History of The New Orleans Saints - 2009 - The Road To The Super Bowl

The Road To The Super Bowl

New Orleans started off 2009 innocently enough with a rout of the hapless Detroit Lions. Afterwards, they traveled to Philadelphia and beat an Eagles team that was missing its quarterback Donovan McNabb due to an injury. The Saints won with a score very close to the one in the Detroit game. They accumulated further easy wins over the Bills and Jets in the next two games. After the bye week, they handily defeated the Giants and then took the Dolphins at Landshark Stadium. In the second half, the Saints overcame an early lead by their opponent. With this impressive win, they moved to 6-0. The next four opponents were comparatively weak ones, and the Saints soon found themselves at 10-0 along with the Colts. In Week 12, they faced New England in the Superdome and inflicted a stunning defeat on the three-time Super Bowl champions. The next game however, the Saints nearly lost it as they played the 3-8 Redskins in Fedex Field. The score was tied at 30-30 when the fourth quarter ended, and in overtime Washington almost broke their eleven-game winning streak. However, a fumble by the Redskins gave the Saints the ball. They kicked a successful FG, and won the game 33-30. Afterwards, New Orleans faced the Cowboys at home and were finally brought down, the score being 24-17. The next week, the Saints were upset at home by the 2-12 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in overtime. They had secured the division title after the Redskins game, and secured the #1 NFC seed when the 11-3 Vikings lost to the Chicago Bears in Week 16. The Saints rested starters during their Week 17 game against the Panthers, finishing their season at 13-3. The re-energized team came back from the first-round bye week and hosted the Arizona Cardinals, crushing them 45-14. Now in the conference championship, the Saints faced the Vikings. The two teams waged an epic struggle through all four quarters. Minnesota QB Brett Favre was hit several times by the New Orleans defensive line and there were multiple penalties, timeouts, and booth reviews of questionable plays. Although the Vikings never trailed by more than a touchdown, they could not gain a lead and as the fourth quarter was drawing to a close, Favre threw an ill-advised pass across the middle which was intercepted by Saints cornerback Tracey Porter. The game went into overtime and New Orleans got possession of the ball after winning the coin toss. They finally kicked a 40-yard FG, sending them to Super Bowl XLIV.

The Super Bowl was played in Miami against the Colts, who had won SB XLI there three years earlier. Indianapolis gained an early lead and the score stood at 10-0 to start the second quarter. The Saints were unable to obtain a touchdown and instead went for two long field goals. By halftime, the score was 10-6. The third quarter opened with New Orleans making a surprise onside kick, and both teams got into an argument over who got hold of the ball. The Saints were ultimately ruled to have touched it first. A screen pass by Drew Brees to Pierre Thomas made for a successful touchdown, increasing their lead to 13-10. After another Colts touchdown, the Saints kicked another FG to achieve a 17-16 score. The game remained close into the fourth quarter until Colts QB Peyton Manning was intercepted by Tracey Porter and his pass returned for a touchdown. A strong defensive effort by New Orleans halted their opponent's attempts at another scoring drive, and the game ended 31-17. The Saints had finally won a championship after decades of futility, sending the city of New Orleans, and the region, into wild celebrations.