Saints Top Colts 31-17 to Win 1st Ever Super Bowl Championship
Monday, February 8th, 2010 | Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints, Sports
The New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 to win the Super Bowl crown on Sunday in Miami. The Saints used the steady play of Quarterback Drew Brees and a confident defense that held the Peyton Manning and the Colts offense to just 1 score in the final 3 quarters of play to ride to victory. The Saints and their fans are sure going to be celebrating big time in the Big Easy over the next few weeks.
Drew Brees was named the game’s Most Valuable Player – 32 of 39 passing (82% completion rate), 288 yards passing, 2 passing touchdowns – all good for a 114.5 QB rating.
Manning had similar numbers (31 of 45 passing, 333 yards passing, 1 passing touchdown – all good for a 88.5 QB rating), but his costly interception at the end of the game sealed the Colts’ fate. As the Colts marched down the field trailing by 7 points, it looked like Manning would be able to lead his team to a game-tying touchdown drive. Instead, Tracy Porter made a great play to pick off Manning’s pass intended for Reggie Wayne, and Porter raced the final 74 yards to paydirt to clinch the Super Bowl win for the Saints.
Some interesting tidbits from the game:
The Saints risky onside kick to start the 2nd half was the 1st time that a team had ever tried an onside kick in a quarter other than the 4th quarter in a Super Bowl. It was also the 1st ever career onside kick attempt by Saints punter Thomas Morstead. Saints head coach Sean Payton had hinted all week that the Saints would play aggressive – even in the biggest stage of the Super Bowl – and he did not disappoint with that decision. After recovering the onside kick, Brees connected with Thomas Pierre on a 16-yard catch and run, giving the Saints their 1st lead of the game at 13-10 (erasing what had been a 10-0 Colts lead). The momentum clearly shifted from that point on. Payton had this to say about the play and his team’s victory: “We knew we were going to call it at some point. At halftime I told them, ‘We’re going to open up the second half with this. Let’s go make a play’… We really felt as underdogs we had the better team. To be in that position where maybe a lot of people were picking against us, we liked the spot we were in.”
Saints kicker Garrett Hartley connected on 3 field goals from 40 yards or more – 46, 44 and 47. The 23-year old also kicked the game winning kick in overtime of the NFC Championship Game against Minnesota Vikings to send the Saints to the Super Bowl. Hartley only played in the final 5 regular season games for the Saints and he was 9 of 11 in field goal attempts. During those 5 games, he never even tried 1 field goal from the 40-49 yard range. To go from that to kicking 3 field goals in the Super Bowl is simply astounding.
To keep going with kickers, Colts kicker Matt Stover became the oldest player to ever play in a Super Bowl at the ripe old age of 42 years and 12 days (his birthday is January 27, 1968). Stover only got a chance to play this season because the Colts regular kicker – Adam Vinatieri – was injured. Stover connected on 9 of 11 field goals during the regular season and 6 of 7 field goals during the post-season (including 1 of 2 in the Super Bowl).
This Super Bowl turned out to be the most-watched U.S. television event of all-time – over 106 million people tuned in to watch the game. The previous “most-watched” program was the finale of the television show M-A-S-H back in 1983.
Congrats to Payton, Brees and the rest of the Saints. You guys and the city of New Orleans deserve the big win. Boy would I like to be in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday next week!
