Super Bowl 44 Set to Excite

What a great Sunday it was. Both Conference Championship games were absolutely amazing and neither one disappointed. After the dust settled and the Overtime field goal was kicked, knocking the ageless wonder out of the playoffs, and possibly the NFL, we have a great matchup for Super Bowl 44 (I'm tired of the Roman Numerals, and I think the NFL will be too once we hit "50." I mean, seriously, who wants to watch "Super Bowl L?"). Peyton Manning and the high flying offense of the Colts against Drew Brees and the high flying offense of the Saints.

So, we've got two high octane offenses led by two quarterback's with great arms, one of which is a sure fire Hall-of-Famer and one who is continually making his case as one of the best field generals in the league. Peyton Manning has a trio of reliable receivers in Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark and the Haitian Sensation, Pierre Garcon. Drew Brees has Marques Colston, Jeremy Shockey and Reggie Bush, not to mention the running of Pierre Thomas.

I think the only thing that really seperates the Colts and the Saints is their defensive units. I've seen the Colts step-up when the absolutely have to, like Sunday when they were down to the Jets and dug in their heels and came back to win. The Saints, while giving up 28 points, were still able to fly around on every play, pressure the quarterback (hitting Favre on numerous occasions), and get five turnovers, including an interception with under 15 seconds left in the game to send it to overtime. I think, overall, the Saints have a better defense, especially when it comes to creating turnovers.

So, who will win this game? Well, we've got two good stories here. First, as mentioned before, is the fact that Pierre Garcon is Haitian. He draped the flag of Haiti over the AFC Championship trophy during the presentation. As for the Saints, we've got the recovering city of New Orleans that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, forcing the Saints to play almost all road games one season. And intertwined in all these stories is Archie Manning: the man who played for the Saints during their only other successful period in franchise history, whose son is Peyton Manning. I can't even begin to imagine the way his heart is pulling in two different directions.

Any way you slice it, the Super Bowl is going to be very exciting and probably one of the best of my lifetime but we will have to wait and see if that is truly the case.