MIAMI - New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton said he planned all along to call an onside kick in the Super Bowl.
He just wanted to find the perfect moment.
Mission accomplished.
Everyone in Sun Life Stadium - and certainly everyone on the Indianapolis Colts' sideline - expected the Colts to stage a scoring drive when they got the ball on the kickoff to open the second half of the Saints' 31-17 win over the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday night.
At the time, the Colts led 10-6. A touchdown drive would push the lead back to 11 points and put the burden and pressure squarely on the Saints.
Payton called for the onside kick. The Colts weren't ready. The Saints recovered and marched for a go-ahead score. The Colts would regain the lead, but never fully regain their rhythm.
“The onside kick was huge,” Colts safety Melvin Bullitt said. “As a special- teams captain, I feel like we didn't do what we were supposed to do. We always talk about the little things and that was huge. It was a huge turning point in the game.”
Colts coach Jim Caldwell called the move a gamble, “but it paid off.”
It was risky because the Colts could have had a very short field for Peyton Manning to attack. But if it worked - and it did - it could change momentum and keep Manning on the sideline. The Saints' Chris Reis recovered the ball, and Drew Brees marched on the stunned and back-pedaling Colts, hitting Pierre Thomas for a 16-yard touchdown pass and a 13-10 lead.
Payton said he told a member of the officiating crew before the game that he would be trying an onside kick.
“He said, ‘Well, if they do it, what is it going to look like?' and I said, ‘It's not an if.' ” Payton said. “It's going to be from our balanced look and our normal kick approach. …It's something we spent time on last week, and practiced it a little this week. You get a little nervous when you practice something like that the week of the Super Bowl, but the execution was great.”
While Reis ultimately jumped on the ball, which bounced out of Colts receiver Hank Baskett's hands, the officials waited a significant period of time before ruling who had recovered.
Payton was asked if he was worried when he saw the “scrum” of players fighting for the ball.
“I was in on the scrum,” Payton said, laughing. “Our guys did a good job in getting on it, falling on it, and Chris Reis did a great job when he came up with it.”
Payton also made a smooth move in challenging a call by the officials that the Saints' two-point conversion pass in the fourth quarter from Brees to Lance Moore was incomplete. Replays showed that Moore had possession crossing the goal line. The called was overruled and the Saints took a 24-17 lead.
Some of Caldwell's coaching moves didn't work quite as well.
One came early in the fourth quarter, with the Colts up 17-16. They were stopped on a third-and-11 play at the Saints' 33. Rather than try a short punt to pin the Saints deep, Caldwell sent Matt Stover in for a 51-yard field goal. He missed and the Saints took over at their own 41. .
