The Indianapolis Colts will battle the New Orleans Saints to determine the winner of Super Bowl XLIV. This game truly features the best of the best, as both of the league's No. 1 seeds will square off against each other. The thing that is so dangerous about both teams is that they are never out of a game. We saw it earlier this season when the Colts stunned the Patriots, and also when the Saints rallied against the Redskins.
New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts
Game Time: 6:25 PM on CBS
Line: Colts by 5 | Over/Under: 57
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Both teams have the leaders at quarterback -- Peyton Manning with Indianapolis and Drew Brees with New Orleans. DE Dwight Freeney will be ready to play, which is a huge lift for the Colts' defense. He'll be countered by S Darren Sharper of the Saints.
The only way I could see this game going south is if one of the backup quarterbacks had to play. Nobody wants to see Curtis Painter or Mark Brunell quarterbacking the Super Bowl.
Yesterday, I mentioned that the open game thread would be at SBNation.com. There is a slight change in that. You may use the game thread here at Dawgs By Nature as you wish. In addition though, I encourage you to stop by the SBNation game thread as well and join in on the fun!
As for my prediction with today's game, I'm taking the Colts. I don't have a good reason why other than the fact that I always root for them and I love watching Manning.
0 recs | 53 comments
Well, I got Colts winning 28-24 but i would like to see the Saints win one. Gives all us other teams with no rings and no trips to the big dance hope…
johnnyphoenix - February 7, 2010
Agreed.
Underdogs for the win.
Simmsinns - February 7, 2010
Hope?
How does a Saints win give us hope?
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
They went from a terrible franchise who had never been to a Super Bowl, to world champions.
We have been a terrible franchise, this reminds us it is possible for us to become Super Bowl champions.
rufio - February 7, 2010
Definitely. A Saints win puts the universe into alignment for Cleveland.
Spidey - February 7, 2010 via mobile
this
jimvols - February 8, 2010
Queen Latifah?
BOO
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
Carrie Underwood?
BOO
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
My prediction
N.O. 17
Indy 31
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
Please explain…
Simmsinns - February 7, 2010
Defense
I don’t believe in the Saints’ defense. I think Manning will run the show.
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
Interesting. Looks like you could be right, so far. I just thought 17 is one of the lowest numbers I’ve seen predicted for the Saints.
Simmsinns - February 7, 2010
dude holy sh*t
good guess, you just got the teams flipped.
jimvols - February 7, 2010
Love that throw by Manning off of his back foot to Collie. Such a beast.
Chris Pokorny - February 7, 2010
He’s on fire
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
For the Saints
-They’ve never won a Super Bowl, so it’d be nice to see them win.
-Drew Brees is awesome.
For the Colts:
-I love Peyton Manning, so it’d be nice to see him win another ring.
-…But, he already has one and (above) the Saints don’t.
I’m kind of indifferent.
emily522 - February 7, 2010
Go AFC
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
I’m glad the Saints won.
emily522 - February 7, 2010
The Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet is too cute :)
emily522 - February 7, 2010
Rec for the Puppy Bowl!
RelapsingDawgCatcher - February 8, 2010
I recorded it on my DVR, haha.
emily522 - February 11, 2010
Saints should go for it
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
HAHA WOW
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
Pretty good job getting The Who to play.
skipkirk - February 7, 2010
They don’t sound too bad
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
I take it back
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
Considering Daltrey and Townshend are about as old as my granddad, they were alright.
skipkirk - February 7, 2010
Baba O’Riley sounds terrible with geriatrics singing it. All the power of “Teenage Wasteland” is lost.
gahnki - February 7, 2010
WOOOOOOO The Pacific is almost here!!!!
Brownie's Year - February 7, 2010
Lookin’ forward to that one.
skipkirk - February 7, 2010
OMG I totally called that pick 6 right before it happened!!!
emily522 - February 7, 2010
Well, I kind of feel bad for Peyton. But the city of NO and the franchise deserved this. I always like to see the underdog come out on top. Hopefully another city without a SB win (cough Cleveland cough) gets theirs soon :)
emily522 - February 7, 2010
I wanted to go congratulate the Saints over at their blog but they have the 1-day until membership thing.
emily522 - February 7, 2010
Everyone at my school is jumping on the Saints bandwagon now.
emily522 - February 7, 2010
Oh well. Good game I suppose.
All it took was a good Tracy Porter read.
skipkirk - February 7, 2010
IMO the win makes me feel better. It assures me that even crappy franchises can turn things around and get a SB win. AZ almost did it last year, now it’s the Saints. Pretty soon it’ll be the Cleveland Browns :)
emily522 - February 7, 2010
If anything this long break off football is pretty dangerous.
Day by day I forget the horrible stuff of the season and get even more optimistic. “It wasn’t that bad”.
I have to stop doing that.
skipkirk - February 7, 2010
Haha, me too.
emily522 - February 7, 2010
Pretty sure the Saints were pattern matching on the play vs the Colts’ “Curls” concept. I’ll need to watch it again to make sure.
I have a piece coming up on Monday covering that exact situation, coincidentally.
rufio - February 7, 2010
Found some video, don’t think it was a Curls play.
rufio - February 7, 2010
I think he just jumped the route to be honest. They were killing them with a clean inside release on the slant for the entire drive, and Porter just got fed up with it.
gahnki - February 7, 2010
Well the commentators said that Porter watched Wayne get set like it was a curl play. So Porter jumped it.
skipkirk - February 7, 2010
Honestly, now I don’t even think it was supposed to be a curls play. Watching it from the Madden angle, it looks like it could have been a version of levels, or more likely the “drive” concept. Collie comes in motion underneath Wayne and runs the shallow cross, while Wayne runs a dig.
Both receivers are cutting in, and Manning looked like he expected Wayne to come out of his cut a lot faster than he did. If the ball is one yard further out or Wayne is one yard further out of his break, that’s probably an incomplete pass at worst for the Colts.
rufio - February 7, 2010
It was an adjusted slant, for sure. Wayne’s job on that play was to get an inside release. He screwed up as much as Manning did.
gahnki - February 8, 2010
If that was supposed to be a slant, Wayne didn’t know the play or did a really bad job.
rufio - February 8, 2010
He was in off coverage and neither #1 nor #2 were threatening deep, so I thought it could have been a green light to jump the route out of a fire zone.
After watching it a few times, and further removed from this evening’s beers, it looks like it might have been man-1 with a blitz, not a fire zone like I had originally thought.
rufio - February 7, 2010
Just watched the replay and it looked like Manning never came off of Wayne and Porter broke before Wayne turned around. Watching it live, I thought he was going to Collie who looked like he was open and had enough for the 1st. Also his man reacted very late.
The more I look at it (if someone could get a screen shot at the :02 mark) Collie is taking his route across the field and looking back at Manning while his man his looking at Wayne and Wayne has barely made it up field. I’m thinking the pressure might have gotten to Manning.
Villeslgr - February 8, 2010
Another thing I notice from the Madden view is that it looks like Wayne is slowing turning because he hesitated in his hesitation move. That field was crappy all night and I can’t even count the number of times I saw guys lose their footing. Maybe Wayne was worried about slipping when he planted. That would alleviate some blame off of Manning, but I’m thinking the only way Porter doesn’t get that pick is if it is thrown behind Wayne towards the sideline.
Villeslgr - February 8, 2010
I’ll get some screenshots up soon. Its a big enough play that it is worth breaking down.
rufio - February 8, 2010
Knew we could count on Rufio. That play was huge and it was such a weird way for the Colts to essentially lose the Super Bowl.
Villeslgr - February 8, 2010
Anyone stop by the SBN game thread?
rufio - February 7, 2010
Nope. I didn’t stop by here because I didn’t think there’d be a local game thread up, and the idea of a random SBN crowd didn’t excite me. Oops.
RelapsingDawgCatcher - February 8, 2010
The look on Matt Stover’s face while he thought about his missed field goal was my favorite part.
L Train - February 7, 2010
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