New Orleans Saints: Quintet of Accomplishments Needed For Super Bowl XLIV Victory

New Orleans Saints: Quintet of Accomplishments Needed For Victory In Super Bowl XLIV

The Indianapolis Colts will compete against the New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV held in Miami, Florida on Feb. 7, 2010. While there are two teams and dozens of players involved in this annual contest of gridiron greats the majority of attention will be paid to just one individual, Peyton Manning.

The reason being this Super Bowl provides Manning with the opportunity to make two major career advancements. The first is moving closer to his contemporary rival, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and his three Super Bowl victories. Those three world championships have made Brady one of the most beloved things in Bean Town.

Drew Brees celebrates after leading the New Orleans Saints to their first ever Super Bowl appearance.

The second advancement is the Colts superstar securing his place as the NFL’s greatest quarterback of all-time. With his statistics, records, and TWO Super Bowl victories, Manning will make it difficult for anyone, fan or critic, to argue against his career as the historical zenith of professional quarterbacking.

Manning’s Super Bowl opponents, led by quarterback Drew Brees, obviously desire to postpone his coronation for at least a year. To thwart Manning’s ascension to the throne of the Immortals, the Saints will need a quintet of accomplishments…

• Force 5 Turnovers - The Colts can overcome a turnover and probably two, but if they prematurely lose control of the spheroid three or more times they give the Saints a legitimate chance for victory. Another way to look at it: five turnovers are at least five possessions in which the vaunted Colts’ offense didn’t score. In the NFC Championship game the Saints forced the Minnesota Vikings into five turnovers.

• Sack Manning 5 Times - The Saints had nary a sack in the NFC Championship game but they did hit quarterback Brett Favre a bevy of times throughout the night. Sacking Manning five times will force punts or at the very least five sacks will force third-and-longs. Just harassing Manning, like the Saints did with Favre, won’t be enough to achieve victory. For the Saints to win, Manning needs to be tackled behind the line of scrimmage multiple times.

• Hold Manning To Fewer Than 300-Yards Passing - This stat is key since the Saints have the league’s 26th ranked pass defense and the Colts don’t need to run the ball to win (they are the league’s worse rushing team). If Manning is allowed to play pitch-and-catch with his cadre of receivers, it will be a long Super Bowl for the Saints. In the NFC Championship game Favre threw for 310 yards.

• No Scores In The Last 2-Minutes Of Either Halves - In both playoff games, the Colts scored touchdowns in the final two minutes of the first half. A touchdown in the final 120-seconds of the opening half can ruin 24-minutes worth of Saints’ work. A touchdown at the end of the second half can cost the Saints a Super Bowl victory. If the Saints want to win they need to hold the Colts scoreless for those crucial four minutes. The Vikings did not score in the final two minutes of either half in the NFC Championship game.

• Score 30 Points - If the Saints want to induce a week-long party in the French Quarter and make Indianapolis as quiet as the Toronto night life, they need to score points. Judging from our previous four notations, the Saints’ defense will be under siege come Super Bowl Sunday. What better way to assist their fledgling “D” then for Brees and company to compile a plethora of points. While they are at it the Saints might want to score 40. Colts have eclipsed the 40-point barrier once in 2009.

The list is comprised of five mighty tasks. That’s because Bombastic Sports believes the Saints have a relativity low chance to achieve victory. Regardless of how arduous the blue print is for triumph, we hope the game will be a competitive affair. However, intellectually we doubt the Saints ability to keep this Super Bowl contest appealing.

Tags: Bean Town, Brett Favre, Drew Brees, Indianapolis Colts, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, Peyton Manning, Super Bowl, Super Bowl XLIV, Tom Brady, Toronto Night Life

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 11:30 pm and is filed under NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.