A Fast Start Inspires New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS —  The last time fullback Buford Jordan got off to a 5-0 start with a professional football team in New Orleans, the Breakers of the USFL limped home 8-10.

“I will guarantee you that won’t happen with the Saints,” Jordan said. “There’s too much character on this team. We work too hard to let that happen.”

“I think some guys got a little excited and didn’t keep things in perspective back then,” Jordan said. “It’s been a while since that season, but I think we got excited and sat on our laurels a little bit, thinking it was going to be hard for anyone to beat us.

“Teams came after us, and I don’t think that team was as ready as this one is for the challenges that we have ahead of us.”

Jordan is Louisiana’s leading career rusher with 4,156 yards at McNeese State.

He was the Breakers’ No. 1 draft choice in 1984, but as the USFL wound down, Jordan was chosen in the first round of the NFL’s supplemental draft by Green Bay. He didn’t catch on with the Packers, so he joined the Saints as a free agent in 1986, the year Jim Mora took over.

He was a starter on and off through 1989, but his role has diminished as Craig “Ironhead” Heyward has continued to improve. He’s a role player, now -- a special teams standout, a sure-handed receiver on third downs, a crisp blocker who helped to pop Dalton Hilliard loose on a 65-yard touchdown run against Atlanta last week.

He knows how a city’s excitement can affect a football team.

“It was a great feeling. When we had that record, we had like 60,000 fans in the stands. We were averaging 50,000 people, and that was pretty good for the USFL. It was exciting,” he said.

“Running the ball and everything. It was fun. I’m not going to say it wasn’t, but we just slipped away a little bit. We let something good get away from us.”

“We didn’t keep things in perspective.”

That’s been Mora’s theme through this week of rest and recuperation that the NFC West is enjoying. For the past two weeks, his team has been the media’s darling -- cover stories in national sports magazines, national cable television specials.

“It’s not a distraction if you handle it right,” Mora said.

The most visible key to the Saints’ fast start is quarterback Bobby Hebert, who sat out last season in a contract dispute.

Hebert ranks seventh among NFC passers with a ranking of 81.1. New Orleans is fourth in the NFC in total offense.

Frank Warren, suspended last season as a three-time loser to the NFL’s drug abuse program, has added a big push up front since his return, making New Orleans’ stellar corps of linebackers more effective.

Middle linebacker Sam Mills is the NFC defensive player of the month for September, and outside linebacker Rickey Jackson was NFC player for the final week of the month.

The Saints defense is tops in the NFL -- first against the rush and sixth against the pass.

Tommy Barnhardt leads the NFC in net yardage punting, and he’s second only to Jeff Gossett of the Raiders in the NFL.

And Morten Andersen hasn’t missed a field goal attempt this season, 10-10 for the year and 12-12 dating back to last season.

The Saints picked up defensive lineman Les Miller off Plan B, got defensive back Vincie Glenn in a trade with the Raiders and another defensive back, Reggie Jones, with a fifth-round pick in the draft. All are playing well in reserve roles.

But Jordan was most impressed by the job three reserve offensive linemen have done when pressed into starting roles -- tackle Richard Cooper, center Brad Leggett and guard Chris Port.

Not once in the five-game streak have the Saints been able to field the same offensive front.

“We’ve lost guys in our offensive line, but people stepped forward and did a great job and kept our offense going,” Jordan said. “A lot of teams will start complaining, ‘Oh, we lost this guy and we lost that guy,’ but we’re not accepting that.

“Whoever steps in should be able to take on the job. And they’ve always done it.

“Coach Mora cuts you no slack. No slack whatsoever. You may not get the physical reps a starter gets, but mentally you have to be ready to go when you’re called. And they’ve done that.”

“There won’t be any flame-out here. We work too hard for that. Jim Mora’s going to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Jordan said.