Sports Betting Blog

Drew Brees was just a little short of reaching perfection as the New Orleans Saints crushed the Peyton-less Indianapolis Colts at the Superdome on Sunday Night. The  MVP of Super Bowl XLIV finished the night with 31 of 35 passing for 325 yards with 5 touchdown passes and no interceptions as he guided the Saints to a 62-7 crushing of the Indianapolis Colts. It was a painful experience for the Colts fans.

The Colts fans had grown used to finishing a successful season after the other. This time around, they are learning about that other end of the game. Not only did the Saints crushed the Colts, they also managed to do it with style. The Saints just kept on breaking records all night long. With 62 points scored, the Saints managed to make the most points against a team since 1985 when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers got slapped hard by the New York Jets. No other team sine the NFL merger has scored more than the Saints. But there’s even more, with a 55 point difference, this is the highest winning margin since the 2009 Patriots crushing of the Tennessee  Titans in 2009.

We all knew that Peyton Manning was one heck of a player. We knew that he was an essential part of the Super Bowl winning and playoffs qualifying Indianapolis Colts. Little did we know that he was not only its franchise player and biggest star but their sole engine, the backbone not only of the Colts’ defense but of the organization as a whole. It’s not just a matter of suffering a 0-7 season that makes this group of players seem so weak and weary. No, it’s more than just that. The Colts are officially broken down. Drew Brees and the New Orlean Saints defiled the Indianapolis Colts in such a way that no one on their right mind would have ever imagined to happen had Peyton Manning been playing in the field.

At one point, the fans in the upper deck of the Superdome stood up and turned their back to the field. They wanted to salute the New Orleans Saints head coah Sean Payton. For the first time, he wasn’t calling his offensive plays from the sidelines. He had been down in the field since he first took the job as a head coach in 2006 with the Saints. That all changed after he was caught up in a tackle along the sideline during a loss at Tampa Bay last week. Payton underwent had surgery on Monday and didn’t attend a practice until Thursday. But he was happy with what he saw from the top of the Superdome. Down below, offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr. called plays for the first time.

Brees was flawless. He connected two touchdown passes to Marques Colston and one to Darren Sproles in the first quarter alone. Number four and five went to second-year tight end Jimmy Graham in the third quarter. By the fourth, Brees and the Saints weren’t even trying.

The winless and Peyton Manning-less Colts are guaranteed to have fewer than 10 victories in a season for the first time in nine years. It’s a shame. Not even veteran Curtis Painter has been able to right this sinking ship. Finishing the game with 9 of 17 passing for 67 yards and one interception, it really seems that the Colts might not need more than a hand to count this season wins. Even then, that might just be two or three fingers too many.

Even when a team is facing a 1-5 season and is starting a rookie against the Super Bowl defending champions, a team like the Vikings could come out and surprise you. They didn’t win, they didn’t manage to defeat Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, but considering the circumstances, taking a 33-27 defeat at Minneapolis is not that bad of a performance for what this guys had us used to.

Aaron Rodgers keeps on proving that he might be the finest active quarterback in the NFL. Truth be said, the Packers were expected to win this game with ease. It was evident that the Minnesota Vikings were not at their best and with a 1-6 record for the season, the 7-0 flawless Packers would be able to reel the win in with ease. The team was not holding strong and to make things worst for the Vikings, Aaron Rodgers would go head to head against a rookie. This would be Christian Ponder’s first start ever with the Vikings. And for many, it was quite a surprise that the youngster was able to put on such a good game against the strongest team in the nation.

Last week the Vikings finally had enough. The squad was being routed by the Chicago Bears and Donovan McNabb didn’t really have anything new to turn the game around. Leslie Frazer, the Vikings head coach, new that something had to be done. McNabb tthrew for 177 yards and completed 19 of 24 passes, but he was sacked five times and although he didn’t get picked, he didn’t make a touchdown pass for the better part of the game. That’s when Frazer decided to bench McNabb and bring in Christian Ponder. Considering that neither of the two QB’s were doing much it was up to the Vikings star Adrian Peterson to put on the effort. But there was really not much to do.

But this time, despite been 1-6 for the season and playing a young quarterback who was opening his first game as a starter, the Vikings actually looked like a team that deserved some respect. Ponder went for 13 of 32 passing for 219 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also got his act together and ran for 31 yards in four drives. For a moment there, when Ponder completed a touchdown pass to Michael Jenkins with 7:49 to go in the fourth quarter, it seemed as if he would have just enough time to pull on a comeback. The ball was in the Vikings hands and they wre only six points under in the score. But a couple of misplaced passes and bad calls from the offensive eventually ended the comeback.

It all really came down to the third quarter. Ponder had kept the Vikings ahead for the first two quarters, but suddenly his performance was dropping and he was picked twice by Charles Woodson, who had him figured out. As a matter of fact, Woodson was almost picked him again a couple more times, but we got to give the rookie some credit, he kept the Vikings in the winning range for start to finish.

The Green Bay Packers relied heavily on their all-star quarterback Aaron Rodgers,  who finished the game with 24 of 30 passing for 335 yards and 3 touchdown passes. Pretty much everything else came from the special teams. Mason Crosby had four field goals for the Packers, including a franchise record 58-yarder.