Tag Archives: Sean Payton

Happy endings are always fun aren’t they?  Nowadays, you sit and watch a movie that run as long as Indian movies (think almost 3 hours), and hope that you will be rewarded with an ending that you want to see.  We’re cynics nowadays anyway right?  Sometimes the happy ending isn’t what we want to see.  I remember watching “Departed” and loving the scene where basically every person got shot in the end.  Then I thought to myself, what kind of sick human being am I that I could love seeing 3 human beings shot and killed and finding some enjoying in it.  Then again, in our American culture, we glorify killers, thugs and gangs so it stands without reason that we’ve been conditioned to like these darker heroes.  After all, we didn’t like Batman with George Clooney and the hard nipples, we liked Christian Bale and the darker Batman.

But happy endings nowadays are few and far between.  So how great was it to see the images of Drew Brees, with tears in his eyes, holding his kid and chatting it up with him.  Tom Benson lifting the Super Bowl trophy and the city’s hopes over his head in triumph.  Sean Payton, on the shoulders of his players, emphatically swinging his cap with force which might have suggested him saying “hell yeah.”

If you weren’t a Colt fan before this game, how could you possibly rationalize rooting for them?  You could be a Peyton Manning fan and still want the Saints to win.  So before the game I was asked who I was rooting for and I said I really had no particular rooting interest but my money was on the Colts to win and for the reason I stated (that being Peyton Manning), I felt pretty good about my choice. But something interesting happened when the game began.

Since the Super Bowl’s intended purpose of making it a neutral site is to allow fan bases of both teams to have equal numbers there, it goes without saying that nothing happens the way we’d like it to so what I enjoy doing is to hear the crowd noise for the first series.  Every pass completed, and every pass dropped and everything else in between.  Whichever fan base is the loudest, you know who the “home team” is.  Go back to the first series and tell me that it wasn’t an overwhelmingly pro-Saints crowd.  But the Saints weren’t just the home team last night, they were America’s team.  The team America wanted and as the game wore on and they got down 10-0, I found myself firmly planted in the Saints corner.

I imagine that’s what happened to most of America.  This was not the way we wanted it to end.  Ask Dan Marino, no one is ever promised multiple trips to the Super Bowl.  Its tough and its grueling and almost impossible to replicate greatness over a long stretch to where a team will end up in the Super Bowl year after year.  When the Colts went up 10-0 and Peyton did his defiant fist pump and nonchalantly jogged off the field, I was almost feeling a sense of anger.  Why anger?  Because the storyline of Katrina and the devastation it had caused crept in me.  Sean Payton the former OC of the Giants who they let go after a dispute with Jim Fassell deserved a chance to justify everyone’s belief in him.  Because Drew Brees, the guy who was on his way to break out status with the Chargers injured his shoulder was put to the back of the line and was given a chance with a city that would need rehab just a year later.  Because somewhere deep in my heart, through all his antics I could see how Jeremy Shockey felt more a part of this championship than he ever did with the Giants and I wanted to see him hoist one up.  Because there was just so much to like.  Because their “Who Dat” trademark is so a part of that culture that it almost seems like a different language and cool at the same time.  Because the next shot of Peyton’s family just giving their best golf clap, assured of yet another Super Bowl trophy to put on the mantle seemed almost aristocratic that it rubbed me the wrong way.  Tell me I wasn’t the only one waiting for the “the Manning family wardrobe sponsored by IZOD” ad.  Because their team name is the Saints.  Think about it.  How could you root against a Saint?  How could a Saint be a bad guy in any scenario?  Even Boondock Saints with excessive violence are considered the good guys.

So at that point, I became a Saint fan.  I was ready for a hot plate of gumbo, some beads on my neck and some jazz music in the back ground.  I dont want to say that I was the reason that the Saints outscored the Colts 31-7 the rest of the way or to say that somehow from where I was watching I put it in Sean Payton’s mind to go for the onside kick to “ambush” the Colts the way they did to begin the second half.  I wasn’t.  But as any fan who likes the end result of any contest, I feel I had a bit part and a very very very tiny stake in their championship and other than my Giants or the Jets, there’s no other city I would rather see win a championship than the city of New Orleans.

As for the game here are some of my thoughts:

SEQUENCE OF THE GAME: Its probably the least attractive title for this but it must be said.  I will get to the play of the game which is obvious to anyone who watched the game.  Let’s set it up:

The Colts score with 0:36 left in the first quarter and lead 10-0.  The Colts seemingly have all the momentum.  Manning just drove 96 yards and hit Pierre Garcon with one of three passes that you just had to shake your head at how good he is.  Over the top of defenders and right into the hands of a player in mid stride.

Saints take over with :30 left at the 11 after a holding penalty.

Here’s the play call:

Run,(end of first quarter). Pass to Colston for the first down.  Run with Bush for 8.  Run with Bush for a yard and a late hit penalty that gave them an extra 15. Pass to Pierre Thomas for 9 yards (Broke two tackles).  Run by Pierre Thomas for a yard and a first (Broke a tackle).  Pass to Colston for 11 and another first. Run by Pierre Thomas for a yard.  Pass to Devery Henderson for 6 yards.  Sack by Dwight Freeney on 3rd down (on a bull rush by the way; how’s that ankle Dwight?).  Hartley field goal for 46 yards.  By the way, it was his longest field goal outdoors.

Drive length: 43 yards in 10 plays and 5:54 in game time.

Colts take over with 9:27 in the second quarter

here’s their play call:

Pass to Joseph Addai  for 9 yards.  Run by Addai for minus 3.  Incompletion to Pierre Garcon on a very good throw by Manning.   3 and out.

Drive length: 6 yards in 3 plays and 1:04 in game time.

Saints take over at the 27 after a punt and 8:14 left on the clock.

here’s the play call:

Pass incomplete to Shockey (high throw and almost intercepted).  Pass to Pierre Thomas for 7 yards (another tackle broken).  Pass to Colston for 13 yards and a first down.  Run by Bush for a yard. Pass to Shockey for 7 yards. Pass to Lance Moore for 21 yards. Devery Henderson on a reverse for  minus 7.  Pass to Marques Colston for 27 yards.  Pass to Lance Moore for 0 yards. False start by offense for a loss of 5 yards. Run by Pierre Thomas for 7 yards. 2 minute break.  Loss of a yard by Mike Bell. Fourth down and a yard and they get stuffed at the line of scrimmage.

Let’s pause here for a second.   Here’s why I am not a head football coach.  I thought it was a huge mistake to go for it on fourth down.  Peyton had been stopped for one 3 and out but the reason was that Pierre Garcon had missed a ball that hit him on his hands so the chances of that happening again were slim.  The Super Bowl is one game sudden death and so having the correct feel for each moment of the game is crucial and I felt if I were Sean Payton that getting 3 points as opposed to going for a touchdown was far more important because you needed to keep putting up points.  The fact that they got stopped was the absolute worst thing that could happen.  But Payton went for it.

Then when the running play went to the same side as the play before it, I was baffled.  Why not throw it up to one of your 6 feet and taller recievers to see if they couldn’t come down with it?  Suddenly the Saints were playing power football?  Also, they ran to the outside which plays to the strength of the Colts defense which is predicated on speed and closing in on the football.  By jumping to the outside, the Colts used that advantage and got to the attack point quicker.  At this point, I thought uh oh, Peyton’s now going to drive 99 yards and score before the half and all the air is going to come out of that Saints bandwagon I had jumped on after 36 seconds in the first quarter.

Drive length: 72 yards in 12 plays 6:25 of game time. 0 points.

We can all agree that at this point, the Colts had the momentum.

Manning from the 1 here’s the play call with 1:49 on the clock to end the half.  Remember that the Colts are set to get the ball back.

Run by Mike Hart for 4 yards. Run by Addai for 5 yards. Timeout Saints.  Run by Addai for 0 yards. Time out Saints. Colts punt.

Now think about that for a second.  Manning and the Colts just saw the Saints stonewalled with a yard to go so they dont want to make the same mistake and can’t afford to being backed against their end zone so I don’t fault them at all for not going for it here although if there’s one QB that can draw up a play and get a yard its Peyton, but let’s not fuss over that.  Remember how I said that I wasn’t cut out to be a head football coach?  Well here’s why.  The Saints had 3 timeouts.  When Peyton called a run play that surprised no one, I figured ok, why aren’t the Saints calling timeout?  It was then brought to my attention by Phil Simms that they were trying to use only 2 timeouts during the Colts possession and use one for their possession which is smart and economical.  That’s all predicated on the Saints stopping them in the next two plays.  When Addai ran for 5 and set up a third and one, the Saints didn’t call a timeout until they let 11 seconds run off the clock which who knows what the Saints could’ve done with an extra 11 seconds but let’s not play that game.

Ok, so let’s resume.  Punt to Bush run back 5 yards.  Saints start off at the 48.  0:35 left.

Pass to Devery Henderson for 20 yards.  Run up and spike to stop the clock (15 seconds elapsed between catch and spiking the ball).  Pass to Henderson for 6.  Pass to Bush for a yard and he steps out of bounds.  Hartley hits a field goal from 44 yards.  His second of the quarter and only the second player to hit two longer than forty yard field goals in the Super Bowl.

Drive length: 27 yards in 5 plays and 0:35 seconds of game time and 3 points.

Why was that entire quarter summarized?  Because the flow of the game and momentum switched three times.  That quarter was one big pendulum swing and the team that ended it with the momentum went on to win the game.  Remember when I thought they wouldn’t get those 3 points back and thought it was a mistake that they didn’t come away with points to end the half?  Well let’s now look at it from the perspective that we see it played out from.  The Saints went for it thinking, even if we don’t hit the field goal, we pin the Colts at the one and now they have to play conservative run football just to get out of the endzone and try to milk time off the clock.  They are going to play conservative.  We stop them on 3 plays, use two timeouts and we still have a little under a minute to drive to get back those three points anyway.  Or we hit a big play and score a touchdown.  That’s how it played out.  That’s why the momentum went back to the Saints, because even when geniuses like me thought they were losing the momentum, it still worked.  So much for me as a head coach.

PLAY OF THE GAME:  Obviously its the onside kick and I will tell you why.  Its ballsy.  Its exactly what they called it: an ambush.  That’s what Sean Payton called that play to his kicker who had NEVER attempted the kick in his life.  Think about that.  A punter who had just started practicing that kick 12 days ago in what is one of the biggest gambles of the coach’s career.  Either its successful and he’s a genius or it doesn’t work and he’s a fool.  Credit Peter King for all this info since I read it in his MMQB (a must read for any real football fan).  In the article, Peter mentioned how Payton had seen how the Colts kick off teams cheated sending two players back to defend the run back which left the Colts woefully thin up front which left them susceptible to the onside kick.  Why not attempt it earlier?  Payton wanted to set it up and now with the Saints having the momentum and half time being longer than usual since its the Super Bowl and it takes time for Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend to put down their pipes and get off the field, Payton figured why not get momentum while its there to be had.  Great play by a coach who obviously didn’t blindly go for it and had reason to believe it would work.  Solid reasoning based on information he had gathered while scouting the Colts.  That’s why Payton won the game.  His game management skills and properly assessing the flow of the game helped win this game.

MVP:  DREW BREES. Sometimes, the Super Bowl MVP award goes to the most popular player on the team or the QB.  No other way.  But in this case, who else to give it to?  Drew Brees tied the record for completions in a Super Bowl and went a methodical 29-32 after the first half which included a spike in those 3 incompletions.  So really its 29-31 after the first quarter which gives him a 93.5% completion rate.  He ended with  a 32-39 line (82 % for those scoring at home) for 288 yards and 2 TD’s.  A completely efficient performance which fully cements him in the conversation of upper echelon QB’s of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

INDY REACTION: On facebook, an interesting question was raised by a friend of mine.  Brett Favre throws that INT and he’s an idiot and a moron.  Manning throws it and its a bad route run by Reggie Wayne or a great play made by the defender.  Well, to clarify the point I made, Favre’s backbreaking INT’s as evidenced by the one that he threw against the Saints in the NFC Championship game are head scratchers.  The ones that make you immediately yell out “what the %$#@ were you thinking?”  This interception by Peyton was his worst throw of the afternoon considering he wasn’t facing as much pressure.  Peyton played a great game in the first quarter and then was rendered useless for the remaining 3 quarters which is more a credit to the Saints defense and Offense winning the time of possession battle.  That second quarter was so crucial for the Saints because they kept Peyton off the field for the most part.  Credit Tracy Porter for jumping the route.  That was all Tracy Porter on that interception and return.  We can all point the finger at Peyton but let’s give credit where its due and not look to play the blame game on this one for once?

For the most part, Peyton continued to show why he’s still the best QB in the business throwing 3 passes that have to be shown in loop to every young QB in the game.  His pass, while moving to his right and hitting Dallas Clark in the fourth quarter over 4 defenders had to be one of the greatest throws I’ve ever seen.  Talk about putting it right where it had to be.  His other pass was the very first completion to Dallas Clark, just an incredibly tight window and he fit it right where it had to be.  Throws like that make it hard to put anyone else number one.

When Peyton got the ball and down 24-17, there wasn’t a single person who didn’t believe that Peyton wasn’t going to drive down the field and score and tie the game.  I was waiting for it to happen.  Then when he got intercepted, I looked up at the clock and despite common sense and everyone in the room telling me it was over, I still held out hope that if any QB on the planet could pull this one off, it was Peyton.  That’s how good he is ladies and gents.

All in all a very good Super Bowl.  Not quite as good as the last two years but then again expecting three games in a row that came down to the final minute would be a bit much.  Hopefully 2011 in Dallas will be a great one considering we might not see another one for a while.