The coach who mastered the regular season but never won a playoff game

History · Published 5 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Jim E. Mora was a master of the turnaround. He transformed perennial losers into postseason contenders, yet his career was defined by a haunting paradox: a high winning percentage paired with a legendary inability to secure a single postseason victory.

Jim E. and his career in the NFL were marked by dramatic transformations of struggling franchises. In the USFL, Mora led the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars to two championships in three years, posting a remarkable .782 winning percentage. When he moved to the New Orleans Saints in 1986, he inherited a team that had won only 90 games in its first 19 seasons. By 1987, he had led them to their first winning record and earned NFL Coach of the Year honors.

However, Mora’s legacy is complicated by his postseason record. Despite leading the Saints and the Indianapolis Colts to multiple playoff berths, he finished his career with an 0–6 record in the playoffs. This statistical anomaly is even more striking because he finished with a .527 winning percentage, the highest of any NFL coach without a playoff win. His frustration often boiled over in the media, leading to famous, impassioned tirades.

Some of his most enduring moments were born from defeat. In 1987, after a loss to the 49ers, he delivered the 'Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda' speech, scolding his players for not being good enough. Later, in 1996, a loss to the Panthers prompted a profanity-laced outburst featuring the phrase 'diddly poo.' Even in 2001, while coaching the Colts, he famously responded to a question about playoff prospects with an incredulous, 'Playoffs?! I just hope we can win a game!'

While Mora could build winning regular-season rosters—including the legendary 'Dome Patrol' in New Orleans—his inability to navigate the pressure of the postseason remains a central theme of his coaching narrative.

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