Everyone loves lists. Everyone (at least in this city) also loves the Saints. So, why not combine the two?
This project began when a reader asked us about ranking the best players in Saints history. Since WWLTV.com had done that list prior to the 2009 season, we began to think about something that can always be discussed.
Immediately it turned to the most clutch plays in Saints history. This isn’t the definitive list; you may, in fact, disagree with some of the placements or some of the plays.
But what can’t be disputed is that the plays on this list were all memorable in their own right.
Our definition of clutch goes a little something like this: A big play, and in one case, series of plays, in a big game at a crucial moment in time. It’s a play that if it doesn’t happen, the outcome is likely changed in the game.
Several on the list came from the Super Bowl-winning season but that’s expected. Several did not.
And anyway, what better way to get people geared up for the season should a new Collective Bargaining Agreement come to fruition soon.
No. 5 Gleason’s Block
Steve Gleason wasn’t a star. He wasn’t known like Deuce McAllister or Drew Brees or even Fred McAfee in 2006. He didn’t care and knew his place in the NFL was through special teams.
In fact, Gleason was much like the city of New Orleans – a player who didn’t mind getting a little bit dirty and had fun doing it.
His blocked punt in the Saints’ return to the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina will go down as maybe the most emotional moment New Orleanians will remember, and certainly one of the most-clutch in Saints history.
He was the perfect man for this moment.
"The Saints homecoming to the Superdome following Hurricane Katrina stands as one of the landmark moments in team and New Orleans history," CBSsports.com writer and co-host of The Sports Hangover morning radio show Larry Holder said. "Gleason's blocked punt and fumble recovery for a touchdown by Curtis DeLoatch at the onset completed the moment like nothing else could."
As has been well documented, in September 2006, the city was in the early stages of recovery from the ravages brought on by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee failures, which had decimated the metropolitan area and the Superdome.
New Orleans’ game against Atlanta on Monday Night Football was emotional. It was the return of the Saints to the building that a year earlier had been the shelter of last resort, a place that hauntingly had the Teflon on the roof torn off allowing water and noise into the stadium.
The game meant more than just a game; it was the nationally symbolic first patch of dirt dug on bringing New Orleans back. It was the first time those outside of New Orleans truly understood that the Crescent City could and would recover.
After Green Day did their thing along with U2, there really was only one thing left to do and that was to grab a win over NFC South division rival Atlanta.
You could argue it’s hard to be clutch in the first half of the game let alone in the opening five minutes. But this clutch play has as much to do with the call as it does the execution.
The Saints had the Falcons backed up at the Atlanta 29 and a fourth-and-10 situation with 13:37 to go in the opening quarter. It’s rare to have a called block on so early in a game but this one, like coach Sean Payton’s calling an onside kick in Super Bowl XLIV, was a surprise and the right call at the right moment.
But Gleason still had to pull off the play properly. Lined up just to the right of the center, he twisted around to the left after the snap, blowing through a hole with a straight line to the punter. Line up an inch or two more to the right and he doesn’t reach the hole at the right time.
Additionally, Gleason had to time his dive just right. If he dives too soon or too late, he missed the ball and possibly gets called for running into the kicker.
That Curtis DeLoatch was able to fall on the ball in the end zone was just gravy at that point.
Gleason’s blocked punt was a seminal moment in Saints history and set the tone for the rest of that first game back in the Dome, which New Orleans won23-3.
Our panel: Tom Planchet, former WWL-TV sports producer and current operations manager for WWLTV.com; Scott Cody, WWL-TV Sports Reporter/Anchor; Adam Ney, WWL-TV Sports Producer; Danny Rockwell, WWL-TV Sports Producer; Garland Gillen, WWL-TV Sports Photographer and Reporter; Mike Hoss, former WWL-TV Sports Reporter and current WWL-TV anchor; Larry Holder, CBSSports.com writer and The Sports Hangover radio show co-host; Gus Kattengell, The Sports Hangover radio show co-host; Kristian Garic, WWL Radio host and Saints radio sideline reporter; Pat Yasinskas, ESPN.com NFC South writer; WWLTV.com contributor Ralph Malbrough; Bradley Handwerger, WWLTV.com Sports Writer.
