A look back at an old 49ers-Saints game

The San Francisco 49ers traveled to New Orleans Friday evening as they prepare to face the Saints on Sunday. The 49ers and Saints have an extensive history from back when they shared time in the NFC West. The old NFC West was always entertaining in how geographically ridiculous it was. Sure, let's have New Orleans, Atlanta, Carolina and St. Louis in a division with San Francisco. Nothing wrong with that!

Someone posted a picture of a ticket from the 49ers-Saints 1997 matchup at the Superdome, and I thought I would post it in here. It's now been 17 years since this game, and while that is a long time, it still baffles me how old the ticket looks.

Vintage. Game On! @saints @ojapa #WhoDat #NewOrleansSaints

A photo posted by @ifellover45 on Nov 11, 2014 at 9:36pm PST

In 1997, the San Francisco 49ers would win the NFC West with a 13-3 record. Even with home field advantage, they came up short with a 23-10 loss in the NFC Championship Game to the Green Bay Packers.

However, in this game against what would end up a 6-10 Saints team, the 49ers had little trouble. They won 33-7, thanks in part to an efficient performance from Steve Young, who was 18 of 21 for 220 yards and three touchdowns. The 49ers had no trouble in large part though because the Saints quarterbacks were awful. Danny Wuerrffel and Heath Shuler combined to complete 12 of 26 passes for 185 yards and a touchdown, but were picked a combined 6 times! Rod Woodson had three interceptions on the day, Tyronne Drakeford had two interceptions, and Tim McDonald had one interception.

Here is a look at the offensive performances from that day. You can see more info over at the Pro Football Reference box score page. I think it is entirely reasonable to hope for a repeat of this performance....right?