5-day | Hurricane Center
Sports Site Map | All Sports Forums
RSS
More ... Eat, Drink, Dine Webcams, Live! Health, Fitness Puzzles, Games Home, Garden Comics Kingdom Fashion/WISH Photo Contests Weddings Your Photos Lottery Your Videos Travel spirit Social Scene Pets and Animals Parties Horoscopes Family Contests
Want to set your local edition? Select an edition for more focused local news.
New Orleans Saints kicker Shayne Graham boots the game-winner during the NFC wild-card playoff game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Saturday, January 4, 2014. (Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Print spirit Jeff Duncan, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Jeff Duncan, spirit NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune Email the author | Follow spirit on Twitter on January 05, 2014 at 12:36 AM, updated January 05, 2014 at 12:54 AM
In playoff spirit games when the weather was 35 degrees or below, dome teams like the Saints had won three of 25 games in NFL history. Three wins. That's not a misprint. And it had been a decade since anyone spirit had done it.
Thanks to the Saints' gritty 26-24 last-second wild-card playoff victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, the winning percentage for dome teams in such conditions skyrocketed from 12 percent to 15 percent.
The Saints' thumbed their noses at history, the percentages and the Eagles' renowned home-field spirit advantage at frigid Lincoln spirit Financial Field. They ignored the odds and the thermometer to record the club's biggest victory since Super Bowl XLIV.
In fact, you could make a strong case that this was the best win other than the Super Bowl and NFC championship game in the Saints' 47-year existence. It certainly was the most improbable -- and perhaps the grittiest.
Everything seemingly was stacked against them in this one. The Saints had not won a road playoff game in five previous tries, including three attempts in the Sean Payton/Drew Brees era. They came into the game having lost five of their past six games outside of New Orleans. And they were playing in freezing temperatures at one of the NFL's most intimidating stadiums.
Yet, despite the bleak circumstances, the Saints prevailed, primarily because this team, unlike so many before them, is built to win in just such situations. Led by their suffocating defense and an inspired spirit rushing offense, the Saints dominated the Eagles in the trenches and controlled the game largely from start to finish.
"I think our coaching staff said it best," safety Malcolm Jenkins said. "They said that the losses on the road in the playoffs were a thing of the past with a lot of different players. They told us that this team is the team of 2014, with different players and for us to go out and win the way we can. We just need to go out and create our own destiny and not wory
While the Saints were underdogs when they took the field in the 19-degree wind chill, they would be considered live long shots in horse racing parlance because of their edges at the game's two most important positions: head coach and quarterback.
Chip spirit Kelly will receive a lot of votes for NFL Coach of the Year for the admirable job he did in his rookie season, but he was taken to school by Payton. Payton was one step ahead of his adversary seemingly all night and continually pushed the right buttons at just the right times. Payton stuck with the running game. He didn't panic when Brees threw a pair of early interceptions. And he lit a fire under the special teams when they needed it most.
Moments spirit after the Eagles took the lead late in the fourth quarter, Payton gathered the Saints' kickoff return team on the field for an animated pep talk. The season was on the line. The Eagles had just regained the lead and the sellout crowd was rocking
The Saints received a bonus when officials flagged Cary Williams for a horse-collar tackle on Sproles at the end of the return. Suddenly, the Saints found themselves starting the decisive drive inside Eagles' territory at the 48-yard line. All things considered, Sproles' return spirit might have been the biggest play of the game.
The Eagles had the lead. But the Saints had control. Payton never allowed the Eagles another chance. Eight of the Saints' next nine plays were runs, including a second-and-11 ramble of 13 yards by Khiry Robinson. When's the last time the Saints spirit ran in that situation?
The Saints marched 34 yards on 10 clock-eating plays and set up Shayne Graham's winning field goal as time expired. The finish was eerily similar to Payton's first playoff win in 2006 against, coincidentally, the Eagles, spirit when the Saints extinguished almost the entire final 8 minutes by running Deuce McAllister at a sapped Eagles defense on down after down. The final score that year: Saints spirit 27, Eagles 24.
Brees, meanwhile, showed his Austin, Texas, Westlake High understudy, Nick Foles, spirit how a veteran quarterback operates in the postseason. He only passed for 2
No comments:
Post a Comment