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Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints took a lot of time to get going in Super Bowl XLIV, but when they did it was memorable.
Both teams needed to shake off the early jittery feeling everybody gets when playing in the Super Bowl. Marques Colston and Pierre Garcon each dropped passes early. New Orleans did not get too Manning in the first half and the Colts took an early 10-0 lead.
On the Colts first touchdown drive, Addai carried most of the load and the Saints missed a lot of tackles. On the Addai 29-yard run, Saints corner Jabarie Greer was injured on the tackle. Greer's replacement comes in and is matched up on Pierre Garcon. Garcon fakes like hes going outside, and the corner takes away the outside move like he should with safety help over the top on the inside. Garcon then comes inside and runs straight up the seem where Safety Roman Harper gave up on the deep route and let Garcon run right by him when his responsibility is deep. Bad play by the safety there and the Colts look on their way to a route.
The Saints responded with a field goal on their next possession, and then came the game changer. On 3rd and 4 Manning threw a dart to Pierre Garcon that looks to be going to the house, and Garcon dropped the ball. Colts go 3 and out and punt. The Saints drive all the way down and have 1st and goal from the 3 yard line. They commit a penalty, but get it to 2rd and goal on the 1. At this point if your Sean Payton, you either know or not if you are going on 4th down and if you are you attempt a pass on either 3rd or 4th down. They don't pass on either down and the Colts stuff them. On plays that close to the goal line, all 11 defensive players are so close to the line of scrimmage it is impossible to get everyone blocked. On 4th down linebacker Garry Bracket and corner Tim Jennings were unblocked and stopped Pierre Thomas short.
So Manning is getting into his bread and butter, 2 minutes and 2 timeouts. But what do the Colts do? They play conservative and run 3 times up the middle. They gave up thinking they get the ball back after the half no matter what. The Colts punt and the Saints sneak in another field goal as time expired to make it 10-6.
Opening the second half, the Saints go for the jugular. Payton calls for the onside kick after having to think about it for 30 minutes during an elongated Super Bowl halftime. The gamble, which will go down as one of the gutsiest calls in Super Bowl history, paid off as the Saints drove right down the field and took the lead 13-10.
The Colts come back and answer like they normally do. The Saints played soft coverage and missed a tone of tackles on the drive that lead to the Colts retaking the lead 17-13.
Dwight Freeney and the Colts defense was very effective in the first half getting to Drew Brees and disrupting what the Saints tried to do. During the second half, the Colts defense hindered significantly without Dwight Freeney after he came out in the 3rd quarter and would not return. Brees was on fire in the second half, but still losing. They kick another field goal to make it 17-16.
Peyton takes over in the 3rd quarter and the possession carry's over to the 4th quarter. Its now 4th and 2 for the Colts on the Saints 46. They go for it, and make it. The play was a slant to Wayne that he juggled but caught. The coverage was pressed but I have a problem with the fact that Wayne was not bumped at the line of scrimmage. I feel that if Porter would have bumped Wayne at the line it would have significantly impacted the decision Manning made their. Manning saw it and converted. Then the Saints defense came up big blowing up a screen play on 2nd and 8, and on 3rd down Manning sees a great match up which is WR Austin Collie on a MLB Jonathon Vilma. Collie ran up the seem and was matched stride for stride with the linebacker Vilma who broke up the play. Incredible coverage on a WR by a middle linebacker which is usually a clear miss match. This left Matt Stover a 51-yard field goal attempt that he misses. I do not agree with the call to kick their. I would have gone for it in that situation, but would not have a problem with a punt. The Saints dominated field position all night and backing them up their would have given a reason for them to be a little skeptical. Instead the Saints took advantage of their field position, Brees stayed hot and drove right down the field and scored to take the lead 22-7. The Saints go for the 2 point conversion to go up 7 with 5 minutes to play, good decision. Brees throws an out to Lance Moore who catches the ball, falls down, extends the ball passed the plane, appears to be bobbling the ball, and is ultimately drops it. The play is ruled incomplete on the field and is challenged by Payton, good challenge. The rule states that if a player completing a pass in the endzone falls to the ground, the players must maintain possession through the play regardless if he has broken the plane or not. The play on the field was overturned and the attempt was ruled successful, contradictory to what the rule says. Its a fascinating call that I can not wait for the NFL to explain.
None the less the Saints now lead 24-17 with a little over 5 minutes left. The Colts start driving downfield and get to 3rd and 5 on the Saints 31. The Saints called a blitz, Reggie Wayne and Manning adjust to the blitz to a sight adjustment they and every other teams run a hundred times throughout the year. Tracy Porter notices it, sees it, intercepts it, and takes it to the house. Ball Game. A lot of analysts are blaming Reggie Wayne for giving up on the route and not running it at full speed. Who is to blame on that play, no one will ever know because neither Peyton Manning or Reggie Wayne will tell you. Now the Saints have a headlock on the game up 2 touchdowns with 3 minutes left.
The Colts drive down the field again easily, this time because the Saints are guarding against the big play and giving up the underneath routes which the Colts took which also chewed up a lot of clock. The Colts got the ball to the Saints 3 yard line, but took a timeout. An unnecessary timeout that you could tell Manning after he took regretted it and tried to act like he didn't call it. You don't want to call a timeout in that situation because you want to be able to onside kick and be able to get the call back regardless if you recover the kick or not. But in order to do that you need all 3 of your timeouts, and the Colts blew one after that play. The Colts then attempt a pass which falls incomplete, then for some dumb reason run on 3rd down which is stopped so now they can't take another timeout so they hurry up the 4th down play which Wayne drops and the Saints take over and knee it to end the game.
A crazy and memorable Super Bowl on many levels. The Colts did not play the way they're known to play. They played conservative in the final two minutes of the first half and played confused in the final 3 minutes. Credit the MVP Drew Brees who played an outstanding game 32/39 for 288 and 2 touchdowns. Flawless performance by a very very underrated quarterback who the Chargers moved on from and the Dolphins thought was done 5 years ago.
Congratulations to the city of New Orleans and all Saints fans on being Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
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