10 points down behind
MVP Drew Brees
Miami – Brees engineered a 9 play drive capped by a two yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Shockey to put the Saints up 24-17 with 5:42 to go.
The New Orleans Saints came into the game as the underdogs in Super Bowl XLIV but walked away as Super Bowl Champs with a stunting 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts Sunday night at Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida.
Brees stole the show in what most people thought would be another great Payton Manning game. Not tonight, Brees was the shiniest star with pin point accuracy all evening. He was 32 of 39 with 288 yards and 2 touchdowns.
The Colts drew first blood with a 42 yard field goal from Matt stover. Manning completed 6 passes on the drive mostly for short yards. That gave them a 3-0 lead.
Saints first two drives resulted punts.
Then the Colts tie the longest drive in Super Bowl history covering 96 yards after the Saints pin them inside their 5 yard line. A 20 yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garcon gave the Colts their biggest lead of the game at 10, the score 10-0.
The Saints got on the board after an 11 play drive that led to Garrett Hartley’s 46 yard field goal. That cut the lead to 7 with 9:34 to go in the second quarter.
The Colts missed an opportunity on 3rd down and 6, Manning found a wide open Garcon on a post pattern, the ball was dropped bringing up 4th down and forcing a punt.
Things look good for Indianapolis for a moment when Gary Brackett and Clint Session stopped Thomas at the 1 yard line on 4th and 1 with just over 2 minutes to go before halftime.
“The disadvantage we knew coming into this game is that the Colts were here three years ago, so they know that emotional roller coaster a little bit, at the start of the game where as a lot of us are going through that for the first time.” “Sean Payton tried to prepare us for that but I think in the end everybody’s got to deal with that in their own way at the start of the game,” said Drew Brees.
With a less than a minute to go the Colts were forced to punt, giving Brees and the Saints a chance to get on the board again.
The drive began at the Saints 48 with 35 seconds to go in the half. Brees used a short field finding Devery Henderson down at the Colts 33 for a first down. Short passes to Bush and Henderson with time ticking away pave the way. That set up a 44 yard field goal from Hartley to end the first half, 10-6.
Onside kick catches Colts off guard, the ball was first touched by Hang Baskett who couldn’t field the ball cleanly, leaving the door open for the Saint’s Chris Reis to recover the lose ball at the New Orleans 42 yard line.
“All week we practice that onside kick and at halftime I just told those guys you got to make me look right here.” “There was a good hit by Thomas, our guys did a good job of showing a normal kickoff covered look but it was something we had seen in practice all week, you know you get a little nervous there’s a lot going on the week of Super bowl, the key was the kicker, Thomas hit it good, guys recovered and we were able to take advantage of it,” said Saints Head Coach Sean Payton.
Brees made the Colts pay on a 16 yard screen play to Thomas who took the pass up the middle while breaking tackles enroot to the end zone. That gave the Saints their first lead of the game, 13-10.
The Colts responded with a 76 yard drive that was finished with Addai’s four yard touchdown run.
Brees from Austin, Texas also won a state championship at Westlake High School in 1996.
A 47 yard field goal by Hartley cut the lead to 1 with 2:01 to go in the third quarter, 17-16 in the Colts favor. Hartley is the only kicker in Super Bowl history to connect on 3 field goals of 40 plus yards.
A 51 yard field goal fell short from the leg of Stover.
Manning finish the night 31 of 45 with 333 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception.
Bree’s two yard touchdown pass to Shockey gave them the lead for the remainder of the game.
The Saints added an insurance touchdown on Tracy Porter’s 74 yard interception return that put the nail in the coffin and was the third longest interception return in Super Bowl history.
