TheATM’s Super Bowl Preview

The whole season has been leading up to this, The Super Bowl; the holy grail of sports. This Sunday the Indianapolis Colts face off against the New Orleans Saints with the Lombardi trophy on the line. Both teams started the regular season with a streak of undefeated games en route to #1 seeds in their respective conferences, and both teams are led by arguably the 2 best quarterbacks in the league right now. The Saints are 5 point underdogs.

The Saints come into this game following a thrilling overtime victory over Brett “backbreaking pick” Favre and the Vikings in the conference championship game. The Colts are coming off of a relatively easy win over the New York Jets where they dominated the second half. The Colts Peyton Manning led the 2^nd ranked pass team to a 14-0 start en route to his 4^th MVP trophy and then he dominated 2 very good defenses in the Ravens and Jets. The Colts D led by pass rushers Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis  did not fare as well as the offence ending the season, 18^th overall in yards per game, 24^th in rush yards per game, 14^th in pass yards per game, and 8^th in scoring. The Drew Brees anchored New Orleans offense ended the regular season ranked #1 overall but struggled in the conference championship game vs the Vikings. The Saints defense led by ball hawking safety Darren sharper were ranked, 25^th overall, 26^th against the pass, 21^st against the run, and 20^th in scoring.

Darren Sharper: Ready for the Super Bowl

Keys To the Game

Starting with the Saints. The Saints strengths are balance on offense with a terrific passing attack, and an opportunistic defense that came up with 39 turnovers during the regular season. They need to stick to these strengths. With a balanced attack on offense it will keep the Colts off kilter on Defense and can lead to a big play for the Saints against a fairly slow secondary that the Colts boast. As for defense the Saints absolutely must get consistent pressure on Peyton Manning if they want to shut him down. If they can pressure Manning the defense maybe comes up with a turnover or 2 and that is the keys for the Saints.

Now the Colts. The strengths of this team are, the great passing attack and on defense the ability to bend but not break. For the Colts the most important thing for them in this game is not giving up big plays on defense. On offense the Colts just need to do what they do, pass the ball well and run enough to keep defenses honest. If the Colts stick to playing their game and don’t give up the big play to the Saints then they should win this game.

MVPeyton chases his second Super Bowl ring.

Now for my analysis. I see the first half of this game being close, but a strong second half by the Colts should ice the game for them and cover the spread. Take the Colts and give the points in this one.

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