Sports Commentary - by Jimmy Russotto

Geez, I let myself get really lazy about writing, as there was nothing I cared about going on this week anyway. Winter Olympics, Lindsay Vonn, bad Rutgers and Seton Hall basketball teams, the Nets and Knicks…please. As I have spent considerable time re-watching the Super Bowl though, let me for one last time ruminate on that wonderful game for all Saints fans and for all proponents of the underdog…something that you may not have heard.

You may recall the pivotal play of the game…the Tracy Porter interception of Manning. I’ve heard that play discussed and re-discussed but nobody mentions that a Saints lineman, probably Will Smith but I can’t be sure, since the rush part of the play was so ignored by Phil Simms, makes Manning rush the throw. Yeah, it was a maximum blitz (against Simms’s advice), but still it was those defensive ends that got in there, the other one being Bobby McCray.

You hear Wayne was slanting in, Wayne was slanting out, Wayne was late in the break, Wayne should have broken up the play, all kinds of stuff about Wayne. They mention that Manning hurried the throw but not why very much. It seems to me that Manning doesn’t make that type of throw if not for Will Smith.

It looked to me like a slant that Manning should’ve waited out for one more tick or two to throw. Yeah, you could say Porter jumped the route, but only in the sense that he was right there. He just had to react to the throw, which was right there for the taking. Not to disparage Porter’s play…after all, he made the Favre interception too, that saved the Saints win against the Vikings…but he had a lot of help from that blitz.

Anthony Hargrove was a factor too. Hargrove actually got hurt on a prior play, making Manning hurry a throw to Collie that missed. Nobody mentions Hargrove’s desperate effort to get to Manning on the play. Nobody mentions Manning had to hurry the throw to Number 17 because of it.

Another guy that could have gotten more attention was Jonathan Vilma. He was great the entire game. But that game could have gone in a much different direction if not for his knocking down that pass to Collie in the endzone. It came on that 3rd and 5, forcing the Colts to make that critical decision of whether to go for the three or punt (or go for a first).

Of course, the field goal missed, the Saints lead was held to just one, and the failed kick gave the Saints great field position. The change in the attitude of both teams after that miss is almost palpable. The Colts are hanging their heads while the Saints look ready to kick ass. You could make an argument for Vilma kicking off that entire chain of events with his breakup of that pass.

The other somewhat neglected factor was the coaching. The obvious errors were pointed out, the decision to go for the field goal, the failure to put the ball in the air right before the half (thus giving the Saints their field goal opportunity back again). But there were other problems with the coaching too, the conservative defense that got victimized all game by Brees, and their failure to put the game away twice.

Everything was coming up roses for the Colts in that first quarter. That Colston dropped pass and an overthrow by Brees on his first series, put the Saints in a ten-point hole. If the Colts had stayed aggressive in the second quarter, they could have danced in the streets after the game instead of having to watch the festivities with their heads down.

Instead of putting the game out of reach, they played conservatively and the half ended at 10-6. After the Saints scored to take the lead, Manning and the Colts came right back and scored a TD of their own. That could have been another game-changer if the Colts had stayed aggressive. Instead it wound up being their final score and the Saints went on to score 18 unanswered.

Never has there been a better example of a lack of aggressiveness losing a game. Caldwell coached it as if he had the better team and all they had to do to win it was to not make the big mistake. So the Colts were playing to not lose while the Saints were going all out all the time. Similarly, never has there been a better example of aggressiveness winning a game. Sean Payton could have been MVP if coaches had eligibility for it.

Oh well, another football season is over. One good thing about protracting the NFL season is that baseball then becomes a thing right around the corner, so to speak. Perhaps just coincidentally, the Mets finally made some badly needed moves along with just about every other team doing the same. So the hot stove stuff coming to the forefront of things right now means I’ll never have to watch a basketball game. WooHoo!

My favorite Mets team had been beat up all over the dial for not making essential moves to strengthen the club. What about first base, what about another pitcher? What about yada yada? Well, Mike Jacobs, although he’s coming off a meager year, adds a power element to that first base position to team with Daniel Murphy, the much-maligned Mets incumbent there.

And they picked up a very good and well-seasoned Japanese pitcher in Hisanori Takahashi. He’ll be fighting to become either the fifth starter or a relief guy, but definitely adds to the competition in camp. It should be interesting to see how both he and Ryota Igarashi will develop and how they’ll interact with themselves and the rest of the team.

Yankees fans may scoff. None of these acquisitions are sure things, anathema to Yankees fans. But I look forward to them working out, making the pennant that much more enjoyable.