Super Bowl Odds: Colts -5.5

Offensive Matchup

The story of Super Bowl XLIV will be the two offenses and there are plenty of similarities. While the Saints had the No. 1 ranked offense in the NFL this year, there are few people that wouldn’t want Peyton Manning as their quarterback in a one-game showdown. Regardless of the stats, the Colts offense is as good as anyone in the NFL and in this matchup, they might even be better.

The Saints have the running game but the Colts unit is better overall.

Defensive Matchup

The Saints defense improved vastly this year as coordinator Gregg Williams took over but they still aren’t perfect. We’ll give them the slight edge in this matchup but the Colts have a habit of doing just enough to win games where as we don’t know that about the Saints.

The Saints will blitz a lot but that doesn’t usually turn out well because Peyton Manning knows how to get rid of the ball quickly.

The Colts defense bends but it doesn’t break, which might be the key to this game.

Special Teams

This matchup has to go to the Colts.

The Saints have the better return teams but the Colts have the better coverage teams. That leaves the matchup to punting, where the Saints have a slight edge, and placekicking, where the Colts have a huge edge.

Saints kicker Garrett Hartley has just 25 field goal attempts in his NFL career while Colts kicker Matt Stover is very experienced. He has won a Super Bowl before – that’s a big difference.

Northbet Pick: Colts -5.5