Super Bowl XLIV Gameday Thread: Saints vs. Colts

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by mlmpetert

The announcers touched on this a little bit. I don’t think this was as gusty as some see it. It they took the chip shot field goal they give it back to the Colts with a little less than 2 mins at around the 20-30 yard line. If they go for it on 4th and don’t make it they give it to the Colts with about the same amount of time and on the 1 or 2 yard line. Backed that far up with so little time left the Colts are almost forced to run it for at least 1 play, so they have even less time to go about 25 yards further to get into field goal or td range.

So you give up a certain 3 points, but dramatically reduce the chance the Colts will negate those 3 points with 3 of their own. Plus you reduce the odds even more so that the Colts will score a TD and gain 4 points over your 3. Then you have the best case seniors in which you force the Colts to punt and end up with good field position to either score a TD or get a field goal as time expires….. which of course is what happened.

One of the huge x factors going into this game that I think a lot of people forgot about what the coaching staff. And the Saints certainly out coached the Colts last night.

Yep. You are correct. In a normal game situation, that's a no-brainer go for it situation. It was a little tougher because of the game clock being under two minutes, the Saints lose a lot of value of having the opponent start inside their own five.

But they gain a lot of that back because Manning is the opposing quarterback. Starting him inside the five forces the Colts' hand with playcalling. Letting him out to the thirty on a kick frees him up to go get that touchdown to put the game away.

It ended up working out great for the Saints, coming away with the three points anyway, and running out the clock in the process. But they could do that because Hartley has been cash-money throughout the playoffs from the 45-50 range.