When talking about the NFL season as a whole, I would have to say I was a bit underwhelmed.† The playoffs consisted of four of the best teams playing at the end, with the two top-seeded teams moving on to the Super Bowl.† It was a very predictable season.† As far as the actual Super Bowl is concerned, it is a match-up of two very equal teams: strong offenses, underrated defenses.† There are question marks ó Dwight Freeneyís health for the Colts and Reggie Bushís flakiness for the Saints ó but nothing more than a normal game. Which makes my prediction a lot easier.The Saints are going to win the Super Bowl.
There is no question in my mind.† First things first, you have to look at the two quarterbacks.† I am not talking about the numbers, I am talking about the actual people that are playing behind center.† On the side of the Colts there is Peyton Manning, the poster boy of the NFL and star of the majority of Sunday afternoon commercials.† He has had the bar set ungodly high his entire career, a bar which he has met at almost every turn.† On the other side is Drew Brees, a second round pick out of Purdue who was expected to be good but ìcircled the drain” for a couple of seasons in San Diego before signing with the Saints as a free agent.
What really matters here is the attitudes of the quarterbacks coming into the big game.† As we have seen many times in the past with the 1968 Jets, the 2001 Patriots and the 2007 Giants, just to name a few, the attitude of a team coming into a game can overcome even the largest of oppositions. All three of those teams beat opponents that were favored by at least 13 points. Looking at Manning in the AFC Championship Game, he was unenthused after winning the Lamar Hunt Trophy. The Colts finished the season upset with head coach Jim Caldwell for scuttling their chances at a 16-0 mark, and the chances to be the first team to complete a perfect season in the modern formatórefusing to acknowledge the í72 Dolphins here for the sole reason that Mercury Morris might actually be more annoying than Jar Jar Binks. The Colts do not seem like the same energetic team that dominated the Bears in Super Bowl XLI.
Brees leads his New Orleans Saints, a franchise that has only had nine winning seasons in 43 attempts. This team was so bad that I personally thought they were called the íAints when I was young.† This team is running on pure emotion and drive.† This is the teamís first ever Super Bowl appearance. Before Brees and head coach Sean Payton showed up, the Saints had never even tasted the NFC Championship game.† Over the summer, Brees lost his mother to her own hand, an event that surely shook up his life.† He is leading arguably the best offensive squad that the Saints have ever assembled.
So in this yearís match-up it is the favorite Colts against the emotional Saints.† On paper the teams are equal.† The Saints have the emotional edge. †And in February, that is all that matters.