Saints win their first Super Bowl

NFL Replay: Aggressive tactics boost mighty Saints to first title
By Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY

Alas, on the heels of the New Orleans Saints' 31-17 victory against the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV, one more installment of our NFL Replay awards…


Stud of the week: Drew Brees. The Super Bowl MVP completed 82.1% of his passes, tying a Super Bowl record with 32 completions off his 39 throws, including two for touchdowns. The completion rate was second-best in Super Bowl history. That's the way to leave a mark in a big game. Again. During the Saints' three-game postseason run, Brees threw eight TD passes — and zero picks.



Defensive player of the week: Tracy Porter. The second-year cornerback iced the game with his 74-yard, pick-six of Peyton Manning late in the fourth quarter, squashing the Colts' hopes much like he put a dagger in Vikings' dreams with a clutch, final-minute interception of Brett Favre in the NFC Championship game. Talk about clutch.

Special teamer of the week: Garrett Hartley. The Saints rookie kicker followed up his clutch, game-winning field goal in overtime of the NFC title game by becoming the first player to boot three field goals of at least 40 yards in a Super Bowl — connecting on kicks of 46, 44 and 47 yards. And at least two of the kicks boomed through with such force that they might have been good from 60.

Rookie of the week: Jonathan Casillas. Rumor has it that the linebacker from Wisconsin recovered the onside kick at the start of the second half, while somehow at the bottom of the massive pile of bodies. Originally, it was announced that Chris Reis made the recovery for the Saints, but Casillas was subsequently credited for the clutch haul.

Comeback player of the week: Jeremy Shockey. When the Giants sprung the big upset that ruined the Patriots' chance for a perfect season a couple of years ago, Shockey was out of commission with a broken fibula. Sure, he received a ring. But he never played another game with the Giants. Now he'll get another ring — and the memory of snagging a 2-yard pass that was the game-winning touchdown.

Unsung hero of the week: Joseph Addai. The Colts running back had 135 yards from scrimmage, rushing 13 times for 77 yards and a touchdown, and tallying 58 yards on seven receptions. Addai's number, however, wasn't called on the pivotal third-and-one before halftime.

This week's genius: Sean Payton. The Saints' aggressive head coach didn't suddenly clam up while on the game's biggest stage, showing much courage with his gutsy calls. Payton is the only coach in Super Bowl history for call for an onside kick to open the second half … and it worked. It didn't matter that other gambles failed, such as a red-zone reverse and his decision to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line. His decision to use a replay challenge to reverse the incompletion call on the 2-point conversion was another brilliant move that reflected his all-or-nothing mentality.

Second guess of the week: After its defense stuffed the Saints with a goal-line stand late in the second quarter, the Colts promptly lost momentum by going three-and-out. After getting the ball on the 1-yard line with 1:49, the Colts called three consecutive running plays to provide some room to operate. But after Mike Hart was stuffed on third-and-1, the Saints forced a punt that resulted in a short field that enabled a 44-yard field goal that cut the lead to 10-6 at halftime. In retrospect, the Colts — who stung the Jets and Ravens with TDs just before the half in their two playoff victories — might have been better off giving Peyton Manning a chance to fire away in a two-minute drill.

This week's surprise: Peyton Manning throwing a game-clinching, pick-six? The Colts, despite the presence of the NFL's first four-time MVP, scored just seven points after the first quarter.

Did you notice? Several Saints coaches entered the playing field during the chaos that followed the onside kick, as officials tried to determine who recovered the fumble near the Saints bench. Some of the coaches hovered so close to the action that they were signaling the Saints had recovered. For a league that has fined players for removing their helmets on the field and docked some for excessive celebrations and uniform violations, that referee Scott Green's crew didn't flag the Saints bench is a contradiction.

Stat of the week: In marching to a Super Bowl crown, the Saints defeated five Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks: Peyton Manning, Brett Favre and Kurt Warner during the postseason, and Tom Brady and Eli Manning in the regular season.

(lu sur USA Today)

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MIAMI -- Dear Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith:



If you guys screw this up, we're going to make you tongue-clean the French Quarter streets after the New Orleans Saints' victory parade. Police horses included.

We're going to have you explain to each person inside and outside of Sun Life Stadium on Sunday evening why the Super Bowl might go away in 2012.

We're going to demand your resignations if you deprive us of this league, these Super Bowls and these kinds of moments. Can you imagine had a labor lockout cost us the football miracle known as the 2009 Saints?

Don't do it, fellas. Don't shut down the NFL because your greed glands became enlarged. If it's not broke -- and we know the owners' wallets are anything but broke -- don't fix it.

NFL commissioner Goodell and NFL Players Association executive director Smith saw what everyone saw Sunday night: a game, a Saints team and a history lesson to remember.

This was the Saints' first championship. It was their first anything involving the Lombardi Trophy.

Wait, that's not completely true. Less than four hours before kickoff, the Saints' Tracy Porter was sitting in a chair as his personal barber turned the cornerback's scalp into a work of art. He shaved out a Lombardi Trophy, the Superdome and SB 44 on Porter's head. A hair road ran from the Superdome to the trophy.

The whole thing cost Porter $40 "and a nice tip.'' So what if he missed the first team bus to the stadium. He was there in time to jump a Peyton Manning pass to Reggie Wayne, return it 74 yards for the game-clinching touchdown and instantly increase alcohol consumption in The Quarter tenfold.

"I have to say this team means more to the people of Louisiana than any team in the NFL,'' said Porter. "No one is behind this team as much as the people of New Orleans. They're just as much a part of this victory as we are.''

Hear that, Goodell and Smith? Your ridiculous posturing over revenue sharing threatens the very thing that helped sustain the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

The Saints are partly responsible for New Orleans recovering its heart, its soul and its confidence. What Katrina took away, the Saints gave back.

"What can I say?'' said Saints quarterback Drew Brees, the Super Bowl MVP. "We played for so much more than just ourselves. We played for our city. We played for the entire Gulf Coast region. We played for the entire Who Dat Nation who was behind us every step of the way.''

Silly as it might sound, football matters to people. Matters more than it should sometimes. Other times -- such as it does in New Orleans -- it matters just the right amount. It revives. It puts a smiley face on a community. It makes believers out of doubters.

"Absolutely,'' said Brees. "Are you kidding me? I mean, four years ago, whoever thought this would be happening? … We just all looked at one another and said, 'We're going to rebuild together. We're going to lean on each other.'''

Brees was talking about the Saints, but he could have been talking about New Orleans, too.

Goodell, this is what your NFL owners need to understand.

Smith, this is what your player constituency needs to comprehend.

Had there been a lockout this season, the Saints' season would have never existed. Their 31-17 Super Bowl upset would have never happened.

Think about it.

No Brees completing a Super Bowl-tying 32 pass attempts for 288 yards and two touchdowns. No poignant postgame moment of Brees holding his young son as the celebration unfolded.

No Jeremy Shockey TD moment. An injured (and soon-to-be ex-)New York Giant in 2007. A Super Bowl touchdown reception for the Saints in 2010.

No game-changing onside kick (and recovery) by the Saints to start the second half. So well-conceived was the play, that Thomas Morstead made sure that his last warm-up kick during halftime was a boomer toward the end zone. He wanted to lull the Colts into thinking an onside play was an impossibility.

No Sean Payton calling for the stunning onsider. No Payton going for it -- and missing -- on a fourth-and-goal at the Colts' 1 late in the first half.

No Porter interception return.

No Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney playing on one ankle.

No Colts running back Joseph Addai nearly breaking Saints safety Darren Sharper's ankle on a fake.

No Manning saying, "It's the Super Bowl. You never know how it's going to turn out.''

No Gregg Williams-conceived defense proving Manning right.

No upset.

No Colts center Jeff Saturday gracious in defeat. "Those guys played fantastic,'' said Saturday. "They deserved to be world champions.''

No Saints come marching home.

Think long and hard about what you do next, Goodell and Smith. What was here today -- a Super Bowl that meant something -- could be gone tomorrow.

Over money.

You want that to be your legacies?

Sincerely,

The non-millionaires and non-billionaires

(lu on ESPN.com)

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MIAMI -- New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees won his first championship because of the things he didn't do in Super Bowl XLIV.


He didn't try to force passes into tight coverage in his team's 31-17 win over Indianapolis. He didn't make the kind of game-altering mistake that ultimately doomed Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. Brees also didn't allow frustration to enter his mind when his offense was settling for field goals instead of touchdowns.

In the end, people will praise the numbers that led to Brees' being named Most Valuable Player of this contest (32-of-39 passing for 288 yards and two touchdowns). What many will underestimate, however, is how carefully Brees conducted the Saints' offense.

He built most of those statistics on short passes. Meanwhile, the big plays that had been a New Orleans trademark were as hard to find as a Saints fan who had never uttered the words "Who Dat?"

This was the beauty of Brees on Sunday. The popular notion was that this game would've been a shootout, especially given the potent passing attacks of the teams involved. Instead, Brees led his team to victory with an approach that was more dink-and-dunk than downfield artistry.

"The first thing we cared about coming into this game was taking care of the football," said Brees, whose efforts helped the Saints secure their first championship in team history. "And the second thing was to be patient. We did both those things and they resulted in a win."

This wasn't the first time Brees had to slow down his offense to achieve optimal results. He played a similar style in the Saints' NFC Championship Game win over Minnesota and his approach was just as noteworthy then. This is a man who led the NFL in passing and guided an offense that averaged a league-high 31.9 points a game. Common sense says he had to be getting a little trigger-happy at some point.

Instead, Brees kept making the plays that kept his team's possessions alive. He'd find rangy wide receiver Marques Colston on crossing patterns and curl routes. He checked the ball down to his running backs when deeper options didn't materialize. And when it came time to execute one of the many screen plays the Saints ran, Brees held on to the ball just long enough to let his receivers maximize their opportunities when the ball finally got in their hands.

The Colts' defense eventually felt the sting of those subtle blows over time.

"It was a combination of our pass rush and coverage [not doing the job]," said Colts safety Melvin Bullitt when asked about Brees' efficiency. "We normally don't have those problems, and I don't know what it was today. A lot of what he got were dump-off passes, but he did a good job. He knew we would be keying on the deep pass so he took the short passes more often."

"I thought Drew was magnificent," said Saints head coach Sean Payton. "We knew he would have to play well, and he handled a lot of our offense at the line of scrimmage. I thought he was fantastic and he's been that way all year."

Though the Saints had only two offensive touchdowns -- Brees was responsible for both -- the quarterback manufactured the kind of possessions that kept the Saints confident and focused. When New Orleans trailed 10-0 after the first quarter, it was Brees who led his team within range for a 46-yard Garrett Hartley field goal.

Brees' leadership was equally important after the Saints opened the second half with an onside kick. After recovering the ball, New Orleans later scored on a 16-yard screen pass to running back Pierre Thomas. By the time Brees hit tight end Jeremy Shockey for a 2-yard touchdown pass -- along with Lance Moore on the subsequent two-point conversion -- the Saints led 24-17 and the scent of an upset lingered in the air.

Then all hell broke loose when New Orleans cornerback Tracy Porter intercepted Manning and returned it 74 yards for a touchdown. That play didn't just clinch the game for the Saints. It also was a valuable reminder of how Brees had helped put the Colts in a position to press.

Every New Orleans fan in the country had to be celebrating at that point. Brees had spent most of the past four years talking about how much the Saints had been playing for a fan base still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Now he had the chance to talk about giving those people a heartfelt gift.

"Four years ago, who would've thought that we'd be here?" said Brees in reference to his signing with the team in 2006, a couple months after Payton had taken the job. "Eighty-five percent of the city was underwater. People had been evacuated to other parts of the country. But the organization and the city decided to rebuild together and that's what we did. Today was the culmination of all that work."

Actually, it also was something else: validation of Brees' impact on this franchise. After producing gaudy numbers over the past four years, Brees helped deliver a title that will only enhance his legacy. He easily could've tried to win a championship by imposing his will on the Colts' defense. Instead, he did what all great quarterbacks do: He let his leadership be the deciding factor in the biggest game of his life.

(lu on ESPN.com)