Saints Win Super Bowl XLIV
The New Orleans Saints were wearing Super Bowl championship shirts and hats Sunday night after an exciting upset of the Indianapolis Colts. The underdog Saints came back from a 10-0 first quarter deficit to upend the favored Colts, 31-17 and win Super Bowl XLIV.
The Colts appeared to be winning the battle up front in the first half, especially when they stopped the Saints from scoring on two consecutive runs from just one yard away from the end zone. That helped the Colts go into intermission ahead 10-6.
Saints’ Coach Sean Payton turned the game around, though, by opening the second half with an onside kick. The Saints Thomas Morstead kicked an excellent onsider that bounced off a Colt player. Chris Reis recovered for the Saints and Drew Brees then drove New Orleans down for a score that gave them a 13-10 lead.
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The Colts answered back, though, with a 66-yard drive and a touchdown to go up 17-13. They then held the Saints to a field goal on their next possession and the Colts went into the fourth quarter with a 17-16 lead.
But the final quarter would belong to New Orleans and it would be the Saints lifting the Lombardi trophy and donning the Super Bowl championship shirts and hats. Quarterback Drew Brees led the rally and would be named the Super Bowl MVP.
Midway through the final quarter Brees led a nine play, 59 yard drive with 7-for-7 passing that reached the end zone on a two yard TD pass to Jeremy Shockey. The Saints then attempted a two point conversation but Brees’s pass was called incomplete.
Coach Payton challenged the call, though, and after review, the call was reversed, the two point conversation was good and the Saints led, 24-17. There was still nearly five minutes left for Colt quarterback Peyton Manning to direct a comeback but New Orleans cornerback Tracy Porter made a huge play that put an end to that possibility.
Manning drove the Colts nearly forty yards to New Orleans 31 yard line but then disaster struck for Indy. In what may have been the play of the game, Porter intercepted a Manning pass to Reggie Wayne and returned it 74 yards for a New Orleans touchdown. That put the Saints up by 14.
The Colts looked like they were going to put one more touchdown on the board which would then undoubtedly be followed by an onside kick. They moved all the way to the Saints’ five yard line but the New Orleans defense forced two incomplete passes and the Colts ran out of downs and time.
The Saints had earned the first Super Bowl victory in franchise history and proudly put on the Super Bowl championship shirts and hats to commemorate the historic upset victory.
