We sensed that the New Orleans Saints might win this game toward the end of the first half, as Saints head coach
Sean Payton, with his team trailing at that point 10-3, bravely went for a touchdown on 4th and goal from the 2-yard line, rather than kicking the sure field goal. Here was a head coach who was playing to WIN - a coaching attitude which spills over on to the players - a young Saints team with QB
Drew Brees that seems to have a bright "winning" future ahead of it.
Not so the Indianapolis Colts under first-year head coach
Jim Caldwell - whose days are surely numbered at that position - who, rather than playing to win, were playing offensively and defensively "not to lose" - which is often a losing proposition. After denying the Saints the 4th-down touchdown, the Colts, rather than going into their 2-minute offense and trying to march down the field and score again in the closing two minutes of the first half, played "
chicken little" and ran the ball three times and had to punt, giving the Saints a totally unnecessary 2nd chance to score, which they did, kicking a field goal and reducing the Colts 10-3 advantage to 10-6. Here are the plays at the end of the first half from
Yahoo Sports play-by-play:
| Indianapolis - 1:49 |
|---|
| 1st-10, IND1 | 1:49 | M. Hart rushed to the left for 4 yard gain |
| 2nd-6, IND5 | 1:06 | J. Addai rushed up the middle for 5 yard gain |
| 3rd-1, IND10 | 0:51 | M. Hart rushed up the middle for no gain |
| 4th-1, IND10 | 0:35 | P. McAfee punt. R. Bush returned punt for 4 yards |
|
| New Orleans - 0:35 |
| 1st-10, NO48 | 0:35 | D. Brees passed to D. Henderson down the middle for 19 yard gain |
| 1st-10, IND33 | 0:23 | D. Brees incomplete pass down the middle |
| 2nd-10, IND33 | 0:20 | D. Brees passed to D. Henderson to the left for 6 yard gain |
| 3rd-4, IND27 | 0:11 | D. Brees passed to R. Bush to the left for 1 yard gain |
| 4th-3, IND26 | 0:00 | G. Hartley kicked a 44-yard field goal |
Did the Saints now suddenly smell "fear" in the opposition?
Michael Silver's Morning Rush in
Living on the edge pays off for Saints quotes Payton in the clubhouse at the intermission:
“Listen, we’re gonna run ‘Ambush’ to start the second half,” Payton told his players, referring to an onside-kick call the team had practiced repeatedly in the two weeks leading up to Sunday’s showdown with the Indianapolis Colts. “We’re playing this game to win it. We’ve got all the bullets; we might as well use ‘em. So you’d better get on that damn ball and make me look good.”
The kick was successful and the Saints went on to score the touchdown and take the lead. After trailing 10-0 to open the game, New Orleans outscored the hesitant Colts 31-7 over the course of the rest of the game, in spite of being outgained by 100 yards, 432 yards to 332 yards in total offense. When that happens and the team with fewer yards wins, the difference is otherwise turnovers or coaching, and in this game the difference was better coaching by the Saints, who played to WIN, while Indianapolis played not to lose.
Indianapolis won a lot of games in 2009 with a hesitant mentality because they have one of the best quarterbacks in pro football, the
NFL MVP (see
video),
Peyton Manning, who often brought the Colts from behind this season to win in numerous close games (seven comeback wins in the regular season!). That won't happen next year. In the 2010/2011 season, if they maintain their current hesitant attitude, the Colts will find it hard to get into Super Bowl XXXXV (45), as other teams will learn from the Saints victory. You normally can not be a champion if you do not play to win. There are too many other good teams in the NFL.
We say this as a Steeler fan, where the Steelers have their own problems with a soon-to-be in our opinion - exit-headed - head coach whose defensive philosophy does not coincide with the defensive philosophy of
Dick LeBeau and therein may be one subterranean reason for the Steelers disappointing 2009 season - less than top coaching at the helm.
As we have written previously at LawPundit in a posting titled
The Key Secrets of Good Coaching & Leadership : Winning can be Taught & Learned : Personnel : Recruiting : Mentoring : Preparedness:
"Studies show that the difference between equally-talented champions and non-champions is the absence of fear in champions - they are not haunted by the fear of losing, but concentrate on the process of winning, doing what it takes to win, regardless of the specter of losing."
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