Boomer Esiason

CBS analyst Boomer Esiason joined Dennis & Callahan on Monday morning to discuss the turning points that led to New Orleans’ Super Bowl victory. Esiason broke down some of the key moments in the game — including the Pierre Garçon drop on the Colts’ third drive, the Saints’ onside kick and Tracy Porter’s interception of Peyton Manning.

Esiason called the latter a play that reminded him of plays ”that Asante Samuel has made in the past, Ty Law is a player that would make plays like that.” Esiason also added that the play that essentially ended the Colts’ hopes for a comeback could pay big dividends for Tom Brady, calling him the biggest winner because “Peyton Manning is still not able to eclipse the three Super Bowl championships that Tom Brady under his belt,” something that should have ramifications in contract negotiations for both players.

Esiason also called Saints coach Sean Payton’s decision to go for the onside kick to open the second half a “Great, gutsy call and if it works, you’re a genius.” He was careful to point out that Colts receiver Hank Baskett had the chance to grab the ball and turn Payton into a scapegoat, but could not make the play. It was one of the decisions Esiason lauded Payton for along with his role in giving money out of his own pocket to bring in defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, deeming that decision ”one of the best investments Sean Payton ever made.”

The discussion of Williams’ role in limiting the Colts yesterday also lead to a questioning of Bill Belichick’s decision to go without any coordinators leading his offense or defense next season. “I know Bill has a commanding presence there, but I don’t necessarily know that you can do it without the traditional way of doing it,” said Esiason about the decision.

A full transcript of the interview is below. To listen, click here.

Fourteen days of talk leading up to this, and nobody said, “Hey, what about the coaching matchup?” Sean Payton outcoached Jim Caldwell, wouldn’t you agree?

Well, yeah, there is no doubt about that. And listen, Sean Payton took some chances and those chances ended up working for them. They had a fourth and one at the end of the first half and didn’t make it at the end of the second quarter, but that didn’t hurt them. I thought they mismanaged the clock a little bit there towards the end. I though they could have called timeout before the second down play for the Colts. But the second half, with the onside kick, being a little bit aggressive. Hank Baskett doesn’t get it, they get the ball and go right down the field and score the touchdown. I think that was really an indication of where the mindset of the Saints was. I said at halftime yesterday that this was Drew Brees’ Super Bowl to lose. I think the New Orleans Saints took a deep breath, got rid of the jitters and then really it was game on. And that was the New Orleans Saints team that we had seen most of the year; that was the quarterback we had seen most of the year. And quite frankly, after that performance it really hammers home that maybe Drew Brees should have been the MVP this year, because he played really well yesterday.

When they were pulling bodies off the pile in that endless scrum after the onside kick, are you thinking that was a good idea?

You know, Gerry, it’s kind of weird. Bill Cowher and I were talking about this yesterday on the pregame show. Now Bill played in two Super Bowls as a coach, one Super Bowl XXX, the other Super Bowl XL against the Seattle Seahawks. Bill was saying before the game — and I finally keyed him up on it — that when you are clearly the inferior team and you have in your mind that you are the inferior team, you need to do something to try to get the extra possession. You need to be a little bit aggressive — go for it on fourth and one, going for two late in the game, things of that nature. And that is what he tried to do in Super Bowl XXX, because he didn’t think the Pittsburgh Steelers could really matchup with the Dallas Cowboys in that game. And then he Super Bowl XL, he was in Jim Caldwell’s shoes; he had the better team, he had to be a little bit more careful with the ball. So when you think back to all the things that Sean Payton did yesterday, he knew in his heart that he was playing against a great offensive team and really felt that he needed an extra possession. Great, gutsy call and if it works, you’re a genius.

I didn’t think New Orleans was that bad. I didn’t look at New Orleans as so inferior that they had to be kicking onside kicks or taking a bunch of chances.

I will say this: if Pierre Garçon does not drop the football in the second quarter, it is one of those plays where that could determine the outcome of the game. I think we’ve talked about this over the years, that teams and coaches look at four or five plays that could have decided that game. And that was one of those plays because Garçon gets the ball thrown right at him and the ball goes right through his hands. And that was on a third down and it forced Indianapolis to punt. Because at that point the Indianapolis offense was motoring. They had 11 play drives, the field goal, a touchdown – the next series is when Garçon drops the ball. So I know from Sean Payton’s standpoint standing there and watching Peyton Manning chew up your defense early in the game makes you think, “Oh my god, I’ve got to be aggressive.” And hey, it worked for him. There are a lot of times when those decisions never work and those coaches get killed for it. But it worked, they won the Super Bowl, and it was a tremendous, tremendous performance by his quarterback Drew Brees.

Boomer, do you think once in that 30 minute halftime that the Colts special teams coach mentioned that they might onside kick it?

I wouldn’t doubt if it wasn’t brought up. But listen, Hank Baskett, that ball is kicked right to him and if he doesn’t fumble around with it and just receives it, that call and the wisdom of that call is going to be called into question. Why? Because you are giving Indianapolis great field position to start the second half. It really comes down to one guy who makes the play and one guy who doesn’t, and in this case that guy was Hank Baskett.

What did Tony Dungy think he knew that had him say this one isn’t even going to be close?

I would tell you that I think Tony Dungy maybe, selfishly, thinks this isn’t a bad thing, because hey he is not the head coach. And I am sure Joe Montana thinks this isn’t bad because Peyton Manning didn’t win another Super Bowl. There is some of that that is out there. I think he was looking at it purely from an offensive standpoint, that Peyton Manning should be able to chew up that defense. And for the most part I think that Peyton moved the ball up and down the field, there is no question about it. What I don’t think that he could have thought was that there was going to be very little pass rush in the second half by the Indianapolis Colts. And I think finally the ankle started to take its toll on Dwight Freeney; he was ineffective late in the game and they got no pressure whatsoever. And at the end of the game, you look at the stat sheet and says, “Wow, they only sacked Drew Brees once.” That offensive line did a great job and it was a great, great offensive gameplan from Sean Payton, who was very aggressive in his play calling. At the end of the day, maybe Tony Dungy had a little Peyton Manning envy and he thought there was no way this defense was going to stop him. But to lose the game on the interception and have it returned for the touchdown was kind of the whole year encapsulated for the New Orleans Saints.

What happened on the pick?

There was a blitz to the right side of the formation. You go back and look at it, and Peyton Manning read it absolutely perfect and his hot route is back on the left side. He’s trying to throw a little slant pattern, and Tracy Porter keyed it. Tracy Porter knew that Peyton Manning was going to throw it quickly. If they would have had a little slant-and-go, it would have been an easy six points. But the fact that Peyton made the right decision to throw it, again it is one player making a play and really thinking outside of the box. Because that was a terrific anticipation play by Porter, and when you are out there all alone it is an easy pick-six.

Did Wayne slant like he was supposed to slant?

Yeah, he did. Tracy Porter just beat him to the spot. Just absolutely beat him to the spot. Reminds me of some plays that Asante Samuel has made in the past, Ty Law is a player that would make plays like that. They know that the blitz is coming, they know that the quarterback has got to get rid of the ball quickly and they beat the receiver to the spot. Again, you’ve got to take your hat off to Tracy Porter. I’d like to sit here and say, “Oh, that was a terrible throw by Peyton Manning.” But again, that was his hot read and he made the right decision and Tracy Porter made the play.

That will be remembered forever. That is on Peyton Manning’s gravestone, there is no question about it. But did he make a bad play?

I don’t think he made a bad play. And I think you’ve got to remember when you look back at this little run that the New Orleans Saints had in these playoffs, who did they beat? They beat Kurt Warner, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning. That is like Super Bowls, Super Bowl MVPs, regular season MVPs, something like 1,071 touchdown passes. You’ve got to take your hat off to Gregg Williams, the defensive coordinator. And don’t lose sight of the fact that Sean Payton took $200,000 out of his own contract and put it into the contract of Gregg Williams at the beginning of the season. It was one of the best investments Sean Payton ever made.

Tell us what affect, if there is any, when the entire world is worshipping Peyton Manning. Does that have any affect on a quarterback when for two weeks the entire world is saying you’re going to win because you are the best.

No, not at all. And I don’t take back and of the comments because of one play or one game. He will still go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, quarterbacks and he still has five or six more quality years to play. If you put this in the perspective of a New England Patriot fan or a New England Patriot owner like Bob Kraft, and Peyton Manning is going to get ready to sign a new contract really soon. And that interception cost Peyton Manning, in my eyes. Well actually, cha-ching for Tom Brady because Tom Brady does have three Super Bowl Championships and his contract is up as well. So the guy who is actually the biggest winner, I think in all of this, is Tom Brady. Because Peyton Manning is still not able to eclipse the three Super Bowl championships that Tom Brady under his belt.

If he marches them down and wins the championship, he is the man. And now they are saying he is a .500 quarterback during the postseason.

Whoever says those things, they don’t know the game. The guy is a great, great football player and Tracy Porter made a great play. I don’t know why everyone discounts the other team. The other guys get paid too. And Tracy Porter probably had a hell of a night last night – Bourbon Street came to the Super Bowl as I was saying. And you know what, why can’t we just laud the guys for winning a football game as opposed to always being so negative about the guys who have lost the game. I’ve played the position, and I’ve said it about Tom Brady and I’ve said it about Peyton Manning. They play in a different era than I did, I recognize that. But still, there has to be a guy that is going to make the plays at the end of games, during games that gets his team to this. And where does the discussion go when you start discussing that they should have gone for 16-0 and stayed sharp and tried to build a legacy here much like the Patriots did a few years back. I am not going to kill Peyton Manning for an interception that he threw in the Super Bowl when for years the guy has been at the top of his game, and I will never forget that.

You hit on one of the big keys of the game, and it was the ineffectiveness of Dwight Freeney after the first quarter. And you sat down with Freeney and Robert Mathis. Did you sense this?

I really thought when I sat down and interviewed those guys, I didn’t think that he was going to play. I looked at his ankle and it looked like he had a grapefruit in there. And then you find it is a grade-three sprain and he has a tear in the ligament there, and you say to yourself there is no way that this 265-pound dynamo of a player is going to be the same guy. Now, he obviously took a shot in that ankle and I’d love to be the doctor that signs off and says you know what, there is no way you can make your ankle any worse so go out and play. That’s a concussion, the kid is not even out on the field. So I will say that for the first half, he was tremendous. The extended halftime probably tightened his ankle up because he certainly was not even close to being the player he was. I give him a lot of credit, because I don’t know how smart it was but it certainly was courageous.

The Saints, after getting stopped on third and goal, fourth and goal stopped the Colts three and out. How important was it that they stopped them and got the field goal going into halftime?

Well, they got the three points back that they didn’t go for there. I will say this, I thought there was a little bit of mismanagement on the part of Sean Payton there. He could have called timeout after the second down. Of course, Indianapolis ran the ball and that is when they finally called timeout. They could have gotten the ball back with a little over a minute, maybe 50 seconds and instead they got it with about 30 seconds to go in the half. At least they had one timeout that they were able to use, but I thought that was a little bit of mismanagement. I thought they should have been aggressively using their timeouts to see if they could get the ball back and get in position for a touchdown. Listen, at the end of the day they got the three points and that is all that mattered.

You talk about Gregg Williams and how important a decision that was for Sean Payton. We are not going to have those in New England.

Bill Belichick is the czar. He sits on top of everything, so he doesn’t need anyone like that.

Is that significant? Does that matter?

From the traditional sense, it does matter. I don’t care what anyone says, I don’t know why they are doing things differently. Bill always has done things differently. But in the traditional sense, when you get there and you start going to work, there is always that one guy who leads the offense, one guy that leads the defense and that is who you look to. I know Bill has a commanding presence there, but I don’t necessarily know that you can do it without the traditional way of doing it. But I guess only time will tell.