Brees outshines Manning as Saints win Super Bowl XLIV
Share this article on Facebook
Drerw Brees celebrates New Orleans Saints' victory with the Super Bowl trophy. (Icon SMI)
By Ben Cook, Lindyssports.com
Super Bowl XLIV in Sun Life Stadium on February 7 was supposed to be the coronation of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning as the best quarterback of his era and perhaps one of the best ever.
Oops.
Oops.
He wasn’t even the best quarterback on the field. That honor went to Drew Brees, the unassuming quarterback who led the New Orleans Saints to a 31-17 upset of the Colts to win Super Bowl XLIV, ending XLII years of frustration for Saints fans.
Brees, the quarterback the Miami Dolphins didn’t want to take a chance on back in 2006 after the San Diego Chargers gave up on him, won the Most Valuable Player Trophy after completing 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns with a passer rating of 114.5. He did not throw an interception.
Brees, the quarterback the Miami Dolphins didn’t want to take a chance on back in 2006 after the San Diego Chargers gave up on him, won the Most Valuable Player Trophy after completing 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns with a passer rating of 114.5. He did not throw an interception.
Brees one-upped Manning, a New Orleans native, who completed 31 of 45 passes for 333 yards and a touchdown. But Manning did throw an interception, a costly one that was returned by Tracy Porter 74 yards for the final Saints touchdown of the game late in the fourth quarter.
Porter’s score made it 31-17 and was the unofficial signal to begin the party in the French Quarter. The official signal came three minutes and 12 seconds later when the clock in Sun Life Stadium hit 0:00.
Party on, but skipping straight to the party doesn’t do justice to a Saints team that stared adversity in the face and didn’t blink. In fact, it didn’t even seem to worry. The team that had won only two playoff games in the first 42 years of its existence was about to pull things together and win its third playoff game this year.
Yes, this one could have gotten away from the Saints early, but didn’t.
The Saints trailed 10-0 with just 36 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
At that point, the Saints had run just nine plays and had 29 yards of total offense.
At that point, the Saints had run just nine plays and had 29 yards of total offense.
At that point, Indianapolis had run 22 plays and had 149 yards of total offense.
Brees, who had completed just three of his first seven passes, was ready to get to work and so were the rest of the Saints on both sides of the football.
From that point on, the Saints outscored the Colts 31-7 and pulled the upset that most of the nation wanted to see.
Garrett Hartley started the scoring with a 46-yard field goal, the first of three he would make on the night. His three field goals of 46, 44 and 47 yards made him the first man in Super Bowl history to make three kicks from beyond 40 yards.
Garrett Hartley started the scoring with a 46-yard field goal, the first of three he would make on the night. His three field goals of 46, 44 and 47 yards made him the first man in Super Bowl history to make three kicks from beyond 40 yards.
Brees threw touchdown passes of 16 yards to Pierre Thomas, who took the screen pass behind the line of scrimmage and weaved his way through the Colts secondary for the score, and two yards to Jeremy Shockey.
Porter’s interception return was the final score for the Saints.
“We weren't the Aints,” Porter said referring to the Saints’ nickname during their losing years. “We were a team of destiny, a team that can make big plays.”
The biggest key to the comeback might have been the onside kick the Saints pulled to open the second half when they were trailing 10-6. It led to a 58-yard go-ahead touchdown march.
“I just told our guys you've got to make me look good on this,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “That really becomes like a turnover.”
The Colts managed just a four-yard touchdown run by Joseph Addai after the first quarter.
The loss by Manning was a difficult pill for him to swallow. The NFL’s MVP for the season became the fifth MVP to lose in the Super Bowl.
The Colts managed just a four-yard touchdown run by Joseph Addai after the first quarter.
The loss by Manning was a difficult pill for him to swallow. The NFL’s MVP for the season became the fifth MVP to lose in the Super Bowl.
“We really felt as underdogs we had the better team,” Payton said. “To be in that position where maybe a lot of people were picking against us, we liked the spot we were in.”
Nobody would dispute the fact that the Saints were the better team on this night. They Saints, who had won just two playoff games in their previous 42-year existence, won three games in these playoffs to capture the championship.
Nobody would dispute the fact that the Saints were the better team on this night. They Saints, who had won just two playoff games in their previous 42-year existence, won three games in these playoffs to capture the championship.
“Four years ago, whoever thought this would be happening?” Brees asked in his post game press conference. “When 85 percent of the city was under water and all of its residents evacuated to places all over the country. Most people not knowing if New Orleans would ever come back or if the organization and the team would ever come back.
“But not only did the organization come back and the city come back, so many players that are our core group of players came in that year as free agents,” he said. “We just all looked at one another and said, ‘we’re going to rebuild together. We’re going to lean on each other.’
“And that’s what we’ve done the last four years and this is a culmination of that belief and that faith.”
