The New Orleans Saints have been through so much over the last four years. But, I am not going to talk about that. If you want to read some feel good story about a team and a city becoming one and the joy they have because of the success that the team is enjoying go somewhere else. This night belonged to Peyton. You know the guy who was going to take his place among football royalty. He was going to become the best quarterback of his generation. This was Peyton's night.
Somewhere along the way though this night became less about Peyton, and more about Payton. As in Sean Payton. Sean Payton is the coach who for one magical night in Miami coached as close to perfect game as any coach could have. There is not one decision that you look at and say "what was he thinking?" If you look at what the Saints coaching staff did in preparing their team for this game and making adjustments throughout the game, you will find a team who was prepared and played to their strengths. They did not let the COlts dictate what they would or would not do. The more I watched the game on Sunday night, the more obvious it became the biggest mismatch in this game was the difference in coaching staffs. You can question Jim Caldwell's decision to rest starters, but that had NO IMPACT ON THIS GAME!!! It does however, show a pattern of passiveness that will hurt the Colts in the future. What we did learn on Sunday night was that Sean Payton knows that you must be aggressive to win in the NFL and he is not afraid to go for it. He made the necessary adjustments when they needed to be made. The Colts took away the run and the Saints ran just enough to keep the Colts honest. Freeney came out playing well (to my surprise), and they started chipping and doubling him. Manning was not going deep, so they brought the safeties up some on and made Manning work harder on thethrows he made (he made some BEAUTIFUL throws). Sean Payton showed everyone how to coach a big time game.
What we found out was in big time situations you can not count on Peyton, but PAYTON will be prepared and get the job done.
Congrats Saints!!!
great points on key to this game. After thinking about for about a day
ReplyDeletenow, I have come to the same conclusion. We differ on how good of a quarterback Manning is but I feel that it has always been his coaching staff that has held him back. It started with Dungy and is continuing with Dungys do boy who took over. A more aggressive coach or at least one who would let Manning make decisions, like wether or not to play for the perfect season, would only enhance his legacy. Congrats Sean on being the best football mind last night.