Halo

Pierre Garcon had beaten cornerback Jabari Greer with a sharp cut to the middle of the field when Peyton Manning found him at the Indianapolis 43. It should have been Peyton Manning’s fifth third-down conversion in six attempts, and Garcon had plenty of open space in front of him as the Colts tried to score for the third straight time at the start of Super Bowl XLIV.

Inexplicably, Garcon dropped the ball, forcing the Colts to punt. Trailing 10-3, the Saints rallied to win 31-17.

According to Peter King of Sports Illustrated and Bill Simmons of ESPN.com, that play was the turning point in a game the Indianapolis Colts lost as much as the New Orleans Saints won.

They are dead wrong.

This is not about bashing either guy. King is a terrific reporter who has owned Saints season tickets since Katrina as a show of support for New Orleans. Simmons is a gifted writer who picked the Saints to beat Arizona and Minnesota in the NFC playoffs.

It’s just funny how preconceived notions skew the way we view a game. King and Simmons (as well as former Colts coach Tony Dungy, who had an understandable bias) thought Indianapolis would beat New Orleans in Miami, so naturally they looked at the result from a Colts perspective.

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