NFC Championship Recap – Saints Heading to First Super Bowl Ever

January 25, 2010 by admin
Filed under: NFL Football Betting 

Saints Win First NFC Championship

With the Vikings driving the field in the fourth quarter, trying to break a 28-28 tie and the game in Favre and Peterson’s hands, my stomach began to churn. Following the advice I had given the betting fans out there, I had the Vikings on the moneyline in the OVER. The latter was taken care of, but the former gave me a nasty case of nausea. I turned to the room and said, “You know what, the Vikings don’t deserve to win this game.” Unfortunately for me, that turned out to be just the case.

Brett Favre ended his tenure as a Viking with an interception, ironically the same way he had done so as a New York Jet and a Green Bay Packer. It was the fifth an final glaring mistake by the Vikings’ offense of the game. Before that, they had fumbled the ball six times, losing three of them, and Favre had already thrown a costly interception. The legendary Favre’s final throw as a Viking was not only unnecessary since the Vikings were in long range for a field goal to win the game, it was absolutely fatal.

Up to that point, however, the Vikings had blundered away this game many times. Peterson and Favre fumbled a hand off after Reggie Bush muffed a punt and put the Vikings on the goal line. Peterson doesn’t deserve the brunt of the blame. Bernard Berrian and Percy Harvin also lost fumbles as the Vikings were marching in to Saints’ territory.

The offense can’t be fully blamed for the debacle down in the Big Easy. Minnesota’s vaunted defense failed to register an interception on the sharp Drew Brees, and was unable to rock the backfield like the experts expected. The front line of the Vikings notched just one sack and was unable to capitalize on Brees’ two fumbles. In over time, the secondary gave up a costly pass interference call on a third down with New Orleans out of field goal range. That penalty sealed the fate of Minnesota with the loss.

What’s lost in the fury of the Saints’ first Super Bowl XLIV 2010 berth and NFC Championship is that the Vikings were in killing range on the road in spite of all their mistakes. On the stat sheet, they more than doubled the Saints in terms of first-downs (31-15) and had 475 total yards compared to the Saints’ 257. They held the ball for nearly nine-more minutes, clocking 36:49 minutes of possession time.

The Saints were pedestrian throughout the game, but each mistake by Minnesota kept the riled crowd revving the hype engine and filling the stadium with deafening decibels. Brees went just 17-of-31 for only 197 yards and had three touchdowns.

The rushing game of the Saints managed just 68-yards. The defense snatched up turnovers like the Vikings were having a fire sale on footballs, but the fact that they were steamrolled for 475 yards and 28-points in their own house with Minnesota making a horrendous amount of blunders has to have the Saints’ betting crowd worried against the Colts.

Still, you can’t take away what the Saints have done. They were almost-perfect this season, led the league in offense and revitalized an entire city that is coming off the heels of a decade that saw them endure the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. The NFC Championship game will be remembered as New Orleans’ first and an emotional thrill for a city well deserving of one.

What it should be remembered as a game that Vikings literally gave away. At the end of the day, you have to wonder if the football gods wanted a team with a rental mercenary at quarterback to compete for the Super Bowl.

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