This is an interesting tidbit. It always grinds my gears when I hear fans say "he won us a Super Bowl!" like GW was the main reason we got that ring. Pull up the defensive rankings of the 2009 Saints and they are one of the statistical worst defenses to ever win a Super Bowl. They are comparable to the 2001 Patriots and 2007 Giants and yet both those teams had better defensive statistical rankings than we did.

They ranked 25th overall in total defense on yards and 20th in points. Pass and run defense also ranked in the mid to low 20s. This was not one of the better defenses of 2009 unless you are exclusively judging by turnovers. It's actually very rare for teams that have defenses that rank in the 20s but high in turnovers to eventually win the SB. New England in 2010 were ranked #1 in turnovers, but their defense was in the 20s (pass defense ranked in the bottom 4), they went one and done. Green Back in 2011 had a horrible defense but were ranked #1 in turnovers and they lost in the first round too. Opportunistic defenses don't always go far, our 2009 team was an exception to the trend.

The only thing they ranked high on was turnover differential where they were #1. This was not a shutdown defensive unit like fans tend to think. We all forget how scared we were in 2009 cause there were games where they couldn't stop teams and had to rely on turnovers. Kevin Kolb was made into a household name cause of the big stat numbers he put against us in week 2. Marc Bulger and the 1-15 Rams had their best offensive game against us, Jason Campbell looked like a pro bowler against GW's defense.

I also like to mention that while we were getting all those turnovers, it suddenly stopped after the Redskins game. If you discount the NFCCG vs Minnesota where they were just giving us the ball away constantly, we went from averaging 3 turnovers a game down to 1.

The 2009 Saints had the #1 ranked offense in scoring and we had a top 5 run unit that year. That was really the major difference between our offense and the Colts. The Colts rushing offense ranked dead last, meanwhile we had something of a 3-headed rushing attack with PT, Bell and Bush.

Brees also had a better QBR and ranked better in advanced passing stats than MVP Manning. I strongly believe Manning only won the 2009 MVP cause the Colts ranked dead last in rushing offense and one of the big stories was how Manning was the glue holding that team together. Despite starting 14-0, the Colts really weren't that dominant in 2009. They barely won a number of their games needing Manning to set a record for 4th quarter game winning drives. Remember, we spanked the Patriots with ease that year. The Colts needed a big comeback from Manning and then Bill B making a huge mistake on 4th down to just barely escape that game with a win.

IMO fans often don't give Brees and Payton the credit they deserve for 2009, and instead GREGGGGGGGGG is made out to be some defensive mastermind which he absolutely was not. Brees won SB MVP for a reason; he was like a surgeon out there that night, not only matching the league MVP step for step, but outplaying him. If the Tracy Porter pick six don't happen and Indy ties that game, I strongly believe Brees has a heroic game winning drive to finish it.