Saints Win

February 9, 2010

Saints Win! We Win!

This, the third and final postseason game for the fate-favored heavenly New Orleans Saints, was special. Now can I not carp and whine about slamming the quarterback, the knock-‘em-down-kill-‘em flavor of the Warner and Favre victories; this was a pure psychological victory. The Saints cashed in their “Bring the Wood” baseball metaphor, which Reggie Bush enthusiastically embraced and in the full flush of the bat he led them to victory with his slashing open-field running against the Cardianls. Now it was, what, a chess game, or a poker game, a beat-‘em-mentally game.

The amazing surprise of what the special teams on the Saints call their ‘ambush’ — the onside kick, and in an unbelievably daring moment, at the outset of the third quarter (it had never been attempted so early in a championship game) — had Peyton Manning and the Colts downcast and dispirited. They had been planning on a long, productive drive downfield to another touchdown, which would have made the score 17-6. Of course, the ‘ambush’ was risky, but if successful, the Saints’ coach gambled, the Saints would maintain the momentum they had controlled for the entire second quarter. And so it was. The Saints’ kicker, asked if he had been nervous, said “I was terrified.” But he did it and, by the luck of the draw, the Saints found it. It was then the Saints who drove and scored their first touchdown of the game to open the second half, and it was the Colts upon whom the realization dawned that this was going to be a very tough game, and a mental game. It was not to be “Bring the Wood,” it was to be a battle of brains.

The first quarter found the Colts moving the ball up and down at will, looking for all the world as though they would run away and hide. But then the second quarter found the Saints and Drew Brees moving the ball up and down at will and eating the clock, gobbling the time away while Manning sat glowering like a horror movie protagonist — I tell you, that’s what he looked like as he sat limply waiting.

I liked how the second quarter ended, with a goal-line drive which failed for the Saints on a running play. It was, I think, a good call. Time was running out and the Colts, when they inherited the ball, were back almost to their goal line. There was time enough — three minutes and more — for Manning to do something, but his response was weak and timid: three running plays and out. Suddenly the Saints had the ball again and, with Garrett Hartley’s charmed foot, were able to kick the field goal that they had disdained earlier. So it was 10-6 and absolutely no harm done by the fourth-down run which had failed. The Colts were already primed for the set-down, already looking defensive, and the opening ambush of the third quarter, which returned the ball and, soon, the lead, to the Saints, as I say, dispirited them.

Sometime in last quarter, I believe, it was the Colts facing a fourth down, but instead of going for it, they kicked, and missed, a fifty-one-yard field goal attempt. One has no pity for such weakness. Sorry to crow, but a championship team has to know better.

They were playing just about errorless football, as were the Saints. No egregious fumbles lost, no big turnovers, no — shall I say it — no interceptions. But this was the Saints’ specialty in 2009-10, anticipating the pass and picking it, and here it came. “I could see it, I could smell it,” said Tracy Porter, “I have seen him do this so many times in film review. I knew the route and the intended receiver, Bruce Wayne, so at the right moment I stepped out on the coverage and in front of my man. Then I was home.”

Final score 31-17. Sounds more one-sided than it was, or was it? We had them beat all the way.
“We never got our momentum,” said Manning. The Saints took it away.
I don’t like football, but I did enjoy that game. Who Dat!

gmc