Super Bowl!

My night watching the Super Bowl had a few surprises in it. First, instead of staying home (and since no one I know threw, or invited me to, a Super Bowl party) I went to the Bike Stop to watch the Super Bowl tonight. This in itself was a surprise because I find myself increasingly disliking crowded bars, even if I'm not there by myself (my friend Kurt was there as well). I was close to leaving early on, which would have meant missing a good chunk of the game while I made the trip home. I managed to stick it out, though.

I stopped for dinner first, because I thought the bar wouldn't be putting out food until halftime. I was wrong. There was food almost as soon as the game began, including some huge buffalo wings -- large enough that they were very messy to eat with one hand (and the other holding the plate) while standing up.

Since I only got there just a minute or two before the game started I didn't see the national anthem. Because it was crowded enough that there was lots of noise and the volume of the TVs wasn't overly high, I couldn't make out most of what was being said. This means I can't really critique the broadcasters or the commercials. I was able to make out a decent amount of the halftime show by the Who. It bored me. It seemed to lack energy. I was surprised that they didn't have people on the field right near the stage acting excited and pretending to be at a real concert. To my surprise, I kinda missed them a little.

Going by visuals only, many of the commercials looked stupid. However, I need to see and hear the one featuring Betty White and Abe Vigoda to judge that one. Just seeing Betty White makes it possible that it was funny. There were two surprises regarding the ads. One was the Coke ad starring the Simpsons (I hadn't heard a thing about it beforehand). The other technically doesn't count as a Super Bowl commercial: the CBS promo for the Late Show with David Letterman, starring Dave, Oprah Winfrey and...Jay Leno! After Dave and Jay sniped back and forth during their monologues during the Conan O'Brien saga, seeing Leno was stunning! I'd love to know how this came about. I got an email from the Late Show with a link to watch it online. I have to say I almost like Jay Leno again just because he was there.

As for the game itself, Super Bowl XLIV was a major surprise. The New Orleans Saints not only won, 31-17 over the Indianapolis Colts, but they did it in style. They came out slowly, gaining little yardage in the first quarter while the Colts moved down the field rather easily. But the Saints only trailed 10-0 and from the second quarter on they played a superb game. I have to give credit to the Saints defense, who mostly held Peyton Manning and the Colts in check after the first quarter. Meanwhile, Drew Brees put together enough offense, throwing for 2 touchdown passes and putting together drives leading to three field goals.

Also give credit to Saints coach Sean Payton. With the Saints trailing 10-3 and having 4th-and-goal at the Colts' 1 with under 2 minutes left in the first half, instead of going for a field goal New Orleans went for the touchdown -- and Pierre Thomas was stacked up short of the goal. At the time I thought it was the wrong decision, but the Colts went three-and-out and had to punt, giving Brees great field position and enough time to get the ball into range for another field goal to end the half.

Then the Saints opened the second half with a shocking onside kick, and recovered the ball. That was the real turning point. Brees marched the Saints 55 yards, finishing with a 16-yard catch-and-run by Thomas to give New Orleans a 13-10 lead; the Colts struck back on the next possession to regain the lead, but from then on they couldn't score again. Garrett Hartley's third field goal got the Saints within 17-16. The Colts' Matt Stover missed a 51-yard attempt, and the Saints responded with a 59-yard drive resulting in a 2-yard TD pass from Brees to Jeremy Shockey. A two-point conversion (initially called an incompletion but reversed by a replay challenge) gave the Saints a 24-17 lead. Indianapolis' next drive ended in the only turnover by either team the entire game: a Peyton Manning pass intercepted by Tracy Porter and returned 74 yards for the clinching score.

Most observers (myself included) expected the Colts to win, and just about everyone expected a real shootout. But while both teams moved well at times (the Saints ended up with 332 net yards' offense to the Colts' 432), there were few long gains on offense -- only three or four that exceeded 20 yards. It was more of a ball-control game, and the Colts' offense, usually so efficient, was stymied tonight.

While I thought the Colts would win, I was hoping the Saints would win (as much as an Eagles fan can root for another team, that is) because one of their players, linebacker Scott Fujita, has been outspoken in favor of equal rights for gays, including marriage. So I'm happy for him, and to some extent for the city of New Orleans, still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

Eagles Blown Away By Strong Brees

The score (Saints 48, Eagles 22) was more lopsided than expected but today's game went sort of how I figured it would.

There was a lot of concern about how the Eagles would fare with Kevin Kolb at quarterback due to the cracked rib suffered by Donovan McNabb last week. I felt the bigger problem would be the New Orleans Saints' offense, led by Drew Brees. Let's face it, Carolina didn't offer much of a challenge last week. Today would be a much tougher test, and the Eagles weren't up to the challenge. Brees threw for 311 yards and 3 touchdowns, and the Saints' offense rolled up 421 yards against the Eagles' defense.

A telling moment came late in the second quarter with the score tied at 10. It took the Saints two plays to go 54 yards and take a 17-10 lead with 0:43 left in the half. Still, the Eagles got a field goal of their own to make it a 17-13 game, and received the second-half kickoff...briefly. Ellis Hobbs fumbled the ball, it was recovered by the Saints and Brees threw his third TD pass. On the next possession Kolb threw an interception that led to another TD, making it 31-13. After that the Eagles never got closer than 14.

Kolb wasn't that bad. In the first half the Eagles moved the ball decently. Kolb's first-half numbers: 14-for-22, 196 yards, 1 touchdown. On their first possession, already trailing 7-0, Kolb hit DeSean Jackson for a 71-yard score, Kolb's first TD pass of his career. The game plan wasn't dominated by pass plays -- if anything, it was dominated by the Wildcat formation as much as anything. (I guess we can expect more of that next week when Michael Vick is activated.)

Kolb's final numbers reflect the way the Saints opened up the lead early in the second half, making it necessary to abandon the run: 31 for 51, 391 yards, 2 TDs, 3 interceptions (the last two in the last minute of the game really didn't mean much at that point).

The loss today is on the hands of the defense, and especially the hideous special teams; between the Hobbs fumble, the poor punting and the penalties, the special teams need to be put on the short bus and driven far, far away.