The Theme of the Game

If this game demonstrated anything, it is that both yardage totals and time of possession are entirely irrelevant if your team is prevented from finishing drives by scoring.

Or if the other team can’t stop you from scoring. Either way, whomever scores the most points wins. Everything else is completely and totally irrelevant, except perhaps in how/if it affects you the next week. You’d think by now that the Colts-Dolphins game from earlier this season (or the Jets-Saints, or the Patriots-Saints) would have proven that already. Guess not.

But they aint taking thise from us
This was our win not their lose
I can agree with one thing people are saying buit not why they are saying it,the refs stunk in this game
They called so many obvious bad calls against the Saints they almost delivered this game on a silver platter to the Vikes

 It’s not simply enough to dominate time of possession and total yards on offense. You have to win on the scoreboard. The Vikings did not do that. Even when they were gift wrapped an easy shot at a touchdown when Reggie Bush muffed a punt, the Vikings still could not maintain control of the ball. If you can’t maintain control of the ball in the red zone, it will kill you.

The Vikings did lose that game because they could not finish their drives. You can’t cough up the ball five times and expect to win. What it says is that the Saints will never get respect from other fans until they win the big game. Go ahead. Let people underestimate the Saints. Let people blame the officials. If they can’t see that the Saints won the turnover battle, they’re really not fans of the game. Forcing turnovers is a huge part of defensive strategy. Your primary goal as a defense is to prevent a score by an opposing offense. That includes forcing turnovers.

given your career proclivity for fumbling and given Favre’s history of throwing INTs at the wrong moment, you have to give some credit to the Saints defense for game planning to attack the ball.

Even though I feel ya stole one in Miami earlier in the season, I myself and most of the Fin Fans over at the Phinsider will be rooting for ya in Miami. Your team and your city deserves it.

Much as I wish the Saints just flat out dominated the Vikings, and every other team, for that matter, They got the win. The took the ball away enough to make up for their inability to slow down their opponents. They won an ugly, ugly game by staying up to the last second. They had some calls, and some dumb luck go their way, exactly when it counted most. They fought hard, and won. Everything they never do.

There were no holding or false start penalties against the Vikings, and Ryan Longwell was set to end the game in favor of the Bad Guys. Then, they got a five yard procedural penalty(their first “12th Man” penalty of the game, to my recollection), forcing them into a single passing situation. Then Favre threw one-single-Favre-Brand-pass, to Tracy Porter, to even get us to overtime. We won the coin flip, got three positive penalties, and Garrett “No-Doz” Hartley hits a field goal he couldn’t make against the Bucs, to go to the Super Bowl. What about that screams “Saints Football”?

They needed to confront some demons to get through this game, and they looked them all right in the eye. They fell down a bunch, and kept getting back up. Heroes failed, and Nobodies stepped up. It was great. It was like a real, hard-nosed championship football game. Who wants it more? That’s the only thing that seemed to matter.

Not to mention, it only serves to aid the Saints to be the underdog in a big game. The more negative press, or underestimating, the better. Everybody’s best team didn’t win, despite playing better on both sides of the ball. What a shame. And the Saints didn’t win, the Vikings lost. I’ll take that, losers. And just think how great Favre-versus-Manning could have been. What a story!? Oh, well. The world will have to make do with the Number One seed in the NFC, the best offense in the league, the thievingest defense in the league, and last year’s model of Percy Harvin or DeSean Jackson. It’ll be a letdown for many, but, on the other hand, it’ll be the first truly great Super Bowl ever for a million or so loyal football fans. The Great White North will just have to watch Dancing With The Stars on February seventh this year. I can live with that.

what made the saints so dangerous was their points off of turnovers

i’m hoping the saints d will continue to force TOs and the saints o will convert them into points.

but it’s become obvious they are sore losers. They blame “Katrina referee sympathy” for the loss- failing to realize that before the last drive the refs had called us for 9 penalties to 2 of the vikings. A little lopsided if you want to talk about referee fairmess. We score 31 pts and didn’t have anywhere near our best day. 31 pts should be enough to win, though, and it was. If the Vikings had scored 31 first they would have won. Unless I am wrong, we never trailed in the game . And, yes WE CREATED TAKEAWAYS – they didn’t just hand us the ball. We EARNED the change of possession.

You smashed Judas to the ground, took the ball away, and showed the nation how an up-tempo offense can curb-stomp any front four that has no depth. I don’t care how many mullets there are

Congrats to the NFC Champs

THat’s funny. Hey PackaCracka- know why Minnesota lost? Because Favre is all about Favre. He wanted to win to stuff it in Green Bay’s face, not to do it for Minnesota. Now he has no team to retire from.

We have a troll infestation.

…has taught us Saints fans to be much more sportsmanlike than CERTAIN other fans.

The only thing he’s been doing “All Day” recently is putting the ball on the grass.

If the Saints had enough sense to fall on the ball instead of trying to pick it up and run, it would have been much worse.

I think it’s time to forgive the Chicago Bears for beating the saints in 2006.

They gave us this home-field advantage when we were trying really had to give it to the vikings.

Good job

All his throws weren’t up-to-par, for example his throw to meachem which was a simple throw, didn’t come out properly.. even his through to henderson in OT.. I know there’s 2 weeks to get healthy, but we still need to fix a couple things up

Farve killed the Packers’ chances for the playoffs in that last game he played for them. Maybe the Jets too. And he lost last night’s game by recklessly throwing that last pick, needlessly (they could have kicked the winning field goal from there), because he’s a gunslinger and proud of it. He’ll kill your championship hopes.

Same with AP. If he was on my team, I’d trade him now. He will fumble away your championship hopes just when they are highest.

I’ve said both in the past. Hard to prove now though.

Saints are lucky to be in the Superbowl, just as they were lucky to win the Redskins and Dolphins games. Nothing wrong with that. Take it and run.

I saw something revolting to me personally – 2 fans in Peterson jerseys … OU Peterson jerseys. It brought bile to my throat. One thing to say to them now… OU sucks

He looked nervous for the whole 2nd half. The Vikes did a great job on our offense
without blitzing- by stuffing our ground game and playing good coverage. They were
by far the best team we`ve faced probably since the Colts in 07…. IMHO
You can shout me down for that last statement if you like I haven`t seen every game
since then.

not sure that it is the compliment that people think it is. I think it’s a euphemism for a reckless QB that takes too many chances and throws a lot of critical ints.

Saints 3 out of 3.

 Finish Strong.

But it all seems like splitting hairs to me, and anyway I can’t fathom why you would expect Peterson to say anything other than that, given how many times he coughed up the ball. Did you really expect him to stand there and say “nah, my multiple fumbles didn’t change anything, they were going to beat us either way?” Really?

Being the victors, I’m not sure where your fascination for going down this avenue comes from. As a Vikings fan, I could have bent myself out of shape over what certain Cowboy players were saying after the game. But it seemed more appropriate to just accept it for what it probably was — a venting of frustration — and move on myself to bigger and better things. And now I hope you guys can let yourself do that, and bring yourself home a Lombardi (maybe you could loan it to the Vikings every once in a while? lol)

Good luck to you guys, you’ve been great hosts to us “nordic visitors” here this week. As I promised, I’ll be cheering for you in February!

Punting
 T. Morstead Punt: 7 Avg: 51.3 Blk: 0 In20: 4 T:0

 Kick/Punt Returns
 P. Thomas 1 40 Yds
 C. Roby 5 143 Yds 28.6 Avg 61 Long

The Vikes got less than 50 yards total on 5 kick/punt returns. So theres 100+ yards out of that huge differential, thanks to ST.

Be CAREFUL if you are posting! Don’t get impatient with the post when they tell you to wait a few minutes! I got banned since yesterday! Aaaarrrrgggghhh! Yeah, yeah, my fault!

Anyway, there was really just one thing I wanted to say here:

WE’RE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!

I swear to goodness I had to say that about 50 times last night just to see how it felt. It felt really wierd at first, then it felt reeeeeeeeally good. Then, I woke up this morning and I had to ask myself if I had dreamed it!

Nope: WE’RE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!

No more dumba$$ claims that pi$$ off opponents fans from me. That was some game! They were dumb thoughts but I truly thought we could blow away everyone. Gotta say, it took the Vikes to prove me wrong.

people don’t respect the saints – it doesn’t matter. we will be the 2009 nfc champs forever and no matter what, you can’t take that away!!

236 yards of Vikings offense wasted thanks to turnovers. So the Saints D gave up 475 but nullified half of it by taking the ball away.

Just saying CONGRATS!! on beating our hated rivals and our traiter QB. All is restored in the Packer universe for now. There’s alot of whining amongst Queens fans. My wife included. They’re complaining about the refs and the turnovers blah, blah etc.. etc..
  I watched the game and the vikings should of had at least 2 more turnovers. And classic Favre at the end of regulation. Now they know how we felt in 07. I’m glad we kept Rodgers. Just maybe we will see you in the NFC championship next year Huh.
I’m going to root for the Saints in the SB GOSAINTS GO!!!

We have to get young at corner more. Driver is playing below his age.
 Well you pounded Gramps more than I’ve seen in a long time but like Rocky he kept getting up and getting in the ring for that I give him credit.
 As far as the Cardinals game we were #1 in turnover ratio of -24 and didn’t take advantage. The Saint were # 2 and it showed. Turnovers can change the game regarless of stats.
The vikings had better stats because their defense did’t shorten their field.They had to drive the length of the field. I think you might of made up his mind on retirement. At least by the look on his wifes face anyway.

Vikings fan is auctioning off his allegiance on Ebay! Go to ebay in the search window put " NFL Fan Allegiance". Top bidder gets to pick his new team. Top bid now is $15. Thinking it might be worth $20. to make him a Saints fan. Damn !! LMAO !!!

My anxioty level wore me smooth out last night and today……………….Saints football is Hazardous to my health but luvin every second of it. I guess I can go ahead and die now cause all I ever asked for was for my Saints to get to the Super Bowl so I’ll be dead within the next two weeks. What a way to go……..

crying back to whatever hole they came from and start yelling, “Look how mean those bad Saints fans were to me”. They aren’t even that much fun to taunt anyway. Thanks for the advice, PH.

fan bases and, I’m sorry, I’m not biting. They are jerks. Grime, PH, Bonzo and a lot of other ones are not. Come on! This village idiot – Oh, I’m sorry town idiot is making friends with a cheesehead? What’s the odds? Just jerks with a mantra: duh, we’re better,therefore we lost.

It sounds like he gave some insight into big games.

The teme of yesterday’s game was ball security. NOW, I feel like I know why we didn’t blow them out.

I think he knew it come down to turnovers. He is very shrewed and calculating and I love it. If you noticed………………….the defense did most of it’s damage between the 30 yard lines and the end zones. The Vikes did their own selves in between the 30 yard lines.

but that was the single largest deficit in yardage by a winner in a championship game. You also have to take a look at the other side of the ball and what their trends were for the year- 18 TOs in 17 games. Which means they protected the ball very well for a long period of time. Just playing the devil’s advocate here. I’m very, very pleased the Saints got the monkey off their backs and hopefully put old man Favre back in his place (Hattiesburg, MS). Congrats Saints fans!

Ahhh, guys?? Newsflash here.

In the NFL, in championship games as tight as this one was, there will be missed calls…on both sides.

And, whomever is on the wrong side of the outcome will forever claim that it was jobbed due to their particular bad call against them, and that the other team won because of “home cooking”.

Just get in line and take a number, gentlemen.

It’s not our fault that Nate Wright got allegedly ripped by the refs when Drew Pearson of Dallas caught that fabted pass in 1974.

It’s not our fault, Viking Fan, that you have managed to go 0 for your last 5 in conference championships. (Actually, the last one kinda IS our fault, because…you know…..we beat you in a fair, if bruising, fight.)

And it’s certainly NOT our fault that you had one of the premiere quarterbacks of the modern era, one of the toughest and best running backs of the past five years, one of the most dominant front four defensive front lines this side of the original Purple People Eaters….and still couldn’t finish the job against a team that was derided constantly in the media as “soft” and “finesse” and a D who was predicted to simply wilt against the run.

Well, guess what? We aren’t really that “soft”, now are we?? Ask Curt Warner and Brett Farve today how “soft” the Saints D really is.

And about that “finesse” offense? Gee, Pierre Thomas certainly proved he was a “soft” running back, didn’t he? And he even managed to hold on to the ball…unlike AP.

Maybe Drew and Payton got a bit ultraconservative at the end (no small part due to the Viking front 4 pressing all night and stuffing the run)…and I personally thought that perhaps more of Lydell Hamilton and Mike Bell would have helped freshen the legs a bit (just as I would have hoped to see more of Lance Moore just to keep Meacham fresher down the stretch). The fact reamains, however, that in the end, the Vikes had a chance to seal the deal, and they opened the door through the 12 man penalty…and then the Saints TOOK it away with the INT.

In other words: SCOREBOARD.

Accept. Deal. Prepare and reload for next year. And most of all..chill.

And watch the better team play for all the marbles.

Anthony
(My initial post here…long time suffering Saints fan from Lafayette…who suffers no more.)

Whodat?? WEdat!!!!

What seemed to have gotten lost in yesterday’s game was taht the Saints were the best take-away defense in the league all season. The Vikings didn’t do much to help themselves against it, though. You’d think in such an important game that they would have prepared themselves for the constant attemtps at stripping the ball. Instead, Peterson seemed to insist on carrying the thing like a tray full of desserts that he’s asking the defense to choose from.

Emphasis mine, because I like that way to put it.

Their tears taste so sweet!

We won in yet another new way – takeaways – you Vikings could have seen it coming, if you had paid attention to anything other than Brees’ stats. But you didn’t, and you lost. Join the club, have some cookies. Enjoy the extra time off.

In 12 days, I have faith that coach will devise a game plan which lets us beat the Colts – in a way they never saw coming. Then they can all order jackets. The Saints will be ordering RINGS !

was released. It’s not at the end of the play as preople think it was. I also think the Mc Cray hit on Favre was legit. How does McCray know that this “gunslinger” standing right in his path with a 1/2 second to react wasn’t going to block him. Fvare had every right to block Mc Cray and he has done it many times. Favre was even trying to make a block on the Harvin fumble play- go check. Put a dang dress on favre. But, he’s made many blocks and it’s not like he was defenseless like after releasing a pass. If a QB is allowed to throw a block on a running play, he should be fair game for legitimate contact- he’s not defenseless- he had the right to throw a block or turn in his dress and run away.
If that was Aaron Roidgers, they would never have made the call. If it was Aaron Rodgers he would have know to get out of the way and stop being a spoiled prima donna that the refs protect .

For lack of a better place to post this (to my knowledge):
Regardless of whether or not the Vikings performed better, New Orleans played some darn good football on both sides. Heck of a game. The Saints have Super Bowl talent and I would argue with anyone who says they don’t deserve to play in it.
Back in 2005, another team made it to the Super Bowl for the first time ever. There was jubilation in Seattle and the most intense feeling of excitement and elation that Seahawk fans have probably ever felt.
Let me just extend a greeting from Field Gulls and a heartfelt congratulations because you fans helped make this season. And we know the feeling. I’m rooting for you guys on Feb. 7th! Enjoy yourselves!

Been saying it all year long, da Saints are a RAZOOOO team.
You put it on da ground or in da air, IT IS OURS, RAZOOOOOOOOO!!!!
We Razooed da Vikes, simple as that!!!!! If ya dont know what it means ax an ole coonass, he will toll ya.

WE GONNA RAZOOOO DA COLTS TOOOO!!!!

RAZOO<RAZOO<RAZOO<RAZOO<RAZOO

and (unsurprisingly) i agree with you mtnexile—it’s so easy to avoid giving credit where credit is due. and our d deserves credit for causing turnovers.

i still don’t actually believe we’re in the super bowl, though. it’s like a bizarre dream.

 I am sick and tired of fans disecting every play the refs call or don’t call. These guys do the best they can. Are they perfect nope. But this is the NFl ! When the ball is snapped all hell breaks loose at blistering speed. Every call from every game is graded by the officiating committee every Mon. or Tues. in the case of Mon. night games. At times a flag will be thrown and they get together and hash it out. Maybe another ref had a better view etc. Then everyone gets to see it in High Def slow motion , zoom, stop, rewind and pick it apart. Time constaints don’t allow for every flag to be reviewed. So there is no review of penaltys. I say give it a rest and live with it. It’s part of what I call the X-Factor. The bouncing ball. It’s part of the game as we know it and I’m good with it even when it goes against us. Just say’n Geaux Saints

A loss is a loss. We got lucky – no doubt about it. Part of a championship run is not choking in a big moment. The Vikings did it in a major way. I wish we went out and dominated the Vikings. It didn’t happen that way. We pulled out the win and are going to our first ever Super Bowl. We ain’t giving it back. It was there for the taking, Vikings fan – and your guys didn’t do it. The End.

You know, this bull crap is still pissing me off. I shouldn’t let it get to me, but I just watched the highlights again and had to listen to the idiot announcer in Whiny-so-so (as their utterly pathetic moaning has made them) after the Percy Harvin strip. And yes I said strip, because that was NOT a fumble in any way except for how it goes in the record books. At the conclusion of the play, that idiot screams “We’re giving away the NFC title game!”

Oh really?? Well lets look closely at reality instead of your delusions. I took a screen shot of the replay from about a second before he gets stripped. (Hopefully the NFL gestapo doesn’t show up to sue me for this now, but since it’s from their own publicly released game highlights they wouldn’t have much of a leg to stand on… not like that would stop them.) But take a quick look at it.

Immediately before this, Percy had the ball in his right hand, and as he saw the tackler coming he switched the ball to the left hand and then clearly has the ball high and tight to his chest and I think has both hands on the ball. Can’t tell 100% for sure on that last bit. But he’s doing everything he can do to hold onto the ball. Will Smith makes a brilliant hit square on the ball and it comes out. The only thing more Percy could legitimately have done to avoid losing the ball was just take a knee. Period. This was a brilliantly executed hustle play by our team. Nothing more, nothing less. Instead these idiots think “we gave the game away”. No you didn’t. Our defense took it away.

Morons.

in that clip- watch Favre- (right when Harvin reverses towards Favre’s direction) looking to throw a block on someone. Now, why is he allowed to throw a block there (we all know he has that right and has done it in his career) but in the other play, Mc Cray gets fined and penalized for blasting him because he is right in the way of him as soon as Mc Cray beats his OL opponent? Why should a DE have to WAIT and find out if the QB is going to block him??

and the Vikings got the payback from running the score up against the Cowboys. I’m sure it made Keith Brooking’s day!

This is exactly what I’m talking about the Saints played as a team and won as a team.

and I’m pretty sure neither team had as many turnovers as the Vikings had. So, either we forced those turnovers (takeaways) or the Vikings cannnot even protect the ball as well as 22 high school football players who have never played together before. In all fairness, though, they were ALL STARS ( lol).

Pay Back is a B