Lions hungry for Saints, first victory of season

• By LES EAST
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Dec 20, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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METAIRIE — The Saints-Lions game in Detroit on Sunday is one of just four NFL games this week in which neither team has a chance of making the playoffs.

But it’s also a game in which history is at stake. Teams fight to get into the playoffs so they can get their names in the record book. Detroit (0-14) is fighting to win a game, any game, to keep its name out of the record book.

The Lions want to avoid being the first NFL team to go 0-15. Beyond that, they want to avoid being the first NFL team to finish 0-16.

Because their only other game is Dec. 28 at Green Bay, where they have lost every season since 1992, their only shot at doing all this avoiding stuff might be to beat the 7-7 Saints in Ford Field.

“One, you don’t want to go down in history for being the first 0-16 team,” Detroit wide receiver Calvin Johnson said, “and two, it’s kind of a pride thing. Everybody wants to win. Coach (Rod Marinelli) is pushing us and this week is like a playoff atmosphere.”

The only two teams in NFL history to go 0-14 were the expansion 1976 Buccaneers, who finished with that record two seasons before the league added two games to the regular-season schedule, and the 1980 Saints, who beat the Jets in New York in their 15th game and finished 1-15.

Since New Orleans introduced the 1-15 record into the NFL record book, seven other teams — the 1989 Cowboys, the ’90 Patriots, the ’91 Colts, the ’96 Jets, the 2000 Chargers, the ’01 Panthers, and the ’07 Dolphins — have flirted with winless seasons before matching the Saints’ futility.

Actually, the ’01 Panthers didn’t flirt with a winless season as they had the distinction of winning their first game, then losing the next 15.

The deepest any team has gone into a 16-game season before winning its first game is 14 games. Last season’s Dolphins lost their first 13 before edging Baltimore, 22-16, in overtime.

“When you start off 0-4, it’s like, OK, we can get this thing going,” said Saints defensive end Rob Ninkovich, who was with the Dolphins last season. “Then you’re 0-8 and you’re working hard because every NFL team is working hard. You keep working and you keep playing and eventually you’ll get one.”

The Lions hope he’s right about that last part.

Defensive back Michael Lehan, who started 14 games for Miami last season and signed with the Saints this week, remembered the Dolphins lost six games by three points each before getting their win last season. The Lions have lost five games by eight or fewer points.

“A win is hard to come by in this league, and your first win is the hardest,” Lehan said. “They’re not a slouch of a team; things just haven’t gone in their direction. That’s what our mindset was last year — that we weren’t a bad team, it was just tough to get one.”