FORT LAUDERDALE — Let’s not kid ourselves. If championships in the new millennium were about brutal, crushing defence, and a punishing ground game, the New York Jets and the Minnesota Vikings would be here.
Instead, we have the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints and that’s a track meet just waiting to happen.
Super Bowl XLIV is all about the quarterbacks, baby, so get the abacus ready.
“Forget that thing about ‘If you can run the football and play defence, you can win a championship,’” chirps Shannon Sharpe, Pro Bowl receiver turned CBS analyst.
“I’ll tell you what: Give me Peyton Manning and I’ll give you anybody else’s defence. How about that?”
There has been a lot of brave talk by defensive players all week in the run-up to this day of days. That’s understandable because they have pride, too. But the psychology of the game and the recent rule changes to pump up offence have left defences with one arm tied behind their backs.
“As a defence, you can’t really grab,” former Miami QB Dan Marino was saying the other day. “You get fined for hitting the quarterback. A lot of that has made it an offensive league.”
Sharpe watches receivers running free, without contact down field and wishes he had been born 10 years later.
“If I could run across the middle now,” Sharpe said, “and they can’t hit me? Oh, man!”
And with two ultimate craftsmen like Manning and Drew Brees at the controls this evening at Sun Life Stadium, fully engaged with their weapons, a defence can only try to slow them down from time to time to try to make a difference.
Now, a word of advice. If you’re planning to leave your seat with a couple of minutes left in the half, maybe to warm up the chili or to refresh your drinks before The Who take the stage, well ... don’t.
In 18 games each this year, these two teams have combined to score 1,052 points. That’s impressive. But even more impressive is that they’ve combined to score 160 (87 by Indy, 73 by the Saints) of those points in the last two minutes of the first half. Be warned.
New Orleans offence vs. Indianapolis’ defence
Nobody will know until near gametime if Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney is going to try to play. Even if he does, you can imagine that with a torn ligament in his right ankle, his effectiveness as a premier pass rusher will be muted.
His absence, at least on some downs, will give Brees and his offence an extra edge. Raheem Brock, who would replace Freeney, is no slouch but he is not the same type of speed rusher. His absence might allow the Saints to slide another receiver into the mix if they don’t have to maintain a double-team on Freeney.
That’s all Brees needs is another receiver to choose from.
The Saints had the most prolific offence in the league this year, producing an average of 400 yards and 32 points per game. Unlike the Colts, the Saints actually have a rushing game with Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas the chief threats that they will use to keep the Colts defence honest, setting up play-action passing opportunities.
Saints head coach Sean Payton is also a very aggressive play-caller and he will test the Indianapolis defence deep and often with a bevy of receivers. Brees has eight receivers who caught 35 or more passes this year, with Marques Colston his favourite target.
Don’t sell the Colts defence short, though. In two playoff games, they have yet to allow a second-half point, a tribute to their ability to make significant adjustments on the fly.
Colts offence vs. Saints defence
Aside from possessing a strong arm, a quick release and pinpoint accuracy, Manning’s greatest strength is his ability to read and react to various defensive schemes. No detail is too big or too small to escape his instant analysis.
Because his Colts don’t huddle-up after every play, Manning has plenty of time to spy and try to catch the defence tipping its hand. That alone can mess up a defence.
“I don’t want to get in a situation where there is just five seconds left on the play clock and he just (changed a play) and I’m trying to make a change at the last second,” said Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma, who calls the defensive signals, “because he’s hiking the ball and I have half my guys doing the right thing and half doing the wrong thing. We’re better off playing one defence and whether we’re right or wrong, we can fix it by getting to the ball.”
The Saints are not an overly-physical defensive team but they have one aspect that the Colts need to be wary of: They are obsessive about trying to strip the ball.
Two weeks ago against the Vikings they clawed and poked at the football and forced six fumbles, recovering three of them.
“That’s something we work on in practice every day,” safety Darren Sharper said. “We’re taught to attack the football. When you win the turnover battle, you usually win the game.”
However, their focus on the strip can sometimes backfire when a player goes for the turnover and fails to make a sure-handed tackle.
ken.fidlin@sunmedia.ca
