Saints Win!!! Saints Win!!! Saints Win!!! Saints Win!!!

[JW]

(See thread below for Part I)

This time he wouldn't be denied. Returning to the Super Bowl after a 50-43 loss to Indianapolis last year, Saints quarterback Dana Abdul-Malik saw it slipping away again with the Saints trailing 21-14 to Denver late in the 4th quarter. That was when Abdul-Malik took over.

Abdul-Malik drove the Saints to the tying touchdown, scoring himself on a 5-yard scramble with 1:33 left in regulation. He then led the Saints on a long drive on the Saints' second possession of overtime before hitting Benjamin Ferguson with a 34-yard sudden-death lightning strike to end the game with 4:14 left in the first OT period, giving the Saints their first ever Super Bowl win, 27-21.

The Saints spotted Denver a 14-0 first-quarter lead, but then rallied in the second quarter, the key play a 48-yard pass from Abdul-Malik to Dusty Ashe 1:18 left in the half. Denver scored in the third quarter to take the lead, but couldn't hang on in the face of Abdul-Malik's late-game heroics.

Abdul-Malik, voted Super Bowl MVP, was 21 of 30 for 323 yards and 2 touchdowns with no interceptions, and he ran for the tying touchdown.

Abdul-Malik, the 11-year veteran from Chicago University, had played only 13 NFL games before starting the 2005 season for Miami and then the last two seasons for New Orleans. He was always known as a quarterback with unfulfilled potential until his last two exciting seasons as the leader of the Saints.

(Wow!! Two great Super Bowls in succession. This game is great.)