Will Freeney make or break the Super Bowl? By David Zizmor February 2, 2010     Super Bowl XLIV with the Saints and the Colts and this should be a good match up we all know that Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Colts quarterback Peyton Manning are perhaps the two best quarterbacks in the NFL right now. Nobody is smarter behind center right now than Manning and Brees who is about as accurate as you can get in the NFL these days and both teams have fantastic wide receivers these guys have great skills as quarterbacks and they have great weapons to work with. Not to mention really talented offensive coordinators who know the systems really, really well, not only that these guys have everything going around them but they have coaches that they have worked with for years and they kind of know intuitively. There is those non verbal computations where these guys don't even have to say anything they just kind of know what to do with the shrug of the shoulder and these guys are the masters of their offense so it should be really interesting just to see how well these guys play on Sunday during the Super Bowl. These two clubs are well matched the way these teams are constructed you would think this is going to be a little bit more of an offensive game than a defensive game. These teams though they were built for speed on defense they're not built for bruit force. They obviously have a couple of big guys here and there but there really more about speed defenses than power defenses. Which was not what you saw in the NFC championship where the Jets and Vikings had big and powerful defenses not that they weren't quick they were definitely powerful and they were big and strong and the Saints and the Colts have a little more speed than they normally are powerful. So they're really not going to be able to really crush anybody, they're going to have a tougher time stopping the movement and the speed on offense that they’re going to be facing. So that's where these teams are going to be putting together a fireworks display. These two teams are really adapted on moving the ball and it's not known if their defenses are up to the challenge of stopping them for an entire game. You have to remember these teams have two weeks to prepare for each other and to put an extra wrinkle in their game plan. It makes it that much more difficult, the defense are going to be playing on their heels a bit and while they might get a few stops here and there, the offense has the advantage over the defense. One thing you have to consider on defense for the Colts there is defensive end Dwight Freeney has a serious ankle injury and it's questionable whether he's going to be able to play in the Super Bowl. Most people seem to think it's going to be difficult for him to come back and play this weekend. He has some torn ligaments in his ankle so you can call it a really severe sprain, or you can call it torn ligaments. Either way it's a big injury that will really effect someone who like Freeney relies on his speed for his success and if Freeney goes into this one, even if he plays, it's a big ankle injury he's not going to be anywhere near effective when he's 100% healthy and that goes without saying. For a guy who is skill set which revolves around his speed off the edge it makes a huge difference having an injured ankle. We don't really know what his status is going to be, we have to wait until Sunday. The reports are that Freeney has a really severe injury and it's questionable whether he'll play. What does this mean for the game? If Freeney is playing hurt or he doesn't play at all it's a big advantage to the Saints because the Saints don't come into this one with any serious injuries but Freeney he's one of the keys to the Colts defense. Dave Zizmor is covering the Super Bowl with game previews, game coverage by Daniel Dullum and photography with Shawn McCullough.

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