New Orleans Saints Review

Check out this link from the Times-Picayune to get all the info you need for the big parade in NOLA on Tuesday!  How I wish I could be there!

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Watch them on WDSU’s website:
http://www.wdsu.com/video/17360129/index.html

UPDATE: THEIR COVERAGE APPEARS TO BE OVER – Hopefully there will be archive footage available somewhere!

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Well, Sunday turned out to be a day of epic proportions for Saints fans.  We are Super Bowl champions, and have memories that will last us a lifetime!

Here are a few thoughts about the game and the pre-game hoopla:

• I was impressed by both the ESPN and CBS pregame shows.  Lots of great stories about New Orleans.  My favorites might just be about Drew Brees‘ and Reggie Bush’s friendship with some special youngsters.  It definitely showcased how these guys are elite athletes and elite human beings.
• The pre-game and halftime music was, well, not my taste (I like indie rock, bands nobody’s heard of!).  The Who were at one time an amazing band.  I still listen to them.  They had such raw emotion and spoke of the times.  But they didn’t really do it for me at halftime.  A little too past their prime!
• Sean Payton sure did press all the right buttons, eh?  The onside kick worked to perfection and you have to give him credit for having the guts to make that call.  And the special teams unit, although picked on a bit this year, ran it to perfection.  Thomas Morstead couldn’t have kicked it any better, and Chris Reis fought hard for that ball.
• I think Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams did some wonderful things against the Indy offense.  While Peyton Manning did have a great day (other than the interception), it seemed like the Colts were a little bit timid on offense.  The Saints succeeded in putting just a hint of doubt into Manning’s head, I think.
• One thing the Colts did that really impressed me was how they ran the ball.  Joseph Addai hadn’t looked that strong in awhile.
• Props go out to Dwight Freeney for giving it a go.  He’s one heck of a player.
• Lance Moore’s 2 point conversion was something else.  I honestly thought he dropped the ball when the play first happened.  At full speed it was tough to tell.  But Reggie Bush pointed out after the game on NFL Network that the official was right there and was surprised how the call was missed.  Thankfully, replay showed that Moore had secured the ball before it was kicked out of his hands.  Kudos to Lance, that’s a tough play, especially for a guy who has been hurt most of the season.
• Jonathan Vilma was really impressive.  He broke up a potential touchdown pass by Manning and was all over the field as usual.  In fact, I give the entire linebacking corps an A+, they faced a real challenge out there and came through.
• Last night really got me thinking about how Payton and Drew Brees always seem to be on the same wavelength.  It’s so rare that you see a coach and quarterback who are so in sync.  That should be the topic of a future post this week.  But you can tell the respect and admiration they have for each other.
• One of the aspects that I truly love about this team is that there are no “divas” out there.  Every guy has a role to play and they work their tails off to do their job.  Have you ever seen a group of wide receivers who are so quiet?
• National media, are you still taking Matt Stover over Garrett Hartley? Ha!  I love Stover, and he’s had a wonderful career.  But if I need my kicker to hit from beyond 40 yards, it’s not the old man’s game anymore.  Hartley and Thomas Morstead both have rewarded Payton for his loyalty to them.
• Yes, I am very happy for Tom Benson and Rita Benson LeBlanc.  There have been ups and downs with Mr. Benson over the years, but I never questioned his desire to win.  He was a class act last night and I know this means the world to him.  Bravo!
• I also have to give Mickey Loomis and the front office some love.  They have done a wonderful job at bringing the right players in and building this organization into a winner.  Jim Finks is smiling somewhere up there.
• It was great to see that Rickey Jackson received the loudest ovation yesterday when the new Hall of Famers were announced before the game.  #57, this one’s for you!
• While I liked the pre-game show, CBS was terrible in the post game.  I was much better off switching between NFL Network and ESPN News.  I understand the need to pay the bills, but showing commercials so quickly after the game was over was a bummer.  Imagine being pretty much forced to watch Deion Sanders, ugh.
• Will Peyton Manning’s legacy be tarnished?  Not in the least. Still one of the greats of all time.  I have nothing but respect for him.

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Sean Payton and Drew Brees Celebrate a Super Bowl Victory (ESPN)

A little less than 12 hours after the New Orleans Saints sent the Indianapolis Colts packing with a 31-17 come-from-behind victory in Super Bowl XLIV, I’m still just blown away by what I saw.  And yet, I shouldn’t have expected it to happen any differently.

I picked the Saints to win it, 37-31.  But I didn’t think they would fall behind 10-0 early on.  I didn’t see them having to weather such an early storm by the Colts offense, while their own struggled to find a rhythm.  I, like so many others, expected a wild west shootout that would begin from the opening kickoff.

But regardless of what I expected, the Saints weren’t phased one bit.  Coach Sean Payton and his team put all their cards on the table and never took their foot off of the accelerator.  Payton was his riverboat gambler self in Miami on Sunday, and boy did he hit the jackpot.

His decision to go for it on a 4th and goal towards the end of the first half was definitely the right call, even though running back Pierre Thomas was stuffed for no gain.  It forced the Colts to march 99 yards in less than 2 minutes.  Indy decided to play it safe with 3 straight runs.  They didn’t want to make a costly mistake just before half time.

The Saints got the ball back, down 10-3 and put kicker Garrett Hartley in position to cut the deficit to 4 points heading into halftime.  Hartley nailed the 44 yarder and gave the Saints hope heading into the locker room.  He also became the first kicker in Super Bowl history to hit 3 kicks from beyond 40 yards.  For all the talk of his inexperience, Hartley has proven himself to be a big game presence.

But coach Payton wasn’t done.  Coming out for the second half, he decided it was time for an onside kick.  Crazy as it sounds, I actually said to myself (albeit quite sarcastically) during halftime that the Saints should try for the onside kick and keep that ball away from Peyton Manning.  But even I was shocked when they actually did it.  Punter/kickoff specialist Thomas Morstead made one of the biggest special teams plays in Saints history, hitting the ball just well enough to get a bounce off of a Colts player.  Reserve safety Chris Reis recovered the kick in what was one of the nastiest, longest fights for a ball that I’ve ever seen.  The Saints had the ball and Pierre Thomas promptly scored on a 16 pass from Drew Brees.

It was the first time in Super Bowl history an onside kick was attempted before the 4th quarter.  Payton said after the game that the team had seen something on film that made them quite sure they could recover the kick.  They wanted to pull it out sometime in the game, and he felt coming out of the half would be the perfect time.  And it was.  With the Super Bowl halftime being extended, there was no way the Colts would have seriously thought about defending such a tactic.

Make no mistake, this could have backfired on the Saints.  If that had happened, there would have been a blitz of criticism for Payton.  But that’s who he is, and that’s who these Saints are.  If you’re David battling Goliath (according to the media, anyway), you punch the big guy in the mouth and see if he can take it.  Payton was true to himself and it helped bring to momentum over to the New Orleans side of the field.

Manning was terrific overall (31/45, 333 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 88.5 QB Rating), and promptly marched his team down the field to retake the lead, 17-13.  The Saints defense knew they were in for a challenge, and despite the fact that Manning was able to make plays, held their own when it mattered most.

Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams brought a plethora of blitzes, but rarely did they get to Manning.  Sure, they knocked him down a few times, but that was nothing compared to the beating they laid on Brett Favre and Kurt Warner earlier in the playoffs.  But Williams had his unit stay aggressive and kept them coming.  The defense just needed to make one big play.

After a 47 yard Hartley field goal brought the Saints to within 1 point at 17-16, Drew Brees (32/39, 288 yards, 2 TDs, 114.5 QB Rating) hit tight end Jeremy Shockey for a 2 yard score, followed by a brilliant 2 point conversion catch by receiver Lance Moore to make it 24-17 in favor of New Orleans.

Then, Manning took over, leading his team down to the Saints’ 31 yard line in the blink of an eye.  Just as CBS commentator Phil Simms said that the Saints shouldn’t risk blitzing in this situation, Williams sent the calvary at Manning.  The Colts’ superstar had to get rid of the ball in a hurry, and tried to get the ball to receiver Reggie Wayne.  Wayne was a stationary target on the play, and Saints cornerback Tracy Porter read it and immediately broke on the ball.  He proceeded to intercept Manning’s pass and run it back 74 yards for a touchdown and sealed the Saints first ever Super Bowl title, 31-17.

There are so many storylines to this victory that it’s almost easy to forget that Brees was named the MVP of the game, and rightfully so.  But if you’ve watched enough of the Saints over the past 4 years, this is pretty much what you’ve come to expect from #9.  He was accurate, fitting passes into the tiniest of windows.  He was calm, efficient and, although he didn’t complete many long passes, he stayed patient and led his team down the field.  He made big plays throughout this game to keep his team moving the ball.

After a slow 1st quarter, the Saints generally played keep-away from Manning.  It took every member of the Saints’ offense to accomplish that.  The line gave Brees excellent time to throw, receivers Marques Colston and Devery Henderson made clutch catches.  And backs Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush ran the ball with authority.  Thomas continues to show outstanding balance, with the ability to absorb hits and keep moving forward.  His 3rd quarter touchdown, while spectacular, was something we have seen from him on several occasions this season.

Defensively, the Saints simply kept on coming, and it paid off big-time with Porter’s interception and return for a touchdown.  To their credit, they never backed down from the challenge of facing Manning and company.  They treated this game like a marathon instead of a sprint.  There was no panic when things didn’t go their way early on.

Looking back at this game, and this championship season, you start to realize just how many things have to go right in order to win it all.  So often in Saints history, they were the team who just couldn’t seem to make the big play to change momentum.  But in Super Bowl XLIV and the entire 2009 season, they became that squad who was never really out of a game.  They became the team who made the key interception, the big pass down the field and the clutch kick to win the game.

Undoubtedly, this group will forever be remembered in New Orleans, and amongst Saints fans all over the world.  The perfectly executed onside kick may go down as the most aggressive call in Super Bowl history.  Tracy Porter will be known as the player who made the two biggest interceptions in Saints history – first against Favre in the NFC Championship Game, and then against Manning in the Super Bowl.

And now, Drew Brees will have cemented a spot in NFL lore.  Saints fans already knew what he meant to this team, and just how good he is.  But now, with that ring on his finger, he’ll go down as one of the true legends of the game.

The party is just beginning in New Orleans.  This is a rebirth in perception and reality.  The Saints are no longer a sad-sack franchise.  And the city has proven itself to be anything but helpless.  The spirit of Saints fans and this team will be forever intertwined.  I can feel it up here in Pennsylvania and I can’t even imagine what it feels like to those of you in the middle of it all.

Let’s celebrate, Saints fans.  It’s been a long time coming.

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What an amazing victory, enjoy it Saints fans! So much to digest from the game and I’ll do my best to break it down. Tonight, we celebrate!

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