their newly installed wishbone formation, passed only twice but com-

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pleted one for 53 yards and a touchdown to Bill Brooks. “For two weeks now, we’ve dug ourseves a hole that we couldn’t get out of,” Denver Coach Dan Reeves said. “We can’t afford to make the mistakes we’re making now and expect to win. You have to give Indianapolis a lot of credit They had an excellent game plan.” REEVES SAID THE Broncos not only couldn’t stop Dickerson but also “couldn’t slow him down. He had an outstanding night.”

That’s all. We’ll do the rest. When Equal Access starts, we’ll automatically connect you to your choice. Watch your mail for details. Choose the longdistance company you want—and return the ballot to us.

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