It was a bitter, deflating defeat that sent the New Orleans Saints into a three-game, end-of-the-season swoon (actually a two-game swoon — the Saints played mostly their second team in the finale against Carolina), but maybe the Dec. 19 24-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys wasn’t so bad after all. As ESPN NFC South reporter Pat Yasinskas observes, citing ESPN’s Stats & Information bureau, losing to Dallas after going undefeated has its upside.
The last three teams that were 8-0 or better lost when they played the ’Boys. But here’s where it gets interesting: Two of them — the Washington Redskins in 1991 and the Indianapolis Colts in 2006 — went on to win the Super Bowl.