SportsBoner.com

Sometimes what seems destined, only destines what that seems, ultimately to fail. In our much ballyhooed case, the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints seemed destined to go undefeated (and much to TV executives’ delights), even all the way to the Super Bowl. At 13-0 each, the two teams were far from flukes fielding both impressive offenses and opportunistic defenses. By the time the smoke cleared, the Saints went on to lose their next 3 regular season game, the Colts would win one more to go 14-0, but infamously opted to rest their starters in weeks 16 and 17 to complete the pair’s dubious end to the season and effectively back into the playoffs.

Again what seems destined… with the Colts habit of bowing out early in the playoffs (Super Bowl XLI the only exception), and the Saint’s lack of effective playoff pedigree, what started out as a date with undefeated destiny turned into most of the media/public calling for both teams to fall flat. Momentum, no rust, consistency, winning attitude… terms that were eagerly thrown around that wouldn’t apply to the Colts nor the Saints in an age of short memory. In the last decade, teams like the 2008 Arizona Cardinals, the 2007 New York Giants, and the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers all made us believe that the once coveted bye week possessed by the top seeds were not that coveted. The belief soon rooted that momentum as seen by the recent success of wild-card teams would be the deciding factor on who would make it to Super Sunday.

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