MIAMI — They toasted Drew Brees, Jeremy Shockey and Tracy Porter on Bourbon Street for their fourth-quarter heroics in New Orleans’ historic 31-17 Super Bowl XLIV win over Indianapolis on Sunday night in Sun Life Stadium.
Brees was seven-for-seven in the 59-yard drive that
put the Saints ahead in a game that lived up to the air battle
predicted between the New Orleans quarterback and his counterpart, Peyton Manning.
He capped the march with a 2-yard strike to tight end Shockey, the
former Giant who missed the Super Bowl XLII win after breaking his leg
late in the season.
The quarterback finished 32 of 39 for 288 yards and two scores without an interception to earn the Most Valuable Player award.
Porter, who picked off Brett Favre near the end of the NFC championship win over Minnesota,
stepped in front of a Manning pass when it appeared the Colts were
driving for the tying score. He returned the pass 74 yards for the
clinching touchdown as the Saints won their first Super Bowl and
completed their climb from the disjointed 2005 season in the aftermath
of Hurricane Katrina.
Saints coach Sean Payton started the second half with the first onside kickoff prior to the fourth quarter in Super Bowl history. Thomas Morstead’s kick bounced off the Colts’ Hank Baskett and, after a huge delay, the officials finally determined the Saints Jonathan’s Casillas had recovered the kick.
New Orleans rode the surprise move to its first lead as Brees directed a 58-yard drive in six plays to a 16-yard TD run by Pierre Thomas. That gave the Saints ball for 32 of the 38 plays after the first quarter.
Thomas, who started the drive with a 12-yard cut, broke back to the left on his run, avoided Antoine Bethea’s tackle at the 5 and dove into end zone. Garrett Hartley’s extra point put the Saints up for the first time at 13-10 with 11:41 left in the third quarter.
But Manning, who finished 31 of 45 for 333 yards, answered with a 76-yard drive, 10-play drive on which tight end Dallas Clark caught passes of 27 and 11 yards to convert third downs. Joseph Addai
ran through some tackle attempts for the 4-yard TD run with 6:15 left
in the third quarter. Stover’s kick put the Colts up, 17-13.
Hartley’s Super Bowl-record third field goal of
40-yards or more, this one from 47 yards, cut the margin to a single
point. Manning moved the Colts again after the kickoff, but this time
first Malcolm Jenkins, then Jonathan Vilma came up with big defensive plays to halt the march.
Stover’s 51-yard field goal attempt was wide left,
however, setting the Saints up at their one 41 with 10:39 to go. They
began their go-ahead drive at the point, with Brees connecting with
seven different receivers during the march.
New Orleans managed just a single first down during the
opening quarter as the Colts’ aggressive defense pressured Brees and
played the receivers tight. Only Reggie Bush breaking free on a short pass and taking it 17 yards gave the Saints a new set of downs, although a big drop by Marques Colston ended that drive.
While the Colts owned the first quarter, gaining 164 yards to 36 for New Orleans, the Saints controlled the second. Indianapolis gained only 15 yards on six plays in the quarter.
Brees was behind, 10-0, before he put together his first drive of the game that resulted in a Garrett Hartley field goal. Brees was dumped during the drive on a one-handed sack by Dwight Freeney, who started the game despite missing practice all week with an ankle injury.
Before the sack, Brees had completed two 11-yard passes to Colston as New Orleans moved from its 11 with the aid of a 15-yard late-hit penalty against linebacker Philip Wheeler. Hartley kicked his field goal from 46 yards with 9:31 left until halftime.
After an Indy three-and-out, Brees started his next
drive from his 28. Colston continued to make up for his early drop with
a 13-yard catch to convert a third-and-3, and later a 27-yard reception
that put the ball on the Colts’ 3. Brees also completed a 21-yard pass
to a wide-open Lance Moore during the march as the Saints began to handle the Colts’ pass rush with more success.
Unfortunately for Brees and the Saints, they got
nothing out of a 71-yard time-consuming drive. After a false-start
penalty moved New Orleans back, Pierre Thomas rushed to the 1. Coach Sean Payton tried to power in the ball on two runs, even though his best short-yardage back, Lynell Hamilton, was inactive because of an injury.
However, Mike Ball slipped on third down, and on fourth, Thomas was stuffed short of the goal line by Gary Brackett and Clint Session.
The Saints got three more points before
intermission, however, as they forced a Colts’ punt and Brees completed
three passes, one of 19 yards to Devery Henderson to get the ball to the 26. Hartley banged home his second three-pointer, a 44-yarder, to make the halftime score 10-6.
Indianapolis had taken its 10-0 lead on its opening two
possessions. Manning first drove his team 53 yards in 10 plays to set
up a 38-yard field goal by Matt Stover, who at age 42 became the oldest man to play in a Super Bowl game. Manning opened things with an 18-yard pass to Dwight Clark and connected with Austin Collie for 14 more during the drive.
Indianapolis, which finished dead last in rushing during the regular season, used Joseph Addai
and the ground game to great advantage in the second drive. Addai
carried the ball three times for 53 yards, including a 26-yard burst on
a third-and-1 from midfield. Manning capped the 96-yard march, which
tied the longest in Super Bowl history, with a 19-yard scoring pass to Pierre Garcon with 36 seconds left in the opening quarter.
Garcon beat cornerback Usama Young, who had replaced the injured Jabari Greer, off the line.
—
(c) 2010, North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Visit The Record Online at http://www.northjersey.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
