It's a fact! New Orleans Saints will win Super Bowl 44

It's a fact! New Orleans Saints will win Super Bowl 44
29 October 2009
by Emmanuel Pepis
www.neworleans.com

It's always fun to dream even when 42 years of reality have mostly told any Saints fan otherwise.

Nearly nobody expected a 6-0 start for the Black and Gold. Now every fan in New Orleans is wondering about those two words: Super Bowl.

Certainly, it is still too early in the season. We're just near the halfway point and a lot can still happen. But right now, you would be hard pressed to find a team that looks more complete in the NFL right now than the Saints.

With that out of the way, Miami suddenly seems like a viable destination in February, doesn't it? While the media sticks to current happenings of the league from week to week, the fans are living this moment up as they should.

So here is a creation of criteria through research of past Super Bowls. And who do you think will be the last team standing at the end of this? (Quite obvious, but hopefully a fun read anyway)

Enjoy seeing all other teams in the NFL eliminated from Super Bowl contention within the next several paragraphs.

1. FOR THE RECORD- The worst record of a team to reach the Super Bowl was the 1979 Los Angeles Rams (they were 9-7). It would be pretty hard to imagine 7 weeks in that the teams with 1 win or less would get to that magic number.

ELIMINATE: TENNESSEE, ST. LOUIS, TAMPA BAY, KANSAS CITY, DETROIT, CLEVELAND

2. WELCOME TO MIAMI- That's where the big game is this year. It's bad news for one specific team that lost all 3 Super Bowls they have played in South Florida.

ELIMINATE: DALLAS

3. NO TURNOVERS PLEASE- Only 2 teams have collectively outscored their opponents by less than 50 points in a season, had a negative turnover margin, and still went to the Super Bowl. They both lost.

ELIMINATE: CAROLINA, WASHINGTON, PITTSBURGH, MIAMI, OAKLAND, SEATTLE

4. BET YOU CAN'T DO IT TWICE- No starting quarterback has ever led two different teams to the Lombardi trophy. Kurt Warner, you nearly bucked the trend last year. Still, this means you.

ELIMINATE: ARIZONA

5. FUTILE ATTEMPTS- It may be too easy, but there are still those two teams that have had the most Super Bowl appearances without a win (4).

ELIMINATE: BUFFALO, MINNESOTA

6. QUALITY STUFF- Since the 1970 merger, no team has had a losing record to quality opponents (teams with a winning record) and won the Super Bowl. Only 2 such teams made it that far. They were the 1970 Cowboys and 1979 Rams.

ELIMINATE: GREEN BAY, SAN DIEGO

7- HALL OF FAME? HARDLY- Three Super Bowl winning teams allowed at least 20 points per game in the regular season. Their quarterbacks were Joe Namath in 1968, Jim Plunkett in 1983, and Peyton Manning in 2006. None of the following quarterbacks are destined for Canton.

ELIMINATE: JACKSONVILLE, BALTIMORE, HOUSTON

8. CBS- What does the broadcast network have to do with eliminating a team? The current NFC North is 0-3 since the 1970 merger in Super Bowls broadcast on Channel 4.

ELIMINATE: CHICAGO

9. GROUNDING IT OUT- You have to go back to 2002 to find a Super Bowl that featured no 1,000 yard rushers (Tampa Bay vs. Oakland). Before that, the days of Tony Dorsett, Walter Payton, Larry Csonka, Franco Harris, and Marcus Allen made sure 1,000 yard rushers dominated Super Bowls. That makes things tougher for these preseason favorites.

ELIMINATE: PHILADELPHIA, NEW ENGLAND, INDIANAPOLIS

10. 2 AND 6 DON'T GO TOGETHER- ESPN did a story nearly 2 years ago on ranking the best quarterbacks by jersey number. The best to wear the deuce? Doug Flutie followed by Aaron Brooks (yes that one). Meanwhile, Bubby Brister was judged to carry the flag of quarterbacks who wore # 6. No Super Bowl quarterbacks here.

ELIMINATE: ATLANTA, N.Y. JETS

11. TRIPLE WHAMMY- If you've been keeping track, one team left on the list has an 0-2 record in Super Bowls, once in Miami, and both of those losses to a team that is still standing.

ELIMINATE: CINCINNATI

12. CHANGING IT UP- While it's nice to realize a fault, no team has voluntarily changed a quarterback mid-season and gone on to win a Super Bowl.

ELIMINATE: SAN FRANCISCO

13. BIG BLUES- The Giants love to space their Super Bowl wins. They of course won it all in the 1986, 1990, and 2007 seasons. Two seasons after their first Super Bowl win, they missed the playoffs. They would suffer the same fate in 1992, 2 seasons after their second title. Guess what season it is after their most recent?

ELIMINATE: N.Y. GIANTS

14. ROOKIES- It doesn't happen often. Only 4 coaches in Super Bowl history were in their first year of coaching. The combined record of those guys is 2-2. The winners were George Siefert with the 49ers in 1989 and Don McCafferty with the Baltimore Colts in 1970. One of the losers? Red Miller with the only remaining team in 1977. And it happened here in New Orleans.

ELIMINATE: DENVER

So there you have it. The New Orleans Saints are your last team standing through creative (or pointless depending on how you look at it) research. Now New Orleans does have an offense that could set some records, a turnover-forcing machine defensively, and if you're worried about first time in the Super Bowl as a franchise? Look at the 1985 Chicago Bears, 1986 New York Giants, 2000 Baltimore Ravens and 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers for success stories from the Super Bowl era in that department.

There is undoubtedly a ton of optimism and wonder if this really is the Saints' year. Of course, these criteria have no real bearing on the rest of the regular season, but I leave you all with this.

It's always fun for the fans to dream.