MIAMI—There have been a few exciting Super Bowls here in South Florida,dating back to Superbowl III(Joe Namath and his Jets upsetting the Baltimore Colts in the Orange Bowl),and the now Indianapolis Colts tasted an upset defeat at the hands of the New Orleans Saints,who were in their first ever Super Bowl. Game MVP Drew Brees hit Jeremy Shockey with a 2 yard TD pass with 5:42 left in the game and that put the Saints ahead for good in their 31-17 upset win over the Colts. What followed would trigger a huge party on Bourbon Street in the Big Easy that lasted throughout the night. After Shockey’s TD made it 22-17, the Saints went for two points and Brees’s pass to Lance Moore was first ruled to be incomplete,but Sean Payton threw the red flag for what would be the only review of the game,and the call was reversed,so New Orleans took a 24-17 lead. Peyton Manning drove his team down the field in search of the tying TD, but he had a pass picked off by Tracy Porter,who took it 74 yards to seal the Colts fate. Indianapolis moved the ball well in the first quarter,but had to settle for a 38 yard Matt Stover field goal before Manning finished a 96 yard,11 play drive with a 19 yard strike to Pierre Garcon. The Saints got on the board with a Garrett Hartley 46 yard field goal. They next drove to the Indy 1, but on fourth down, Pierre Thomas was stopped. The Colts could not run out the clock and had to punt,and the Saints in turn got 44 yard field goal from Hartley,and it was 10-6 at halftime. After The Who’s performance, the Saints pulled off a Coup d’état when punter Thomas Morestead sent an onside kick that the Saints Jonathan Casillas recovered at his own 42. Brees took advantage of that quick break,and it took 6 plays before he hit Thomas for a 16 yard score as the former Illini start broke three tackles en route.The Saints led for the first time 13-10,but Manning wasn’t done yet. In 5:26 and 10 plays,Joseph Addi,who torched the Bears three years ago, broke free for a 4 yard score to give Indy the lead back 17-13,but amazingly,the Colts would not score again. The Saints got a third field goal from Hartley with 2:01 to go in the third quarter and the Colts clinged to a 17-16 lead. The fourth quarter belonged to the Saints who pulled off the upset.

NOTES—Brees completed his last ten passes, he finished 32-39 for 288 yards,2 TD’s, and a passer rating of 114.5 …..Manning was 31-45 for 333 yards, 1 TD 1 huge interception and a passer rating of 88.5…..New Orleans set a Super Bowl record by overcoming the largest deficit by a winning team(ten points).

LES