We should have known that the defense would make the game-sealing play in Super Bowl XLIV.
When everything leading up to that point in the game had been the opposite of what we had expected, it was only fitting that with the game on the line, an unheralded defensive back from the Saints would make a play.
Just think about some of the things we saw in this game:
- The Colts having a more impressive running game than the Saints
- Queen Latifah going with the understated jeans look for singing God Bless America
- The Saints using a controlled short passing game to move up and down the field at will on the Colts defense
- Jay Leno appearing in an ad for the Late Show with David Letterman
- The Saints, rather than the Colts, making adjustments at halftime to change the course of the game
- Only one shot of the Manning family suite
- The old veteran kicker from the Colts missing while the young kicker from the Saints went 3 for 3
- Back to back ads featuring guys not wearing pants.
- An on-side kick outside of the final two minutes that was successful
How many of these things would you have been willing to bet on before the game? Any of them?
Yet, we saw them all and to me that is what defined this Super Bowl. Everything was the opposite of what we expected coming in
Everyone rushes to put Super Bowls in their historic context immediately after the confetti lands on the Lombardi trophy, but this year is going to be tough. Where does this fall?
After the last two years in which the game could be instantly classified (Giants over Pats: biggest upset in Super Bowl history; Steelers over Cardinals: top-five entertaining game) this year isn’t as easily categorizable (I don’t think that is a word either but you know what I mean).
Maybe above and beyond this game putting a light smudge on Peyton Manning’s incredible career (would Joe Montana or John Elway have ever thrown an interception on the final game winning drive in a Super Bowl?), maybe it is also the early warning sign of a shift in the tectonic plates of NFL power.
Historically, we may look back on Super Bowl XLIV as the bowl in which momentum shifted back to the NFC. After a decade of dominance in which the best teams and quarterbacks all played in the AFC, maybe this game shows that the power of in the game is going back to the NFC where it sat for all of the 80’s and most of the 90’s.
Two times in three years, the most heralded team in football, teams seriously contemplating completing a perfect season, led by a quarterback being compared against the greatest of all time brought their teams into the Super Bowl and lost to an underdog. And as you look across the NFC, there are a number of real contenders, while in the AFC we are beginning to see the relics of three potential dynasties that haven’t been able to re-load as they have lost talent and aged.
The Saints are a young team and as they continue to strengthen their defense are built for continued success. The Cowboys might have gotten over a major mental block this year. The Vikings’ only deficiencies sit in their Head Coach office and their reliance on a 40-year old quarterback incapable of making a decision in the off-season and in-capable of not making the big mistake in the big games. The Cardinals could pick up right where they left off with Leinart replacing Warner.
We have all been brainwashed to believe AFC teams are superior to NFC. Maybe the lesson of this Super Bowl is that we can no longer do that. The Saints proved that starting with that supposition is completely wrong.
Unlike all of those announcers on TV who are never held to account for their picks being wrong, I will take this opportunity to point out how wrong I was. I was exactly 180 degrees wrong to be precise.
I picked a final score of 31-17 last week.
I just picked the Colts to be the team scoring 31.
However, being proven completely wrong doesn’t change how happy I am that the Saints won. After the 5 year struggle to re-emerge from the devastation of Katrina, no town, state or region has ever been more deserving of a three week celebration than New Orleans and the entire gulf coast.
In fact I can honestly say that I have never been happier or cheered harder for a team not named the Broncos to win the Super Bowl. I know I am not alone in that there are a lot of us around the country that cheered like a bayou local last night and when Tracy Porter returned that interception for the game-sealing touchdown let out a yelp heard all the way down on St. Charles Street.
Who would have thought that the Saints could one day be the most unifying Super Bowl champion the country has ever seen.
Bizarro indeed.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Too bad you didn’t bet on the over under. You would have nailed it.
I am very surprised it wasn’t the Colts with the 31-17 victory. I thought the Colts would methodically work the Saints over – especially the way the Saints feel back end first into the Superbowl. Everybody knows the Vikings should have won that game – if they hadn’t beat themselves.
It’s a good thing Jim Caldwell didn’t go for the perfect season or the Colts would be right their with the Patriots in infamy.
The surprising thing for me is I feel like Peyton Manning has to shoulder a lot of the blame for the Colts loss. 17 points isn’t enough for a Colts final tally against a so-so D.