New Orleans Saints Top Five Wins: 2009 NFC Divisional Playoff
This list is my personal opinion of the top five Saints victories of all time. Some of you will probably disagree with some of my choices, although the top two are pretty obvious if you ask me.
However three through five is a matter of opinion, I suppose. I’m about to make my case for my list.
Honestly I can see a where 3-5 would get swapped around too. I wondered for a while how to rank them. There are so many important wins and historic wins in Saints history but here is my top five.
5. 2009 NFC Divisional Game, Arizona Cardinals @ New Orleans Saints
I know. Some of you are wondering right off the bat, the Cardinals game? Yes, that’s where I wanted to start, as obviously the win advanced the Saints to the NFC Championship game and led to their Super Bowl XLV victory over the Colts.
Going into this game the Saints were on a three game losing streak. Yet despite that, they were the #1 seed heading into the playoffs for the first time in frachise history.
Which meant that for the first time ever if the Saints won one home playoff game, New Orleans would host the biggest sporting event in it’s history, the NFC Championship game.
So to say the very least the stakes were enormous. One more win, just one more win.
On Friday before the game Sean Payton surprised the team with black bats that said “Bring the Wood”, quietly telling the team to be aggressive and take no prisoners
To Coach Payton’s surprise Reggie Bush actually came out of the tunnel holding the bat. He told Reggie “You came out with it now you better play well”, and boy did he ever!
On the first play from scrimmage Cardinals running back Tim Hightower ran right up the gut for a 70 yard touchdown run to STUN the Saints and the Superdome crowd. That’s was about all they would do however.
"We talked (Friday) about being the most aggressive team for 60 minutes, just like the bat said, ‘Bring the wood’ I brought the bat out because it represented to me who we are and who we were going to be today."
Bush had 84 rushing yards on five carries and caught four passes for 24 more
yards. With his punt returns, he finished with 217 all-purpose yards.
This included a head turning 46 yard touchdown run that was spectacular and an
83 yard punt return for a touchdown to seal the deal late in the game.
On top of that Drew Brees had his normal deadly accuracy on display throwing touchdown passes to Jeremy Shockey, Devery Henderson and Marques Colston.
The defense set the tone early when on the Cardinals second possession the
they forced a fumble, and Darren Sharper was right there to scoop it up
setting up the Saints to take the lead early and for good.
Another momentum grabbing moment for the Saints defensse was when Bobby McCray leveled Kurt Warner in the second quarter knocking him out of the game for a few plays.
It turns out that this divisional playoff game would be Warner’s last game as a professional football, announcing his retirement from the NFL a few weeks later.
Saints fans waited 43 years to host a Championship game and this victory
clinched just that, which is why it’s the number five moment on this countdown of the Saints best wins in team history.