Saints reach first Super Bowl with 31-28 OT win over Vikings

Monday, 25 January 2010 00:00

Twenty-three-year old, second-year kicker Garrett Hartley is New Orleans’ new hero as he split the uprights on a 40-yd field goal in overtime to give the Saints a 31-28 victory over the Minnesota Vikings, and earned his team a trip to the Super Bowl in Miami.

The New Orleans Saints, a team with no home and an uncertain future five years ago, set off celebrations on Bourbon Street that locals could never have imagined after Hurricane Katrina hit the city.

“This is for everybody in this city,” said coach Sean Payton, who joined the Saints four years ago. “This stadium used to have holes in it and used to be wet. It’s not wet anymore. This is for the city of New Orleans.”

After the Saints won the biggest game the Big Easy has ever seen, the fans forgot the paper bags masks and the long history of losing that started in 1967, and were toasting their hometown winners in the French Quarter, thanks to Garrett Hartley’s field goal 4: 45 into overtime.

“Just helping my team get to Miami,” Hartley said. “Just doing my part.”

The Saints and their fans have a special connection, especially since Katrina and the arrival of coach Payton and quarterback Drew Brees.

“In reality, we had to lean on each other in order to survive and to get where we are now,” said Brees. “The city is on its way to recovery, and in a lot of ways has come back better than ever. We’ve used the strength and resiliency of our fans to go out and play every Sunday and play with the confidence that we can do it, that we can achieve everything we’ve set out to achieve.”

In the Superdome, not so long ago a squalid refuge after Katrina, the fans boogied in the aisles as confetti covered the field.

Brett Favre threw away Minnesota’s best chance to win, when he was flushed from the pocket deep in New Orleans’ territory in the final minute, and seemed to have room to run to set up a field goal. Hampered by a left leg injured in the third quarter, he threw cross-field and was intercepted by Tracy Porter at the 22.

The Saints won the coin toss, Brees led the offense to the Minnesota 22, after converting a fourth-and-1 on Pierre Thomas’ leap over the line, and Hartley sealed the win.

“It was as loud as I have ever heard it in the dome,” said Brees. “It feels so good to know we have given our fans an NFC championship. We have another championship to go after in two weeks.”

The Saints (15-3) will meet Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts (16-2) in the Super Bowl at Land Shark Stadium. The Colts opened as 4-point favorite.

“Brett prepared us, but now we’ve got another challenge in Peyton,” safety Darren Sharper said.

Ther were nine fumbles and two interceptions in the game, and the biggest mistake belonged to Favre, who went 28 of 46 for 310 yds , 1 TD and 2 INTs.He was alternately spectacular and pedestrian Sunday, ultimately betrayed by his gambling style from which he had stayed away with only seven interceptions in the season before this game.

Brees was 17of 31 for 197 yds, 3 TDs and no INT, and the Saints had only 257 yds total offense against the Vikings’ 475, but Minnesota couldn’t overcome its 5 turnovers and 9 penalties for 88 yds.

“We really gave those guys the game,” said Adrian Peterson who ran for 122 yds and 3 TDs in 25 carries. “Too many turnovers. It’s eating me up inside.

Favre was constantly under pressure and hit hard too many times, his battered 40-year-old body maybe the cause of a bad decision at the end of regulation.

“I’ve felt better,” said Favre. “It was a physical game. A lot of hits. You win that and you sure feel a lot better.” “…I would have loved to represent the NFC,but, as I told Sean (Payton) throughout the year when we talked, if it’s not us, I hope it’s you guys.”

Two years ago, Favre’s last throw of the game in OT was also an interception that sent the Giants past the Packers and into the Super Bowl.

The Saints can only hope they have the same happy ending as New York did back then.

With New Orleans having the only possession of overtime, it could spark more protests about the NFL’s sudden-death overtime system, which has been under scrutiny for a while.

Saints vs Colts in the Super bowl in two weeks, check the odds for the NFL’s title game at BetPhoenix.com Sportsbook, and back your favorite team in the season’s last game.

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Saints reach first Super Bowl with 31-28 OT win over Vikings

Saints reach first Super Bowl with 31-28 OT win over Vikings

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