Freeney’s Ankle A Major Key For Super Bowl

With five days to Super Bowl 44, any realistic chance of the Indianapolis Colts defense shutting down the New Orleans Saints offense rests on the badly injured ankle of star pass rushing DE Dwight Freeney.

Freeney has a partially torn ligament in his right ankle and will be severely limited on Sunday if he even plays. And what could have been Indy’s biggest defensive advantage if Freeney were healthy, could now be their biggest liability if New Orleans is able to double and isolate his bookend DE Robert Mathis.

“I think right now, it’s a huge key to this game.” Scouts’ Inc. founder and longtime Sporting News and ESPN analyst Gary Horton told SprungOnSports. “The biggest mismatch if Freeney is healthy is against Saints left OT Bushrod, who has played fairly well, but has struggled against edge pass rushers and Freeney is certainly in that category.”

Though Bushrod did a good job against Vikings elite pass rusher Jared Allen, Freeney comes with so much more speed on the edge and could give Bushrod fits if he’s healthy enough to play. But Freeney is not at 100 percent, which would have been huge for Indy.

“If Freeney is healthy Bushrod can not handle him by himself.” Horton said. “That means having Shockey in there to double or having a back chip.”

But since Freeney is clearly going to be limited, Horton says that this gives New Orleans a huge advantage.

“With an unhealthy Freeney, you can add another player to the passing game and roll your protections to Mathis. Although Raheem (Brock) would take Freeney’s place and he is no slouch.”

Horton then said what the Colts would do in his absence.

“Look for the Colts to make up for the loss of Freeney with a lot of games up front with twists and stunts designed to confuse the Saints offensive line.”

But if those twists and gimmicks fail to deter the New Orleans front five, Drew Brees will have all the time in the world to pick apart an inexperience Colts secondary. This game will be a lot closer than expected with Freeney’s injury. In the first battle of number one seeds in over 15 years, the loss of Freeney could be just the opening New Orleans needs to win their first world championship.