Saints Alive!

By FITSNews || America got its happy ending, a city’s wish was granted and the New Orleans Saints franchise – whose fleur-de-lis had been synonymous with failure for years – got its first Super Bowl win Sunday night.

On the strength of a surgically-precise passing clinic from quarterback Drew Brees, the underdog Saints rolled past the Colts 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV – a win that was clinched late in the fourth quarter when cornerback Tracy Porter picked off a Peyton Manning pass and returned in 76 yards for a touchdown.

Manning had been driving the Colts down the field in search of a game-tying touchdown.

Brees – who was the obvious choice for the game’s MVP award – connected on 32 of 39 passes for 288 yards and two touchdowns, tying the Super Bowl record for completions set six years ago by New England’s Tom Brady.

“Just to think of the road we’ve all traveled, the adversity we’ve all faced,” Brees said after the game. “Four years ago, whoever thought this would be happening? Eighty-five percent of the city was under water. Most people left not knowing if New Orleans would ever come back, or if the organization would ever come back. We just all looked at one another and said, ‘We’re going to rebuild together. We are going to lean on each other.’ That’s what we’ve done the last four years and this is the culmination in all that belief.”

New Orleans had never made it to the Super Bowl before. In fact, prior to this season, the Saints had made the playoffs just six times – with only two postseason wins.

Meanwhile the Colts, whose only losses this year came after head coach Jim Caldwell pulled his starters, have made eight consecutive trips to the postseason dating back to 2002. Indianapolis won Super Bowl XLI three seasons ago.

Manning, the 2009 regular season MVP, finished the game completing 31 of 45 passes for 333 yards with one touchdown – and the fatal interception.

“Certainly disappointing,” Manning said of Porter’s game-breaking pick. “Very disappointing.”

Indeed, Indianapolis let what could have been its second Super Bowl victory in four years slip away.

Leading 10-0 after the first quarter, the Colts relied on their banged-up defensive unit to hold back a surging Saints’ offense.  In one of the key plays of the first half, linebackers Gary Brackett and Clint Sessions kept Saints’ running back Pierre Thomas out of the end zone on a risky fourth-and-goal call by New Orleans head coach Sean Payton.

But Payton wasn’t done gambling.

Trailing 10-6 at halftime and feeling the momentum shifting back to the Colts, Payton made one of the gutsiest calls in Super Bowl history – an onside kick to open the second half.

It worked, too. The Saints recovered the football after it bounced off of Colts wide receiver Hank Baskett – and Brees promptly drove them down the field 58 yards for a touchdown and their first lead of the game.

The Colts answered with a touchdown drive of their own, but Brees proved to be too much down the stretch.

With his team trailing 17-16 in the fourth quarter, Brees completed every pass he threw on nine-play, 58-yard drive that gave New Orleans a 24-17 lead.

Seven plays later, Porter’s interception return sealed it – and set off a wild celebration 700 miles away in the French Quarter.