Superbowl Goes to New Orleans 31-17

The Saints roared to life and walked away with the honors.

Another exciting Superbowl Weekend.

(MIAMI) - Faith in Peyton Manning was large when the NFL Super Bowl XLIV football game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints in Miami kicked off Sunday.

Most were expecting the Colts to pull ahead early and stay there, but that was hardly the case. Instead a heated game took place with great performance from both sides.

The Colts were the first to gain 3 points, then more action raised the score to 10 for the Colts, and three for New Orleans.

But then New Orleans started to pick it up, the Saints scored a field goal just before halftime and the brought the score to 10-6, and a narrowing gap.

In the third quarter, the score was Colts 17, New Orleans Saints 13. The Saints ran a touchdown and kept playing consistently. Drew Brees threw one successful completion after another.

Garret Hartley's 47 yard field goal brought the Saints' score to 16, only a point behind the Colts.

By the third quarter this game had everyone's attention.

Tina Miller in Salem, who has contributed sports reports to Salem-News.com in the past, says "It is nice to have a Superbowl remain competitive." Anyone watching this one would have to agree... shoving matches between players on the field filled the time in between several memorable plays.

The first play in the fourth quarter saw an outstanding pass from the Colts that led to another first down. Again, one complete pass after another, but the Colts could not raise the stakes; the fourth down arrived, they went for a field goal, and missed it.

The Saints took control of the ball with a little more than ten minutes left in the game. At this point Brees had thrown 31 complete passes, nearing a record.

With 3:12 left in the game, Tracy Porter intercepted a pass from Manning. Porter is known as the quickest and fastest defensive back for the Saints. It brought the Saints to 31, ahead of the Colts' 17.

Small tantrums, a few tears, and the game was slipping away in an almost irreversible way. But Manning was in there, and he is known for turning things around at the last moment; but he already had to be wondering at this point if it was too late.

Another interception came into play when Manning's pass was caught by Jabari Greer, but as it turned out his foot was out of bounds. Next came the second down and a fairly wild pass from Manning.

It was clear by the last minute that the Superbowl was going to the Saints with a final score of 31 to 17.