BOURBON STREET EXPLODES
Roman Harper recovered Ladainian Tomlinson’s fumble at the 5 yard line with 32 seconds to play to preserve the New Orleans Saints improbable first ever victory in the highest scoring Super Bowl ever Sunday night in Miami.
Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees led his team to a 42 – 38 victory, rallying his team from a 4th quarter 10 point deficit, culminating in a 32 yard scoring strike to Marquis Colston with 2:32 remaining. The Saints offense then had to stew on the sidelines as NFL MVP Phillip Rivers guided the San Diego Chargers to the doorstep of victory, only to have Tomlinson cough up his 2nd fumble of the game, this time on a jarring Jonathan Vilma tackle.
Coach Sean Payton of the victorious Saints, went back to his roots, completely abandoning the running game that had been so dominant in the Saints 14 -2 regular season, allowing Brees (42/60 482 yards) to gunsling it out with his former teammate Rivers (28/40 312 yards). Both teams scored at will, but it was ultimately Brees and his incredible corps of receivers (Colston 8 catches for 112 yards, Moore 9/101, Shockey 7/77, Meachum 4/32, Bush 6/62, Thomas 5/65, Henderson 3/33) that triumphed. Brees set records in every passing category, but neither team could pull away. When the Chargers took a 10 point lead with 11 minutes to go after returning a Bush fumble 88 yards, it looked like Bree’s heroics would go for naught. But he wasn’t finished.
The Saints, division winners who handily beat the Seahawks and Packers en route to Miami, had a much easier path than did the Chargers, who despite their wild card record of 9 – 7 beat the Jets, the Colts, and finally the Patriots, all in overtime. In the end it was the Saints relatively fresh offense that finally wore down the Chargers.
Thus ends the long drought of the New Orleans faithful, who saw more playoff victories this year than in the previous 40 years combined. Bourbon street was reported to be in near-riot condition.
So, that’s how it will end. How will it begin?
It will begin this week with a harder than expected victory over the Lions. Watch for the Lions to pull out all the stops (Remember Payton and Haslett in their first year – coaches don’t get conservative until their 2nd year.)
This year, the most important Saint is Pierre Thomas – If he can carry the load to the tune of 1000 to 1200 yards (despite the fact it looks like he’ll miss the first game), the running game will keep the defenses honest.
While I’m still not sold on the Saints outside linebackers (when are they going to give Dunbar a real shot?) it looks like the secondary is deeper and presumably Jason David is on a couch somewhere enjoying the millions he didn’t earn. If Gregg Williams can pressure the QB (particularly Matt Ryan and Jake Delhomme) the Saints will go a long way.
Watch for our home-viewing parties to begin on Sunday September 20th when the Saints travel to Philly. Ain't it great to be undefeated?
No comments:
Post a Comment