"The Elephant Man" (Baton Rouge)
January 25, 2010
Octavia McCoy White
January 28, 2010I don’t know if you’ve heard this by now, but the Saints are going to the Super Bowl.
Yes, that’s right: The Saints are going to the Super Bowl. This is not some evil trick, or some twisted, cold-hearted joke from the Tri-parish resident Cowboys fan – they are really going to the Super Bowl.
After all of the years of disappointment, all of the years of heartbreak and all of the years of, frankly, losing they are finally there.
All of the fumbles, all of the penalties, all of the laughing by Aaron Brooks after interceptions, it all means nothing now, because the rags to riches story is finally complete.
Or is it?
Yes, the Saints are the NFC Champions and will take on the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7.
And yes, this is the crowning achievement in the franchise that didn’t really have a clear crowning achievement until the 2005-06 season.
But there is still plenty of work to be done and it’s not time to exhale just yet, because the Indianapolis Colts are not going to be easy to be an easy out.
The Colts in all honesty haven’t truly been “beaten” all season as both of the team’s losses this season were a result of the team choosing rest over rust in the final two weeks of the regular season.
That rest has paid big dividends for first-year coach Jim Caldwell, who has seen his team waltz through the playoffs to this point without much of a sweat and they’ve done so against some of the best defenses in the NFL.
If they can score 30 points against the Jets and their No. 1 defense in the NFL, what might they do to the No. 25-ranked unit the Saints will lug into the Super Bowl?
I would be a bit more optimistic had the team showed the form they’d shown in their beating of the Cardinals two Sundays ago. But I don’t know if anyone other than me noticed this in the hysteria that has overtaken Louisiana, but the Saints didn’t exactly look amazing on Sunday and I have to wonder what – if anything – the team will have left in the tank two weeks from now in Miami.
On offense, the team was kept off balance by the Vikings’ front-four. What was a freight train all season, the Saints’ offense was a rusted clunker for most of the game and racked up just 257 yards on the game – down from the 403 yards per game they averaged in the regular season.
On defense, the Black and Gold took advantage of Minnesota’s mistakes and forced nearly a half-dozen turnovers. But yards weren’t exactly hard to come by for the Vikings when they weren’t fumbling the football and the team racked up 475 yards of total offense and still scored 28 points, despite the five turnovers.
But the good news is there is a bye week forthcoming and there is a golden opportunity to rest and regroup to fine tune a few things before what will be the biggest game in the city of New Orleans.
But the team better make every, single second of the following two weeks count, because there will be no Dome Field Advantage to lean on in Miami and the way the team performed on Sunday will not be good enough to take home the city’s first-ever Lombardi Trophy.
But in the meantime, enjoy the moment, because you never know when it might happen again (I know better than anyone. My team hasn’t made the Super Bowl since 1995).
Just know the job isn’t yet done – it’s only just begun.
And making it all the way to Miami and coming up short would be a harsh twist to the perfect fairy tale season.
