Sports

Colts and Saints crowned divisional champs

In print | January 28, 2010

Sunday dawned clear and crisp in the Bayou as the citizens of Who Dat Nation prepared themselves for a Viking onslaught. Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, Peyton Manning readied his Colts for another go-round race against a familiar foe. The stakes? A chance at football’s greatest glory.
Wouldn’t that make a good intro to the NFL Films episode about this week’s games? Of course it would. Someday they’ll probably hire me. At any rate, here are a few of my observations about the two conference championships:

Indianapolis Colts 30, New York Jets 17

Much has been made of the fact that Mark Sanchez has become just the second rookie quarterback to take his team to the conference championships after Baltimore’s Joe Flacco did it last year. Now that Sanchez has finally completed his rookie year, it’s time to rush judgment on both of them by comparing how they each fared. Verdict: While the Sanchize was undoubtedly more inconsistent than Flacc-man (give it a chance) during his first regular season, the tables turn significantly when looking at how each passer fared in their inaugural playoff experience, each having played in three games:

Sanchez (2009): 41/68, 539 yards, 4 TD, 2 INT, 92.7 passer rating
Flacco (2008): 33/75, 437 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT, 50.8 passer rating

Unlike most comparisons, this one comes with surprisingly few caveats. Both quarterbacks played with offenses that emphasized running the football. Both had the benefit of an aggressive, Rex Ryan-coached defense to keep them in the game, and both played all three games on the road. Given the similar set of circumstances, it’s hard not to conclude that Sanchez was by far the better quarterback during his first playoff run. The regular season was a different story, as Flacco was considered a focal point of the Baltimore offense almost from the beginning, while the Jets often treated Sanchez as a liability who was most valuable when handing off to his running backs. Nevertheless, the poise and ability Sanchez showed in both the GQ spread he did in May as well as throughout this postseason should give Jets fans reason to be excited for next year. With a little bit of luck concerning key players returning from injuries, their biggest concern going into 2010 is finding a capable deep-threat receiver to either complement or replace Braylon Edwards. Yesterday’s loss was disappointing for New York, but the foundation is now there for them to consistently challenge the Patriots for the division title, and with the young quarterback and defense, time is most certainly on their side.
Still, it’s hard to look toward the future when you’ve only just finished with the past, and while the performance of Manning proved that the Colts deserved to be in the Super Bowl, the Jets’ left a lot to be desired, particularly in areas of strength. The Jets’ susceptibility to the run was effectively masked last week due to the Chargers’ pass-first nature as well as their insistence on sticking with LaDainian Tomlinson. This week, despite facing the lowest-ranked rushing offense in the league, the Jets had no such luck, surrendering 101 yards on 24 carries. The Colts became the first team to outrush the Jets since the Patriots in Week 11, which was also the last time the Jets suffered a loss by two scores.
While it’s hard to be ashamed of getting burned by Peyton Manning, the ease with which he exploited individual matchups against any Jet, with the exception of Darrelle Revis, reinforced New York’s continuing need for another cornerback to complement their All-Pro. To be fair, the Jets suffered some injuries in the secondary during the game, causing them to insert emergency defenders. (Remember James Ihedigbo? Me neither, but he got significant playing time.) Nevertheless, DB depth should be their second-highest priority for 2010.

Offensive MVP: Peyton Manning (26/39, 377 yards, 3 TD). Last week against Baltimore, Manning was content to take what the defense gave him, running an offense that was effective and efficient albeit devoid of big plays. This week, an early eleven-point deficit caused Manning to open it up more, which he did with shockingly little difficulty against the best defense in football. He was still economical – four receivers had at least 3 receptions – but this time the big plays were attempted and made, the highlight coming on a perfectly thrown 46-yard bomb to rookie Austin Collie that would have earned 10s across the board were it an event at the Winter Olympics (Feb. 12 on NBC).

Defensive MVP: Kelvin Hayden (6 tackles, 2 passes deflected, 1 INT). As a unit, the Indianapolis defense played solid if unspectacular football, and held the best rushing offense in the NFL to just 86 yards on the ground. Cornerback Hayden played the most physical game of all the DB’s and essentially ended it by picking off Mark Sanchez late in the fourth quarter.

New Orleans Saints 31, Minnesota Vikings 28
On Sunday, the Vikings rushed for about 100 more yards than the Saints, passed for about 120 more, had 50 fewer yards in penalties, controlled the ball for nine more minutes, converted twice as many first downs…and lost the game. How is this possible? Turnovers, turnovers and more turnovers! Five turnovers, to be precise, three coming on fumbles and two coming on interceptions by Brett Favre, whose ‘gunslinger’ mentality never seems quite as endearing once he’s blown a chance for his team to go to the Super Bowl. More damning for the Vikings, in a three-point loss, is where on the field these turnovers actually occurred:

1. Fumble on Saints’ 4-yard line
2. Interception on Saints’ 34-yard line
3. Fumble on Vikings’ 22-yard line
4. Fumble on Saints’ 10-yard line
5. Interception on Saints’ 38-yard line

Four out of those five turnovers came when Minnesota was inside the New Orleans 40. Assuming they would only have had time to attempt the game-winning field goal before the fifth turnover, the Vikings left anywhere between 12 and 24 points on the field due exclusively to turnovers in Saints territory. Once again, they missed the Super Bowl by three points. In overtime. Can I interest you in some Timberwolves basketball, Vikings fans?

Say what you will about Brett Favre’s fourth-quarter interception that sent the game into overtime, and with open field ahead of him, the decision to throw was a horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible one. But the true back-breaker of that drive and the only reason the Vikings would have even considered running a pass occurred one play earlier. This was when Minnesota had the ball on the Saints’ 33-yard line (from there, a game-winning field goal would be about 50 yards, within their kicker Ryan Longwell’s range), when miscommunication on the sidelines resulted in a 12th player coming into the Minnesota huddle. This resulted in a 5-yard loss, and put the ball at the 38, now outside of Longwell’s range. Given everything that followed, this may have been the costliest 5-yard penalty in Vikings history for how it forced Minnesota’s hand.

Offensive MVP: Drew Brees (17/31, 197 yards, 3 TD). The numbers are fairly pedestrian—for him. Yet, in a game where the opposing team squandered a Super Bowl berth due to turnovers, Brees’ mistake-free day looks that much more valuable now that his team has the NFC Championship trophy to show for it.

Defensive MVP: Jonathan Vilma (5 tackles, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovered, 1 INT). It wasn’t exactly a dominating performance by the New Orleans defensive unit, but Vilma stands out here for his involvement in several momentum-shifting plays.