I’ll Take Peyton with an ‘e’
So, TV’s biggest sporting event is upon us. No, not the Winter Olympics. It is Super Bowl XLIV (#44 for those Roman numerically-challenged). On one side you have the New Orleans Saints. A team with an extremely passionate fan base, playing their home games in a stadium that just a few years back was used as a temporary “safe-haven” for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Coach Sean Payton led his team to a 13-0 record before losing their final three regular season games. Despite limping into the playoffs, they secured home field advantage and first knocked the defending NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals out of the playoffs, and ostensibly, future Hall of Famer Kurt Warner into retirement. Just last week in a controversial win over the Minnesota Vikings, the Saints ended 40-year old Brett Favre’s dream season in dramatic overtime fashion. The Saints were going to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.
On the other side, you have the Indianapolis Colts, led by undoubtedly one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Peyton Manning. Peyton led his Colts to a 29-17 victory over the surprising Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI in February, 2007, and is looking to win his second Championship next Sunday. Led by first-time head coach Jim Caldwell, the Colts are listed as 5.5-6 point favorites by Vegas oddsmakers as of today. Does that mean this football fan agrees with the professionals? The answer is an emphatic yes.
By my account, the Minnesota Vikings handed the Saints the NFC title game, along with the referees. Uncharacteristic fumbles (six!) and Favre going back to being a gunslinger after being injured late in the game kept the Saints in the game. A few days ago the head of NFL referees stated the play where Favre got injured should have been a penalty on the Vikings, giving them the ball at the NO 19-yard line, and not being an interception for the Saints. Plus, the pass interference call against the Vikings in overtime was one of the worst calls I have seen in recent memory.
The Saints won’t have home field advantage in the Super Bowl, but instead will have the daunting task of going against a QB of amazing precision and determination. A field general in every sense of the word, Peyton Manning. ON THE SAME FIELD THEY WON THE 2007 SUPER BOWL. On top of THAT, many of the players that helped win the Super Bowl for the Colts in 2007 are still on this year’s team. The Colts went 14-0 before the first-year coach decided to bench his players at halftime in a Week 16 matchup vs. the New York Jets…a decision that lead to the Colts’ first defeat of the season. If not for that choice, the Jets most likely would have never made the playoffs and the Colts most likely would have had an excellent chance to go undefeated in the regular season. Either way, I think the Colts still would have been in the position they are in now…primed to win their second Super Bowl in the past four years.
While Coach Payton has many weapons on both sides of the ball, including QB Drew Brees, RBs Pierre Thomas and Heisman winner Reggie Bush, and DT Sedrick Ellis, I do not think it will be enough to stop the hard-charging Colts. The Saints will struggle to cover the Colts’ receivers (Wayne, Clark, Garcon, Collie), and I don’t think their pass rush will be able to significantly affect Peyton Manning, and that spells trouble. The Vegas line is that the Colts are 6-point favorites. I would gladly take the Colts giving the points. I believe the Saints will hang with the Colts for a while, but by the end of the 3rd Quarter, Peyton will have Payton scrambling to find a way to stop the Indy juggernaut, to no avail.
My prediction: Indianapolis Colts 38, New Orleans Saints 21.
–Susan’s Brother Brian
