Alas the big game is here.  Are you ready?  Here’s our pick

SCOTT JACOBS

Yap, yap, yap.  Freeney, Freeney, Freeney.  Enough!

Tonight they finally get to play the damn game.  Finally instead of hearing about how the Saints will blitz package Peyton Manning we get to see it.  Finally instead of wondering whether Reggie Bush will be a factor, we get to watch it.  Finally instead of seeing if the Saints are truly ready for their Super closeup they get to prove it.

Instead of hearing about Dwight Freeney’s battered body, we get to see it.  Will he play?  It seems like a yes.  Will he be effective?  Tune in at 6:28.  After another lengthy two week delay from championship Sunday to Super Sunday (the Pro Bowl doesn’t count as anything more than your imagination), they finally play the stinking game today.

In the 24/7 must talk about everything now information age, recent Super Bowls have been beaten to death like a dead horse (get it?  get it?) and many football fans are inundated from every angle so much dissection of this one game, that it’s information overload.  Finally today we get to see the two teams settle it on the field.

Of course in between we get the epic video montages of Super Bowl past and the tear jerkers about New Orleans that are sure to make you feel, well something.  We get 25 diffrent pre-game shows, sponsored by 27 different companies.  We get to wonder what the commercials will be like, and then we get to actually watch them.

There’s nothing quite like Super Sunday.  But I’m ready for the game already.

So here goes Colts and Saints fans.  Here’s how I see it:

The Colts have everything going for them.  The best QB in the league, maybe ever, in Manning.  Weapons all over the place in Dallas Clark, Reggie Wayne, and Pierre Garcon.  Their defense is fast and flies around relentlessly.  Everyone expects the Colts to just come into this game and take care of business.  Sound familiar?  A few years ago when the high flying Patriots were 18-0 and undefeated (aren’t the Colts basically undefeated too?), few foresaw the Giants taking them down.  They did.

Well, the Saints are in the perfect position right now.  They have nothing to lose.  Sure, some people will pick them, but the majority will take the blue horses.  The Saints are the most dumbfounding 13-3 team in recent memory.  Despite starting out 13-0 and everyone proclaiming them the greatest thing since sliced bread, the Saints enter the Super Bowl as sort of a question mark.  They pulvarized Arizona, but needed a ton of crazy turnovers to barely upend the Vikings.  And lest us remind you, that Minnesota outgained them by over 200 yards.

But the Super Bowl is one game.  Not a best out of three, or best out of five, or even best out of seven.

Tonight we find out if the Colts could have had an undefeated season of their own.  Afterall, when they’ve ‘played’ the games, they’ve won them all. Tonight has been that night they’ve circled on their calendar all along.  Win the Super Bowl and well, you did your job.  Lose, and questions will follow.  I like what Shannon Sharpe said on the pre game show:  the Colts have much more to lose in this game than New Orleans.

The Colts are the juggernaut.  The Saints are the feel good story.  The Colts are the titans.  The Saints are the infamous paper bags.  Before this year the Colts had been an AFC Championship game mainstay.  The Saints had never made the NFC Title game.

So while my head says Colts, my heart says Saints.  They’ve come too far, created too much excitement for their fallen and rebuilt city to just fail now.  This season has been in the works.  It almost feels like fate.  Football teams don’t change the world, but the Saints are beloved in New Orleans.  Everyone loves to root for the underdog, and that’s what the Saints have been through their ascent from mediocre 8-8 team to NFC Champion.

After an 0-3 end to their season, many people jumped off New Orleans’ bandwagon.  All they did was beat the Cards and Vikes to get here: Miami.

So I like the underdog in this game.  I think the Saints get to Manning just enough to create some discomfort, and I think that the Saints ball-hawking defense will force just enough turnovers to throw the Colts offense off just a bit of their game.  If the Saints balanced attack can sustain long drives and if New Orleans’ running game can wear down the Colts even a little bit, I think New Orleans will claim their first championship, 27-23.

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