Saints Take Matters Into Their Own Hands, Win Super Bowl 44

It’s pretty obvious that Tony Dungy still has a ton of sway in Indianapolis despite his retirement a year ago, and during the week before the big game he was confident in predicting that the Colts would beat the Saints in Super Bowl 44 and it wouldn’t even be close. It seems like his protegé Jim Caldwell based his game plan around that premise, and it may have cost his team a championship.

In a game with just one sack, no turnovers and very few big offensive plays, the Colts seemed supremely confident that they weren’t going to lose in Miami on Sunday night. They took very few shots down the field and ran it more often than people thought they would, and when the Colts stopped New Orléans on fourth and goal in the second quarter up 10-3 with less than two minutes left, they were content to run the ball three times instead of trying to use that momentum to step on the Saints’ throats and take full command of the game. That lack of urgency by Tom Moore and Peyton Manning on that drive seemed to give Sean Payton and his Saints life, and took that life and momentum all the way to the world title.

 New Orleans marched down the field to kick a field goal, one of Garrett Hartley’s three beyond 40 yards, to make it a 10-6 halftime deficit. And while The Who performed at halftime, the game plans of the coaches in the locker rooms determined who would likely come away with the win. Sean Payton decided to go for the jugular and start the second half with the now famous “Ambush” onside kick, while the Colts were blindsided trying to execute their bland, vanilla game plan with quick slants, hitches, screens and eight to 10 yard routes.

Indianapolis went for the jugular in their AFC Championship Game win over the Jets, continually throwing down the field and executing with tremendous success, but it seemed like they were afraid to go with what got them to Sun Life Stadium in the first place. New Orleans played like a team that planned on raising the Lombardi Trophy after the game.

Payton, the amazing Drew Brees (who put on a Super Bowl performance for the ages) and the rest of the offense continued to give the Indianapolis defense tons of different looks and formations and kept the Colts on their toes throughout the second half.

As New Orleans grabbed a 24-17 lead with back-to-back stops and a score, Peyton Manning was marching his Colts down the field as usual, but New Orleans saved a defensive wrinkle with about five minutes left in the game, as Jim Nantz and Phil Simms pointed out during the CBS broadcast. Just a Tracy Porter was able to jump the route on Brett Favre’s fourth quarter pass in the NFC Championship game, he was able to sit on a five yard Reggie Wayne route and jump it and return it 74 yards to truly begin the celebration in a city that deserves it so much.

Porter was able to jump that route because the Colts never kept him or the rest of that Saints defense honest with a home run ball. Everyone was expecting every route to be no longer than 10 or 12 yards, and that enabled Porter to easily read and react and bring The Big Easy their first professional sports championship.

While Indianapolis remained bland and passive throughout the contest, thinking they would surely get the win that was coming to them (just like Tony Dungy predicted), New Orleans never took anything for granted and grabbed Super Bowl 44 by the horns and never let go until the lovable losing Saints won their ever elusive championship.