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'Who Dat?' Saints stun Indy for Super Bowl win
By Daniel Dullum February 7, 2010 |
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Nearly every prognosticator, knowledgeable or otherwise, picked the Indianapolis Colts to win Super Bowl XLIV. Apparently, the New Orleans Saints didn’t get the memo. Peyton Manning and the Colts took an early lead, but this Super Bowl at Sun Life Stadium in Miami was truly a tale of two halves; actually three quarters. The first quarter belonged to the Colts. The second, third and fourth quarters, as well as the NFL championship, belonged to the Saints. New Orleans, a historically woeful franchise born seven months after Super Bowl I in 1967, had won two playoff contests in its first 42 years of operation. In the 2009 playoffs, the Saints won three games, including a remarkable 31-17 Super Bowl triumph that gave Mardi Gras participants one more reason to dance in The Big Easy streets. Drew Brees was named as the game’s most valuable player, completing 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns. Brees did most of his damage after the The Who’s halftime performance, when the Saints opened the second half with a gutsy call to go with – and recover – an onside kick. Both of Brees’ scoring passes came in the second half. The first one, set up by the onside kick recovery, was a 16-yard screen to Pierre Thomas, giving New Orleans its first lead of the game at 17-16. Manning responded on the Colts’ next drive, finding Dallas Clark with a 45-yard pass that led to a four-yard touchdown run by Joseph Addai, putting Indianapolis back in front at 17-16 with 6:15 left in the third quarter. That was the last time the Colts led the game. Brees’ second TD pass, on a five-yard slant to tight end Jeremy Shockey, put the Saints ahead to stay with 5:42 remaining in the fourth quarter. The 2-point conversion reception by Lance Moore was originally ruled incomplete, but overturned by replay review, putting the Saints up by seven. With 3:12 to play and the Colts driving, Tracy Porter intercepted a Manning pass and returned it 74 yards to provide the final margin of victory. Indianapolis’s ensuing drive ended on downs with under a minute to play, and the Saints began their celebration. The Saints’ Garrett Hartley booted field goals of 46, 44 and 47 yards, as New Orleans won in its first-ever Super Bowl appearance. Indianapolis outgained the Saints in total offense 432 net yards to 332. Manning completed 31 of 45 passes for 333 yards and a first-quarter touchdown to Pierre Garcon. The Colts, the only NFL team to represent both the NFL/NFC and the AFC in a Super Bowl, are 2-2 in their four appearances. Prior to the 1970 merger that sent them to the AFC, the Colts won four NFL titles. The victory represented not only a comeback for the Saints, but the city of New Orleans as well. In 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, much of the city was under water, and the Superdome was damaged to the extent that the Saints played their home games in Baton Rouge and San Antonio. Rumors persisted that the team would leave Louisiana, but the NFL dictated otherwise, insisting that the Saints remain in New Orleans. Between two venues, New Orleans has hosted nine Super Bowls, and now has an NFL championship to call their own. The days of the Aints and their fans with bags over their heads are a distant memory, as the Vince Lombardi Trophy has found a new home near Bourbon Street, the French Quarter, and all of New Orleans, where this particular Super Bowl party will rock on for days. |
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