CrabAppleLane Super Sunday - February 7, 2010

Today has been a long time coming for Saints fans. Dad and I were at that very first Saints game in old Tulane Stadium. It started with a Saints kickoff return for a touchdown but ended in a loss. It was the first of way too many. We knew then it would take time to build a team that could win a championship but no one expected it to take this long. Dad didn't get to see this day. I'll be thinking about him a lot as the day wears on. We went to a lot of games together. Most of them were awful losses but there were a handful of great moments, too. We saw Tom Dempsey kick his 63-yard field goal. We saw Archie Manning's first game for the Saints. We saw a lot of great players for the other side, too. We saw The Fearsome Foursome of the Rams, Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo of the Bears, Sonny Jurgensen of the Redskins, Fran Tarkenton of the Vikings, and Roger Staubach of the Cowboys just to name a few. Today will be a bittersweet experience for a lot of New Orleanians.

By now, everyone, including Saints players, has heard all about Peyton Manning, the Colts offense, and how the Saints can't stop them. Everyone has also heard how the Colts defense is fast, better than they get credit for, and that they have players who are banged up and may not be full speed. I don't buy that last part. They're going to play, play well, and play "courageously". The conventional wisdom says the Colts will be all business and the Saints will be all emotion and nerves.

What chance do the Saints have? I don't know. If the moment doesn't swallow them, I think they can play with the Colts. The Saints defense figures to have a lot of trouble slowing down the Colts offense but the Colts defense figures to have trouble with the Saints offense, too. It will be all about confidence. To me, the toughest game they will play this year was the one they just played. If stats are your thing, the Vikings were better than the Colts offensively AND defensively. Stats never tell the whole story ... except when they do. Just one more thing:

I offer one for this CrabAppleLane Super Sunday. Boudin has been good luck for me this year.

CrabAppleLane Super Bowl Pre-Game Meal - February 7, 2010

5 song iTune shuffle:

1. Big Brother - David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
2. Copycat - The Cranberries - Bury The Hatchet
3. Lazy [Live] - Deep Purple - Made In Japan [Disc 1] [Live]
4. No Matter What - Badfinger -The Very Best Of Badfinger
5. I Dont Want To Gone On Without You - Nazareth - Play 'N' The Game

Quote of the Day

Blog of the day is here.

Quote from said blog: "This will be a running blog by quarter. Sorry, I won't be paying much attention to the pre-game. Rarely do. But I can still synopsize everything you'll hear:"