Super Bowl 44 preview: Indianapolis Colts battle New Orleans Saints
Sports

Super Bowl 44 preview: Indianapolis Colts battle New Orleans Saints

The last time two No. 1 seeds met in a Super Bowl was in 1991 when the Giants (or should I say Scott Norwood) beat the Bills. That was an epic game and this year’s version looks like it has a chance to be just as exciting, hopefully without a missed field goal to end it.

Clearly the selling point of this game is the sheer amount of offense that could be on display. Both offenses can score as soon as they touch the ball. They’ve been doing it all year and I don’t expect them to slow down.

The Colts appear to be the heavy favorites entering the game. But the Saints have a decent following, and by the looks of it, Miami will be full of them.

What separates the Colts in the eyes of most people are two things: experience and Peyton Manning. These two facts cannot be argued. However, people shouldn’t just assume this will lead Indianapolis to an easy win. While things on the outside seem to favor the Colts, there are some things that favor the Saints.

New Orleans has the clear advantage in the running game. Pierre Thomas is a stud and Reggie Bush seems to have things going in the right direction. The Colts haven’t run the ball badly, they’ve done it when they had to. But Joseph Addai seems to be missing a step at the moment and I don’t think Donald Brown can carry the load in his place.

This is great for several reasons. If the Saints can develop a rhythm in the running game early on, it will help set the action of the game. The Colts’ safeties are extremely aggressive and it hurt them in the Jets game. On Braylon Edwards’ big scoring play, the Jets set up a fake play to left. The guards pulled and seemed to sweep to the left. Bethea was playing at the line of scrimmage and bit the fake. When he diagnosed what was going on, Braylon had hit his man and there was no deep help. Boom, easy 7.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Saints are built to beat the Colts. They are aggressive and generate turnovers. If you take the ball away from Manning, he can’t score, and when Manning doesn’t have the ball, that means Drew Brees does. If the Saints can pressure Manning and knock him out like they did Favre and Warner, the Colts will lose.

If the Saints can start the running game early and their defense can force some turnovers, New Orleans will be very difficult to beat. They’ll have to do it for 60 minutes, though, because it takes every last one of them to beat the Colts.

There are so many factors in this game that it’s hard to break it down into a few things. Things like execution, turnovers, red zone efficiency will play factors. This game can even come down to a team having to settle for a field goal instead of a touchdown. This is what happens when two great teams meet. This is how every Super Bowl should be.

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