After 3 years of improvement, the Saints seemed to take a big step backwards. Going into the 1970 season, the Saints actually had been the NFL's most successful expansion team to date. 1970 would be the first of many forgettable seasons. 1st round draft pick Ken Burroughs would become a star....... for the Houston Oilers, Jim Otis, from Ohio State, was a 9th round pick and would go on to be success with the St. Louis Cardinals. And finally, Doug Sutherland was a 14th round pick from Superior, Wisconsin and would go on to have a long and successful career with the Vikings.
The season could produce only 2 wins. One was a 14-10 defeat of Minnesota where defensive back Elijah Nevett nabbed 2 Fran Tarkington passes, and the other was the famous record-breaking 63-yard last second field goal to beat Detroit. After game 7, a 17-30 loss to the Rams, Tom Fears was replaced by JD Roberts. Roberts only victory was the game against Detroit.
The formerly productive running game was next to non-existent
as Tom Baker led the team with only 337 yards. Only 4 TDs were
produced running the ball all season. The passing game looked a
little better as Kilmer and Hargett both got playing time but
neither was all that impressive. Abramowicz again led the team in
receiving (4th year in a row) with 55 grabs and 906 yards. Danny
had a big game against Cincinnati with 6 catches and 165 yards.
The Saints still lost 26-6.
