Super Bowl XLIV 2010

[kkr]

Me at 10-0, " game-over"!!!

Fair play to the Saints they started really edgy but overcame that and got back into the game allowing their D to shut Peyton down and no one has been able to say that this season.

They deserve it but i still think that onside kick was a ridiculous call by Peyton, but it worked so fair play!

[Brumerican]

Gridiron is a beautiful game too =)

Another great Super Bowl, delighted for NO, sad that another season has come and gone like

poof

I can't believe how short their "football" season is. You would have thought that, being an American sport, that they would keep the season going as long as possible, to really milk such a huge cash cow. I would hate to see David Garrard after 40 or so consecutive games though, bearing in mind how often he gets sacked. Now what do they do for 6months anyway ?

[kkr]

Gridiron is a beautiful game too =)

Another great Super Bowl, delighted for NO, sad that another season has come and gone like

poof

I can't believe how short their "football" season is. You would have thought that, being an American sport, that they would keep the season going as long as possible, to really milk such a huge cash cow. I would hate to see David Garrard after 40 or so consecutive games though, bearing in mind how often he gets sacked. Now what do they do for 6months anyway ?

There isnt a lot to keep you entertained until September but the combine is the end of this month then free agency which is followed by the draft in April. Then nothing!

[BerniesElbow]

Congratulations Saints.

I was one of the people who thought the Colts would win, probably by about 10 points.

Maybe now they'll stop crying about Hurricane Katrina.

[Tubby]

Well that was one he'll of a game and I'm so glad of the outcome. Now for Browns to do the same within 5 years...

[BennettVilla]

hangover ouch

played our own version of drinking game

the ball is in someones hand

for a complete pass they pass to the next person, if they drop it they drink 3 shots and we all pile on

if theres a touchdown the person with the ball avoids drinking 3

if theres an interception the person with the drinks 3

if theres a fumble the person with the ball throws it to the middle of the room and everybody fights for it and the person with the ball at the end avoids 3 shots

first down is one drink

field goal prediction if your wrong 3 shots

ahhhh that was fun last night with absinthe ha

[BOF]

That really was a brilliant game.

Not just the record-equalling comeback or the tense 2nd/3rd quarters or the record-equalling QB completions and record-breaking combined QBs completions.

But the standard of football from both teams was so high. No nerves. Just extremely efficient offences doing what they do and extremely efficient defences giving little away. No-one froze in the occasion and both teams gave a very good account of themselves. I was delighted with the outcome - sitting there in my Saints Everett jersey It took a single turnover to finally put the game to bed and even then there was plenty of time for the Colts to score and recover an onside kick.

Sean Payton is one ballsy brave b_stard though I'll tell you that. Going for the TD on 4th and goal when down 10-6 (I think) was potentially disastrous. They were lucky they 3&outted the Colts and got back up for a field goal before half time. And then the onside kick to start the half could have been hair-brained - but when it works out it's genius. And from there they went on to effectively set up the win by getting the go-ahead TD.

I filled up on nachos, dip & jalapenos before kick off so I struggled to breath for the 1st quarter Only managed 2 Guinness after that!!

Glad for everyone involved and Mardi Gras starts early this year!

[kkr]

If anything BOF i think the Saints were nervy and it showed during the opening few possessions, but after they went 10-0 down it was like they felt as though they could relax and just play their game.

The calls by Payton were insane, he comes across as very cocky and arrogant but when it works it works!

[BOF]

Alright maybe nervous in their opening possession but for 90% of the game both teams were fine which was surprising.

As for Sean Payton. I strongly disagree that he comes across as cocky and arrogant. I think he knew he had to be aggressive in his play calling to beat the Colts. He even said in the lead up that they were going to have to show something different. He simply used very ballsy calls that caught the Colts by surprise. It might not have paid off (like the 4th down and the reverse) but at least he was never going to go into that game and lose it by being conservative - something that very nearly happened against the Vikings (and probably should have happened). He was there and he was gonna give it everything they had up their sleeve. No point leaving with yer sleeves full of unused tricks!

And JMO but you do him a dis-service.

[maqroll]

He said they were practicing the onsides kick all week, with the intention of definitely using it. Payton said they thought they had a 70% chance of recovery, lol. Still a huge gamble that could have put the game out of reach for them

[maqroll]

Gridiron is a beautiful game too =)

Another great Super Bowl, delighted for NO, sad that another season has come and gone like

poof

I can't believe how short their "football" season is. You would have thought that, being an American sport, that they would keep the season going as long as possible, to really milk such a huge cash cow. I would hate to see David Garrard after 40 or so consecutive games though, bearing in mind how often he gets sacked. Now what do they do for 6months anyway ?

The formula is to get everyone starved for it again. And it always works.

[3_Penny_Opera]

bernies elbow, we're not crying about Katrina...and don't hate just because we're the best city this country has to offer...my "mistake by the lake" friend.

UP THE SAINTS!

WHO **** DAT!

[leviramsey]

Peyton Manning is probably the greatest passer the NFL has ever seen.

But he's not the greatest quarterback.

Remember that if the Colts were more aggressive and got a first down after the goal-line stand, the Saints wouldn't have gotten the ball back before halftime. Who calls the plays for the Colts? Manning, and what does he do? Call three runs to protect the lead and go into halftime.

Manning deserves a lot of credit for being the playcaller, but with that credit means that he, more than Brady, more than Favre, more than Marino, more than Elway has to be judged partially by the quarterback & passing yardsticks and partly by the coaching yardsticks (which are wins and championships, especially in the postseason).

Peyton Manning is like Marty Schottenheimer mixed with a better Dan Marino.

O

VER

RATED!

[leviramsey]

Peter King"]

It's right, it's fair, it's just, it's good, it's shocking. You were not dreaming (or nightmaring, if you live in Indiana). The Saints have won the Super Bowl.

As the fifth team bus -- the one with mostly family and friends of the team -- sped from the stadium to the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Miami for the most raucous of postgame parties, this merry band of Saints partisans sang and chanted and Who-Datted to their heart's content. On this bus was an eclectic mix, just like New Orleans itself. A couple of seats from the front was the political couple who live in New Orleans, James Carville and Mary Matalin. Behind them sat the 97-year-old archbishop of New Orleans, Philip Hannan, a good friend of owner Tom Benson. In the back was Reggie Bush and his famous-for-being-famous girlfriend, Kim Kardashian. Democratic Party mega-fundraiser Calvin Fayard, a Louisiana attorney, was aboard too.

"Oh when the Saints ... come marching in ...'' They did that one for a while. And "You Are My Sunshine,'' the state song, which has roots to former Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis, and a couple of "Who Dat'' songs. It got quiet for a minute, and Carville piped up loudly: "I still can't believe we won the Super Bowl!''

The play that signifies it all was on the mind of everyone on the bus. In the middle of the rolling party, someone else piped up: "Can you believe we called that onside kick?''

Oh, I can. It had Sean Payton written all over it.

It's the Super Bowl, and I'm going to write about an onside kick, and about two absolute nobodies who so powerfully influenced the outcome of the biggest game in the history of the New Orleans Saints.

That's one of the reasons football's such a great game. The 45th guy on the roster can make the play of the day in the biggest game of the year. David Tyree did it in Super Bowl 42. Chris Reis, with help from a very nervous kicker, did it in Super Bowl 44.

"Ambush,'' Payton said cavalierly, almost diffidently, as he walked by kickoff man Thomas Morstead in the Saints locker room at halftime Sunday night.

Perfect. Ambush. That's the name of the Saints' onside kick, the one that continued the Colts' downfall in Super Bowl 44. The reason it's so perfect is that it's right for Payton, and right for this derring-do team with the cocky defensive coordinator and the only slightly less cocky head coach and players and fans who have yearned for so long to deserve to be cocky. In this case, Ambush was so mind-blowing because:

a. Morstead never attempted an onside kick in a game before Sunday night in his life.

b. Morstead never practiced onside-kicking until 12 days ago.

c. Morstead can be a bundle of nerves.

And so Payton walked by Morstead's locker and dropped that little bomb on him, and he told the rest of the special-teams leaders, and 25 minutes still were left before the start of the second half. Morstead sat at his locker, looked straight ahead and tried to keep his heart from pounding out of his chest.

"I wasn't worried,'' Morstead said later. "I was terrified. He dropped it on me near the start of halftime, not near the end, and it's such a long halftime. All I could think of was how stupid I'd look if the kick doesn't go 10 yards, or if I blow it.''

When the Saints looked at the Colts on tape, they saw two up-men on the front line of the Indy kick-return team cheating. That is, when the kicker approached the ball, two guys on the right of the kick-return unit -- as the kickoff team looked ahead, to the left -- turned and began retreating to set up their blocks for a return just before the ball was kicked. So when Payton saw this, he figured the Saints would definitely try an onside kick at some point of the game.

In each of their three practices last week, the Saints worked on the onside kick five times. They christened it "Ambush'' for the element of surprise, obviously. And they practiced it the same way every time: with Morstead, the neophyte, approaching the ball from the left, as right-footed soccer-style kickers do, and kicking the ball almost across his body to the left, to the exact spot where the Saints thought the two Colts would be leaving early. Payton knew he wouldn't try the kick early in the game; he wanted time to set the Colts up. Before the game, he made a point to talk to ref Scott Green and his crew to be on the lookout for it so they wouldn't be surprised, and so they'd be ready to determine possession in the inevitable scrum.

New Orleans got a big lift just before halftime when a Garrett Hartley field goal narrowed Indy's lead to 10-6. Payton knows how lethal Peyton Manning is, and he knew he ran the risk of giving the Colts 30 extra yards if the onside kick failed, but he knew it wouldn't fail.

He put his trust in the hands of a kicker, Morstead, kicking the first onside kick of his life, and in a special-teamer, third-year safety Chris Reis, perhaps the most anonymous of the 45 Saints who dressed Sunday. Morstead because he was the kicker, Reis because he was the feistiest of his kick-chasers and would scratch and claw for the ball if he had to.

"I've been kicking off to the right all year,'' Morstead said later. "So when I approached the ball, they left early again and I just pushed the ball to the left. The way I practiced it, it was supposed to hit and spin back. I had a little bit of confidence in it, because every time he called it in practice this week it seemed to work. But still, like I said, I was terrified. I just tried to make sure it went 10 yards, and then just prayed.''

It went 10 yards. It went off Hank Baskett, the fifth wideout on the Colts. The ball bounced toward Reis, plowing single-mindedly toward the spot he knew the kick was going to settle, 10 to 12 yards downfield. At the 42-yard-line of the Saints, Reis dove for the ball, and the scrum began. (Officially, linebacker Jonathan Casillas was credited with the recovery, but Casillas and other Saints said it was Reis who came away with the ball.)

The ball at first lay underneath Reis' legs as bodies flew in trying to get it. "I was able to get the ball into my hands and just cradle it here,'' Reis demonstrated for me later in the locker room, with his hands cradled around his stomach, slightly bent over. "So I just pulled it tight to my body and held on.''

"White ball!'' Reis heard one official yell in the mayhem. The Saints were wearing white. Good.

"Blue ball! Blue ball!'' he heard another official yell. The Colts were blue. Bad.

"So I just figured I better hang onto it for dear life,'' he said. "The Colts were punching at it and grabbing for it, trying to get it out. But I didn't care if they broke all my fingers. There was absolutely no way in the world I was going to let go of that ball. That was our ball.''

The scrum lasted 90 seconds. Officials and players were pulling players out of the pile, and a couple of them just circled back and got back into the scrum and tried to get near the ball again. Did the ball change hands down there? Reis swears no. And when the last man left the turf, Reis had the ball. Six plays later, Drew Brees fired a pass to running back Pierre Thomas that resulted in a 16-yard touchdown, and the Saints had their first lead of the day.

"I can't believe it,'' said Morstead, a rookie from SMU. He's a tall kid, wiry and athletic and thoughtful. "I still can't. You've got to love playing for a coach who puts that much trust in his players. I mean, that was a pretty big risk. And now, to sit here and know it helped us win ... ''

Morstead seemed like he was in a daze.

"You know, every year you see guys in all sports after they win the championship, and they talk about how it seems so surreal. I'm the same way. I'm just trying to soak it all in and realize what happened.''

What happened, fella, is you and Chris Reis just made a play that was the biggest one in preventing Peyton Manning from winning his second Super Bowl, and sent your city into orbit. That's all.

[BOF]

One thing that does annoy me is the hypocricy of pro-pundits putting emphasis on the amount of rings QBs have won.

The amount of times this week I heard that "that 2nd ring would put him into a whole other league of quarterback".

Now I'm sorry but that logic means Dan Marino was not all that. But if you suggested that to these people he'd no doubt be the exception.

They need to make their minds up. Either judge a QB on what he does with what he has or judge him on superbowl rings. Don't pick and choose when it suits you

[3_Penny_Opera]

I don't judge anyone because of superbowl rings.

Dan Marino and Dan Fouts both have none, and I wouldn't rate anyone's opinion after telling me Peyton is better because he has one ring and will possibly have another 2 before he retires.

Do I think Steve Young or Aikman are better than Dan Marino or Warren Moon because they have more than one ring each and the latter have none? Moronic arguement.

Now that I've mentioned Warren Moon...sorry, but he was a much better passer than Peyton. Warren Moon had a gun and his passes looked more silky-sexy than any qb I've ever seen in America. Period.

Back to topic...one thing is for sure--no city in America partied after a superbowl win like my city just did.

Case. Closed.

[BOF]

Back to topic...one thing is for sure--no city in America partied after a superbowl win like my city just did.

Case. Closed.

I don't doubt it for a second Hope you had an absolute ball.

[leviramsey]

Parade is today at 5pm eastern time; there should be streams available.

[BOF]

Mainly yellow and down the sides of the streets.

[3_Penny_Opera]

Pretty funny bloke, BOF.

Also, for carnival music you guys should listen to wwoz.org online. They have a live feed from their radio station and they're playing some good stuff lately.