Saints Win First Super Bowl

For the first time in their history, the New Orleans Saints are Super Bowl Champions. Peyton Manning may have been the regular-season MVP, but on this given Sunday, Brees was better.

Lifting his team from a 10-point deficit, Brees completed 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns to tie the Super Bowl record for completions on his way to winning the game's MVP honors. However, Brees struggled early on while Manning flourished, but that quickly changed in the second quarter.

While Manning continued to excel as always, Brees started to catch up, and that was just what the Saints wanted. Probably the only team in football that could keep up in a shootout with Manning and the Colts, the Saints did just that.

After halftime, Brees came out flying, as New Orleans began the second half by recovering a surprise onside kick. That set the stage for the rest of the game, as head coach Sean Payton made many gutsy calls throughout.

"We were really excited when he made the call," said linebacker Jonathan Casillas, who was on the field when teammate Chris Reis recovered the ball. "That changed everything."

The ball, kicked expertly by Thomas Morstead, bounced off the hands of the Colts' Hank Baskett to set up the Saints' offense.

"We're going to be aggressive, Payton said. "We'd seen the onside kick all week and guys executed it well. It turned out to be a big change of possession."

Instead of defending against Manning -- who finished the game completing 31 of 45 for 333 yards -- the Saints drove 58 yards for a touchdown. Running back Pierre Thomas caught a 16-yard scoring pass from Brees and, very suddenly, the Saints had their first lead of the game.

The expected shootout was developing into a surprising defensive standoff. Naturally, the second half began with an onside kick. Payton, after getting wrecked on two conservative goal-line run calls, went for the trick play out of the box and with just over three minutes into the second half, after Thomas' touchdown, it was a very different game -- 13-10, Saints.

But, of course, Manning is Manning. Completing two critical balls to tight end Clark along the way, Manning presided over a terrific drive. Addai, spinning a full 360 degrees, ran 4-yards for a score with 6:15 left in the third quarter to put the Colts back on top 17-13.

Game on.

The Saints came right back and Hartley's 47-yard field goal closed the gap to one point.Indianapolis moved down the field, picking up a fourth-and-2 at the Saints' 46 when Wayne caught a 14-yard slant. But just when it looked like the Colts would distance themselves, linebacker Jonathan Vilma made two terrific plays -- a tackle for a loss followed by a batted down pass to Colts wide receiver Austin Collie down by the end zone. Matt Stover's 51-yard field goal attempt was wide left. And it seemed as if that sealed the fate of the Colts.

Sitting in my den watching this game with my friends and father, we all knew that Stover was going to miss this kick and that the Colts probably should have punted and it turned out that we were right. Stover's wide left kick was way short of uprights and that changed the entire game, as Brees had almost half a field to score a touchdown.

And he promptly did just that, hitting tight end Jeremy Shockey with a two-yard touchdown pass on the right side to give the Saints a 22-17 lead with 5:42 to play.

New Orleans was then compelled to go for two to put Manning and the Colts within seven points of a tie. Lance Moore had the ball in his grasp over the goal line momentarily before it came loose. The play was called incomplete, but Payton challenged the call and replays showed the catch was good for a two-point conversion, and the Saints had a seven-point lead.

With the Colts driving, Tracy Porter made the game clinching interception that gave his team a 14 point lead for good.

The Colts drove down the field on the final drive, but Manning's last-gasp pass, a seemingly quite catchable throw, glanced off the hands of Wayne near the end zone, and the Colts were formally done. In the fourth quarter the Saints managed to make Peyton Manning look like a mid-season Mark Sanchez, making poor decisions with the football and throwing interceptions that Manning would never throw. Peyton was human on this night, and it was good to see.

The Saints are no longer the Ain'ts and finally have something to go crazy about. Only four years ago the city was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, with many people left homeless. The Saints took their city on their shoulders and brought it to this point. This game was an outstanding game from start to finish and the Drew Brees finally went from great quarterback to elite quarterback.

The Saints have become my second favorite team in football, behind the Jets of course, ever since Drew Brees and Reggie Bush came to town. I have always been a Bush fan, being a huge USC football fan, but if he wasn't going to the Jets in the 2006 draft, I was really OK with him going to the Saints. The story of the Saints rising up and lifting the city in 2006 moved me and made me a huge fan.

In comes Jonathan Vilma.

After the 2007, Jonathan Vilma was traded from the Jets to the Saints. He was my favorite Jet at the time and I was very upset to see him go, especially since they got Kris Jenkins to be their nose tackle. But him going to the Saints only made me love them more. I am so happy for Vilma and the other former Jets that won the Super Bowl tonight, it was well deserved. What a night for the Who Dat nation! They deserved this more than anyone can explain!