1998 New Orleans Saints Schedule
| Regular Season | ||
| Sep 6 | Rams | W 24-17 |
| Sep13 | Panthers | W 19-14 |
| Sep 20 | BYE | |
| Sep 27 | Colts | W 19-13 |
| Oct 4 | Patriots | L 27-30 |
| Oct 11 | 49ers | L 0-31 |
| Oct 18 | Falcons | L 23-31 |
| Oct 25 | Buccaneers | W 9-3 |
| Nov 1 | Panthers | L 17-31 |
| Nov 8 | Vikings | L 24-31 |
| Nov 15 | Rams | W 24-3 |
| Nov 22 | 49ers | L 20-31 |
| Nov 29 | Dolphins | L 10-30 |
| Dec 6 | Cowboys | W 22-3 |
| Dec 13 | Falcons | L 17-27 |
| Dec 20 | Cardinals | L 17-19 |
| Dec 27 | Bills | L 33-45 |
6 Wins 10 Loses
Coach: Mike Ditka
First Round Draft Pick: Kyle Turley Guard, San Diego State
Mike Ditka began his second season as Head Coach with a lot of questions. By season’s end, he still had a lot of questions.
But if there was one thing that wasn’t questionable, it was if the Saints would play some football.
Despite a glaring lack of talent, and a slew of off season problems, the Boys from the Bayou managed to hang tough and remain competitive in all but a couple of games. The defense, while giving up it’s share of big plays, made a few of their own. They led the league in defensive TD’s with 9 (5 interceptions and 4 fumble recoveries). La’Roi Glover and Joe Johnson emerged and began to impress NFL offenses. Glover had a career year leading the team in sacks with 10. He also had 1 interception and 3 fumble recoveries and was named a Pro-Bowl alternate. Johnson, meanwhile, lived up to a big multi-million dollar contract that was offered him and played good enough to go to the Pro-Bowl as a back-up. Mark Fields had a good year leading the team in tackles (107) and recording 7 sacks of his own. Sammy Knight led the team in interceptions with 6, scoring on 2 of them. Rookie Chris Bordano filled in at Middle Linebacker and showed some promise for the future.
On the offense though, things were not as promising. After 4 different quarterback and 3 different sets of running backs the offense remained incredibly ineffective. The receivers seemed to drop as many passes as they caught. In short, we beat teams that were bad and lost to the good ones.
The offense did have a few bright spots. Rookie lineman Kyle Turley gave the o-line some future to build on and rookie Cam Cleeland led the team in receiving and TD’s scored. Kicker Doug Brien had another near-perfect year nailing 20 out of 22 field goals. Willie Roaf was also named to his 5th Pro Bowl.
1998 Offensive Stats
1998 Defensive Stats
1998 Saints Roster