Kevin Cadle's Expert View on Superbowl XLIV: Prepare for a clash of the offensive juggernauts

Super Bowl / Kevin Cadle / 03 February 2010 / Leave a Comment

Peyton Manning can land another Superbowl for the Colts

"Only six teams had a pass defence that was ranked lower than the Saints at season's end and now they line up against the MVP Peyton Manning!"

Like the rest of us, Sky Sports' NFL presenter Kevin Cadle is salivating at the prospect of a Drew Brees-Peyton Manning shootout. Read his thoughts on the big game here

It's been a long time since we have had this much offensive quality in the Superbowl. For me it's all about which quarterback will enhance his legend with a victory, Peyton Manning or Drew Brees?

Plenty are calling it an Indianapolis victory and, sure, the Colts jumped out as early [1.5] favourites, but as Mark Collins, former Superbowl winner with the Packers and Giants once told me, that means nothing to the players of either team.

This is the first time since 1993 that the top seeds from each Conference will meet in the Superbowl and both achieved their goal in similar fashion with a potent offence and a capable defence. As the old mantra says 'defence wins championships' and I think that in Superbowl XLIV that mantra will hold here as well. Neither defence is capable of shutting down the opposition, so it's which will come up with the most stops that will determine the outcome.

The key to the Saints' defence, led by Darren Sharper, is forcing turnovers and turning them into points. Going into the playoffs they forced 39 turnovers on the season, and when they were on their 13 game winning streak the Saints turned those miscues into an average of 11 points per game. But, on their season ending three game losing streak, they only averaged about two points per contest off their opponents' turnovers. Only six teams had a pass defence that was ranked lower than the Saints at season's end and now they line up against the MVP Peyton Manning!

After playing 13 weeks in the regular season, the Colts were second in points allowed, they then took their foot off the pedal down the stretch as well and finished eighth, surrendering 19.2 per outing. Led by defensive ends Robert Mathis and Dwight Freeney they play an aggressive style based on speed and gang tackling. Members of the New York Jets team that were defeated in the Conference game were quick to comment on how surprised they were with the overall speed of the Indianapolis team.

But, it's offence that fills seats and turns on TV sets and here we have two juggernauts of attack led by the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Drew Brees led the league in passer rating and touchdown passes as well as setting the record for percentage of completed passes in a season. Peyton Manning was second to Brees in TD passes and completion percentage and was sacked the least amount of times in the NFL.

Both teams have a huge array of offensive weapons for their highly skilled QBs to take advantage of and put points on the board.

The Saints can hurt you with receivers Marcus Colston, Devery Henderson, Robert Meacham and add in tight end Jeremy Shockey and you see why the passing game put up almost 300 yards per in the regular season. On the ground, New Orleans have former Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas in the backfield and that shows why they were the regular season's highest-scorers. Remarkably they have increased their numbers in the playoffs and are averaging a whopping 38 points from their victories over the Cardinals and Vikings.

Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets' defences were supposed to cause Manning all types of problems this post-season. Well against those two outstanding units he put up 623 yards passing and had 5 TD tosses with only one interception. Second year receiver Pierre Garcon set an AFC championship game record with 11 catches against the jets and first year wideout Austin Collie tied a rookie record with seven catches in the same game. Pro bowlers Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark took back seats as the youngsters carried the show but in the big game Peyton will find a way to get the ball to his best receivers.

Overall, I like what the Colts bring to the party and with everyone healthy they should be the team raising the Vince Lombardi at the end of Superbowl 44.

Kevin Cadle's Suggested Bets: Back Indianapolis @ [1.55]
Back Over 55.5 points @ [1.96]
Back Indianapolis @ [7.0] to win by 1-6pts