Continuing an examination of the new breed of Super Bowl champs ...
The 2006 Colts finished the regular season with the league’s lowest-ranked rush defense with a whopping 173 ground yards allowed per game. They also entered the playoffs with seemingly little shot at a ring.
But bolstered by the timely return of Pro Bowl strong safety Bob Sanders, the Colts limited their four postseason foes to 82.8 rushing yards per game – less than half their regular-season average – en route to the postgame podium in Miami.
A year later, the wild-card Giants entered the playoffs with a minus-9 turnover ratio, thanks to 34 giveaways. However, in four postseason games, the Giants flipped the script, turning the ball over only two times and finishing a plus-5.
In 2009, the Saints penned a similar reversal-of-fortune story. New Orleans finished the regular season with the NFC top seed but also with the league’s 26th-ranked pass defense.
In the playoffs, however, all Sean Payton’s crew did was outduel a trio of Hall of Fame-worthy QBs in Kurt Warner, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning to win Super Bowl XLIV.
Turnaround tales such as these used to be rare, but they now seem to be happening with surreal regularity.
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