Saints' Inspiring Turnaround Built From Ground Up

NEW ORLEANS -- Here is the 4-1-1 on the Saints reaching the 305 (the way NFL players describe this year's Super Bowl city, Miami, by its area code): it took a 9-1-1 cardiac-inducing interception by one of the smallest men on the field. It required New Orleans Saints cornerback Tracy Porter to keep his eyes open, his heart hopeful, his trust true.

See, Porter, a second-year player, missed four games this season due to a knee injury. Sometimes when you get back, you are never all the way back. But Porter epitomizes the Saints' "Who Dat" mentality. He is respected by his teammates for his ball skills, quickness, calm in tense situations and playmaking artistry. The Saints never needed him or those traits more than Sunday night.

The game was tied 28-28 and the Vikings were driving for a game-winning field goal. There were 19 seconds left when Porter crept in front of receiver Sidney Rice, picked off a Brett Favre pass and returned it 26 yards. The play began on the New Orleans 38. The Vikings were certain they were inching closer toward a game-winning field goal.

Porter's pick pushed the game into overtime where the Saints would win it with a field goal of their own, a 31-28 victory in the NFC championship game before the most fans (71,276) to ever watch a Saints game in the Superdome. A victory that pushes the Saints into Super Bowl XLIV.

The Saints were in a Cover-2 zone defense during Porter's pick. In it, Porter is a roamer, free to feel, sort and pick. He reads the quarterback in that defensive call. He read Favre's eyes focusing on Rice.

"I know that I could not allow a completion on that play,'' Porter said. "If I had, the Vikings would be going to the Super Bowl.''

He changed history's course, his teammates insisted.

The Vikings had lost five yards before the play due to having 12 men in the huddle. Even with an incompletion rather than Porter's pick, the Vikings would have had a fourth-down play to try for a first down, field goal range and a chance to win it.

As Porter's teammate, cornerback Randall Gay, said of the interception, Porter saw it, believed it and made a play.



This is what the Saints have become. Coach Sean Payton arrived here four years ago and the players saw it, the brand of football he was preaching. They believed it when he said this team would be a quick-strike offense built around quarterback Drew Brees, and that piece by piece the defense would be constructed to match it. Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis built a character-driven locker room with an aggressive, killer instinct.

This is why the Saints should beat Indianapolis in Super Bowl XLIV. The Saints play faster than any other team, and they play as refreshing complementary units.

Take Reggie Bush's muff of a punt just before halftime. The game was tied 14-14 when Bush turned the ball over at the New Orleans 10 with 1:13 left in the second quarter. But Saints linebacker Scott Fujita recovered a fumble on a messy exchange between Favre and running back Adrian Peterson two plays and 17 seconds later. What looked like a game-altering mistake by the Saints' special teams was cleaned up by the Saints' defense. And this kept happening with the Saints from one facet of the team to another.

That Vikings' turnover set in motion a slew of them to come in the second half. The Saints would force four more Minnesota turnovers in the second half. Two other times in the game, the Vikings fumbled but regained possession. It is amazing that they had a shot to win this thing with that many miscues.

Turnovers so plentiful? That is pressure and buckling under it. That is the pressure that the Saints' defense applied. It is the way the Saints are built, to play fast but never forget the extreme physical nature of the NFL game. You win the battle of the hits, you often win the game.

The Saints are running back Pierre Thomas soaring through the air, giving himself up, body and all, for a fourth-and-1 lunge of 2 yards on the Saints' game-winning drive in overtime. The Saints are the offense that answers, like Thomas did when he zipped through the Vikings' defense on a 38-yard scoring screen pass as if he were Bush, to respond to Minnesota's initial touchdown drive.

They are the team that crushes you in relentless fashion, like the first-and-goal play from the Vikings 9 in the second quarter, a play that was preceded by gains of 11 and 12 yards. No run there just to get settled, like most teams do in that situation, but a quick-strike touchdown pass from Drew Brees to Devery Henderson on first down that made it 14-14. Merciless.

The Saints are a team that reached two NFC title games in the last four seasons. No NFC team has done that, and only Indianapolis and New England in the AFC can match it.

"They tend to be pretty riled up here,'' Vikings coach Brad Childress said about the Superdome atmosphere.

What he and the Vikings experienced was a franchise and a team that identified its goals, its dreams. A roster built that would, indeed, put the team first.

One that follows the high-profile on-field leadership of Brees and Payton and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. One that knows that guys like Porter may fly low, but actually help lift the team highest.

The more that the nation learns about the Saints leading up to Super Bowl XLIV, the more the nation will admire them.

"I've never worked harder in football than when I came here and became a part of this,'' veteran safety Darren Sharper said. "This is really a special group of people around here.''

They are headed to the 305 -- to Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma's hometown.

"It's great to go home the right way,'' Vilma said.

He realizes what he brings with him.

"A bunch of guys who give you all you need,'' Vilma said. "Intellect and great ability. A group that expects things from each other. A bunch of guys with one common goal in mind and have done what it takes to get there."