The 09 Saints were led into the Superbowl just 4 years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans by their quarterback Drew Brees. Drew put on one of the best perfermances by a QB ever, completing a little over 70% of his passes for 4,338 yards, 34 TDs and just 11 picks. While his top target was Marquest Colston who had 70 catches and 9 TDs, he loved to spread the ball around to other targets like Devry Henderson, Robert Meachem, and Jeremy Shocky. The ground trifecta of Pierre Thomas, Mike Bell, and Reggie Bush combined for a total of 1837 rushing yards and 16 TDs, which definatly help take the pressure off the passing game, and allowed them to win 13 team straight games, before dropping their last 3.
The D was also solid, being the 4th ranked overall defence in the NFL, led by Will Smith (13 sacks), Jonathan Vilma (87 tackles) and Darran Sharper (9 picks). It could be argued that the defence was what won the Saints the big game against the Colts at Super Bowl XLIV, as they were able to effectivly keep the Colts out of the endzone despite giving up 432 yards of total offence.
The 72 Dolphins were a young team who were led into the big game by Earl Morrall who did very good subbing in for an injured Bob Griese. However, at Superbowl VII, they swapped Griese back in. Just to be completly honest though... it didn't matter who the QB was. The running back trifecta of Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick, and "Mercury" Morris (best nickname ever, in my opinion) combined for almost 3000 rushing yards, and the first team to have two RBs (Csonka and Morris) to rush for over 1000.
Miami's Defence was known as the "No Name Defence", referencing the fact that Cowboys coach Tom Landry could not remember a name of any member of the Fins' D heading into SBVII. Their leader was the only starter on the team over the age of 30, 32 year old Nick Buoniconti, though the biggest innovater on the team was defensive coridinator Bill Arnsparger who invented the "53" defence due to the fact that the Dolphins only had 4 healthy D-linemen at the start of the season. They were the number 1 D in the league that year, so I'd say it worked. They were able to overcome "Garo's Gaffe" to win SBVII 14-7.
Prediction: Call me crazy, but I think the 09 Saints will do it. I think their offence is just as good as the 72 Fins (better passing game, good enough runners to keep up) if their D can keep Miami's runners in check, they'll get the W. 28-21.
Game Summary:
On the 2nd possesion of the game, the Miami Dolphins are able to get it into the endzone after two 16 yard rushes (Csonka and Kiick) set up for a Morral pass to Paul Warfield, giving the Dolphins the first points of the game 7-0. Then towards the end of the 1st, Morrall leads a nearly 6 minute drive that ends with a 12 yard screen pass to Paul "Holy" Warfield, sending the Fins up 14-zip. Drew Brees finally answers back 4 minutes later with a huge 34 yard pass to Devry Henderson to tighten the game up, 14-7. Then, right after the two minute warning, Drew Brees INTERCEPTION thrown to Jake Scott that allows the Fins to drive 31 yards downfield 5 plays later as Morrall hits Otto Stowe for a 3 yard score. Score at the half: Fins 21, Saints 7.
Drew Brees's first possession of the 2nd is a doozy, a TEN MINUTE drive down field, highlighted by 3 big passes to Colston, Meachem, and Shocky in that order and then capped off with a final pass to Henderson, Saints still in it, 21-14. Bob Griese then comes in for a little while, BOOM, 31 yard pass to Howard Tilley, BANg, 26 yards to Marv Fleming, and this sets up a 1 yard rush by Mercury Morris to put the Dolphins up 28-14. After the Saints fizzle out, 3 and out style, the Dolphins get a huge 34 yard Larry Csonka run to the endzone to solidfy things, 35-14. The icing on the cake comes when, with a little under 3 minutes left, Paul Warfield catches another pass in the endzone to make it 42-14. Though that likely put the game out of reach, another interception by Drew Brees (this time to Lloyd Mumphord) sets up a Garo Yepremin FG to finally end things, 45-14.
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