They toasted Drew Brees, Jeremy Shockey and Tracy Porter surely far into the morning on Bourbon Street for their fourth−quarter heroics in New Orleans' historic 31−17 Super Bowl XLIV win over Indianapolis on Sunday night in Sun Life Stadium.
Brees was seven−for−seven in the 59−yard drive that put the Saints ahead in a game that lived up to the air battle predicted between the New Orleans quarterback and his counterpart, Peyton Manning. He capped the march with a two−yard strike to tight end Shockey, the former Giant who missed the Super Bowl XLII win after breaking his leg late in the season.
Brees finished 32−of−39 for 288 yards and two scores without an interception to earn the Most Valuable Player award.
"It was all meant to be," Brees said. "It's all destiny."
Porter, who picked off Brett Favre near the end of the NFC Championship win over Minnesota, stepped in front of a Manning pass when it appeared the Colts were driving for the tying score. He returned it 74 yards for the clinching touchdown as the Saints won their first Super Bowl and completed their climb from the disjointed 2005 season in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
"It was great film study," Porter said of the interception. "We knew that on third−and−short they stack, and they like the outside release for the slant."
"It's time for the Saints to celebrate. It's their field and it's their championship," Manning said.
Saints coach Sean Payton started the second half with the first onside kickoff before a fourth quarter in Super Bowl history. Thomas Morstead's kick bounced off the Colts' Hank Baskett and, after a huge delay, the officials finally determined the Saints' Jonathan Casillas had recovered.
New Orleans rode the surprise move to its first lead as Brees directed a 58−yard drive in six plays to a 16−yard TD run by Pierre Thomas. At that point, the Saints had the ball for 32 of the 38 plays after the first quarter.
"We talked about (the onside kick) at halftime," Payton said . "It's a credit to everyone of these players here. ... They carried out the plan. I just told our guys you've got to make me look good on this. That really becomes like a turnover.
"I'm just proud of this team and this coaching staff. And everyone back in New Orleans gets a piece of this trophy. Here we go."
Thomas, who started the drive with a 12−yard cut, broke back to the left on his TD run, avoided Antoine Bethea's tackle at the five−yard line and dove into end zone. Garrett Hartley's extra point put the Saints up for the first time at 13−10 with 11:41 left in the third quarter.
But Manning, who finished 31−of−45 for 333 yards, answered with a 76−yard, 10−play drive on which tight end Dallas Clark caught passes of 27 and 11 yards to convert third downs. Joseph Addai ran through some tacklers for a 4−yard TD run with 6:15 left in the third quarter. Matt Stover's kick put the Colts up, 17−13.
Hartley's Super Bowl−record third field goal of 40 yards or more, this one from 47 yards, cut the margin to a single point. Manning moved the Colts again after the kickoff, but this time Malcolm Jenkins, then Jonathan Vilma came up with big defensive plays to halt the march.
Stover's 51−yard field−goal attempt was wide left, however, setting up the Saints at their 41 with 10:39 left. They began their go−ahead drive at that point, with Brees connecting with seven different receivers during the march.
"We just believed in ourselves and we knew that we had an entire city and maybe even an entire country behind us," Brees said. "What can I say? I've tried to imagine what this moment would be like for a long time, and it's even better than I expected."
New Orleans managed a single first down during the opening quarter as the Colts' aggressive defense pressured Brees and played the receivers tight. Only Reggie Bush breaking free on a short pass and taking it 17 yards gave the Saints a new set of downs, although a big drop by Marques Colston ended that drive.
While the Colts owned the first quarter, gaining 164 yards to 36 for New Orleans, the Saints controlled the second. Indianapolis gained only 15 yards on six plays in the quarter.
Brees was behind, 10−0, before he put together his first drive of the game that resulted in a Hartley field goal. Brees was dumped during the drive on a one−handed sack by Dwight Freeney, who started the game despite missing practice all week with an ankle injury.
Before the sack, Brees had completed two 11−yard passes to Colston as New Orleans moved from its 11 with the aid of a 15−yard late−hit penalty against linebacker Philip Wheeler. Hartley kicked his field goal from 46 yards with 9:31 left before halftime.
After an Indy three−and−out, Brees started his next drive from his 28. Colston continued to make up for his early drop with a 13−yard catch to convert a third−and−3, and later a 27−yard reception that put the ball on the Colts' 3. Brees also completed a 21−yard pass to a wide−open Lance Moore during the march as the Saints began to handle the Colts' pass rush with more success.
Unfortunately for Brees and the Saints, they got nothing out of a 71−yard time−consuming drive. After a false−start penalty moved back New Orleans, Thomas rushed to the 1−yard line. Payton tried to power in the end zone on two runs, even though his best short−yardage back, Lynell Hamilton, was inactive because of an injury.
However, Mike Bell slipped on third down, and on fourth, Thomas was stuffed short of the goal line by Gary Brackett and Clint Session.
The Saints got three more points before intermission, however, as they forced a Colts' punt and Brees completed three passes, one of 19 yards to Devery Henderson to get the ball to the 26. Hartley banged home his second three−pointer, a 44−yarder, to make the halftime score 10−6.
Indianapolis had taken its 10−0 lead on its opening two possessions. Manning first drove his team 53 yards in 10 plays to set up a 38−yard field goal by Stover, who at age 42 became the oldest man to play in a Super Bowl game. Manning opened things with an 18−yard pass to Clark and connected with Austin Collie for 14 more during the drive.
Indianapolis, which finished dead last in rushing during the regular season, used Addai and the ground game to great advantage in the second drive. Addai carried the ball three times for 53 yards, including a 26−yard burst on a third−and−1 from midfield. Manning capped the 96−yard march, which tied the longest in Super Bowl history, with a 19−yard scoring pass to Pierre Garcon with 36 seconds left in the opening quarter.
Garcon beat cornerback Usama Young, who had replaced the injured Jabari Greer, off the line.
