1972 New Orleans Saints season

The 1972 New Orleans Saints season was the team's sixth as a member of the National Football League (NFL). They failed to improve on their previous season’s output of 4–8–2, winning only two games. The team failed to qualify for the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season.

The Saints suffered through their second 2–11–1 season in three years, tying with the Philadelphia Eagles for the second worst record in the league, only surpassed by the Houston Oilers’ 1–13. Coincidentally, one of the Saints' two wins came at the Eagles' expense. It would be their worst until they went 2–12 in 1975.

Schedule

style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Week	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Date	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Opponent	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Result	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Record	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Venue	style="Template:NFLPrimaryStyle"| Attendance
1	September 17	at Los Angeles Rams	L 14–34	0–1	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	66,303
2	Template:Dow tooltip	Kansas City Chiefs	L 17–20	0–2	Tulane Stadium	70,793
3	October 1	San Francisco 49ers	L 2–37	0–3	Tulane Stadium	69,840
4	October 8	at New York Giants	L 21–45	0–4	Yankee Stadium	62,507
5	October 15	Atlanta Falcons	L 14–21	0–5	Tulane Stadium	66,294
6	October 22	at San Francisco 49ers	T 20–20	0–5–1	Candlestick Park	59,167
7	October 29	Philadelphia Eagles	W 21–3	1–5–1	Tulane Stadium	65,664
8	November 5	at Minnesota Vikings	L 6–37	1–6–1	Metropolitan Stadium	49,784
9	November 12	at Atlanta Falcons	L 20–36	1–7–1	Atlanta Stadium	58,850
10	November 19	at Detroit Lions	L 14–27	1–8–1	Tiger Stadium	53,752
11	November 26	Los Angeles Rams	W 19–16	2–8–1	Tulane Stadium	64,325
12	December 3	at New York Jets	L 17–18	2–9–1	Shea Stadium	62,496
13	December 10	New England Patriots	L 10–17	2–10–1	Tulane Stadium	64,889
14	December 17	Green Bay Packers	L 20–30	2–11–1	Tulane Stadium	65,881
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Notable events

• In their third game against the 49ers, the Saints became the thirty-second NFL team, and the first since the 1970 Cleveland Browns, to score only a safety in a full game. This was done again in the last week of the regular season by the San Diego Chargers, but after that was done only by the 1980 Buffalo Bills, the 1983 Minnesota Vikings, the 1993 Cincinnati Bengals, 2011 Atlanta Falcons (playoffs), and 2013 Jacksonville Jaguars.
• The regular season finale vs. Green Bay kicked off at noon CST instead of the usual 1 p.m. Noon would become the kickoff time for all home games in the early window beginning in 1982.