BRONCOS WIN SUPER BOWL, 38-21 OVER SAINTS Denver Offense Near Perfect January 22, 2012: The Saints couldn't solve the Bronco offense, and Denver won, 38-21, without ever punting. The Broncos had seven possessions in the game, and scored on six of them. One possession ended in an interception in the Saints endzone, after the Broncos had driven 60 yards to get to the Saints seven-yard line. Except for the pick, 22-year-old starting quarterback and Super Bowl XV MVP Josh Freeman was near-perfect, completing 18 of 21 for 205 yards and three touchdowns (127.1). The Broncos also ran for 262 yards against the Saints on 43 rushing attempts (6.1). Three different Broncos ran for 75 or more yards, but none broke one hundred. The Broncos finished the game with 456 yards of offense, while the Saints accumulated 377 yards of offense, 259 through the air and 118 on the ground. Bronco head coach Hank Sienzant said after the game, "Josh [Freeman] was incredible, and really on fire today. He has put together an incredible string of success, winning four playoffs and a championship at age 22. That young man has some future ahead of him." While the Broncos ran the ball with much success, it was the Saints who came in with the strong running game. They ran for an average of 261 yards per game over their previous four games alternating Jamaal Charles and Arian Foster, averaging 6.1 per carry and 43 rushes per game in that span. Those were numbers that the Broncos, not the Saints, would attain in this Super Bowl, as the Broncos ran 43 times for 262 yards. The Saints came out throwing in this game with Tony Romo - mostly because the Broncos opened in an unorthodox 5-3 defense to try to stop the Saints incredible ground game. "We needed to do something to take the Saints out of their comfort zone with their running game, and force them to throw the ball," Hank Sienzant said afterward. "The 5-3 seemed like it would do the trick. We first saw the Redskins use it in a playoff game in 1972 when they faced the Green Bay Packers with John Brockington and MacArthur Lane. It stopped the Packer ground game cold." The 5-3 wasn't quite so effective against the Saints, but it did cause them to adapt, as they threw on six of their first nine plays. The passing did not stop New Orleans, as they moved downfield with Romo completing four of six for 63 yards. Facing a third-and-ten from the Bronco 12, Romo hit Arian Foster on a screen pass and Foster took it nine yards to the Denver three yard line. Fourth and one at the Broncos three. The conventional wisdom says put the field goal on the board. Saints coach Ed Minshull kicked the conventional wisdom in the can, put the ball in the hands of Jamaal Charles and Charles responded with a three-yard touchdown run on a trap play over the left side to put the Saints up 7-0. But the Broncos responded with a touchdown drive of their own. But it wasn't through the air. All but the final four yards came on the ground and through penalties, with the Brocos opening the game with the running assault that was expected from the Saints. It was almost like the two teams had switched uniforms for the game just to have a little fun. The Broncos started from their own 15, and ran on the first twelve plays of the possession, picking up 61 yards on the ground and 15 more through a roughness call against linebacker Bradie James. With a third and six from the Saints nine, the Broncos got another roughing call against the Saints, this time against Calais Campbell, and the penalty wiped out a Freeman incomplete pass and gave the Broncos a first down at near the four yard line. Freeman faked the handoff to Torain on the next play, and hit tight end Jermichael Finley for the short toss across the middle for the tying score with 2:48 left in the first quarter. On the march, Ryan Torain carried six times for 34 yards, while Ricky Williams added 23 on four runs. The Saints came right back with another touchdown drive, this time of 69 yards in ten plays, to take the lead at 14-7 early in the second quarter. With the Broncos dropping back to a 4-3 to thwart the expected passing assault from Tony Romo, the Saints opened the drive with three straight runs picking up two first downs, Mixing in runs and passes the rest of the way, New Orleans got to the Bronco one-yard line, from where Arian Foster ran it in on a trap play to the left side. On the march, Romo completed 2 of 2 for 32 yards, and the Saints ran seven times for 37 yards and the touchdown. The Broncos came right back with another long drive, ggetting inside the Saints ten on the strength of two completions for 42 yards to Dwayne Bowe. But a first and goal pass from the Saints seven-yard line that was supposed to catch the Saints defenders off-balanced did anything but, and Freeman threw the ball right into the teeth of the Saints defense looking for the inside slant. Veteran linebacker Kevin Bentley jumped the route and picked off Freeman in the end zone, ending the Broncos drive and setting up the Saints at their own 20 after the touchback. "That was probably Josh's only mistake," Sienzant said after the game. Freeman said after the game that he "tried to force it into tight coverage, and should not have. Kudos to the Saints on that one. They got me good there." Sienzant said, "We had to take the ball away without surrendering another score. We didn't want to fall behind by two scores and let them unleash that running attack on us and play keep-away for the second half. We needed a defensive stop." It didn't look like the Broncos would get it as New Orleans picked up two first downs in five plays, moving the ball to the Denver 42 yard line. But Denver's defense came through there, stopping Charles for a one-yard gain and then harrying Romo into two incomplete passes, and the Saints first (and only) punt of the game off the foot of Ben Graham rolled out of bounds at the Denver 17 yard line. With 3:53 left in the half, the Broncos knew it was time for their big comeback. "We should patent that, Sienzant laughed after the game. "It's worked well for us the last few weeks." Sienzant was referring to the Broncos blueprint of scoring just before the half expires, then taking the second half kickoff, and scoring again. The Broncos did it against the Jets, moving from a 17-14 deficit with three minutes to go in the first half to a 28-17 lead with back-to-back touchdowns. They did it again versus the Bills in the AFC Championship Game, turning a 14-7 lead into a 24-7 lead with a field goal and a touchdown. Now they were about to do it to the Saints. They opened the drive with a short pass to Delanie Walker for no gain, but ran five straight times for forty yards to move to the Saints 43. They then mixed the pass and the run to get to a third down and three from the Saints nine. With the Broncos in a hurry-up, Ryan Torain ran inside to the Saints one yard line. The Saints stopped the clock with 22 seconds left to give their defense a breather and get some defensive substitutions in the game, but Torain took the ball over the goal behind Joe Thomas for the one-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 14-14 with just 18 seconds left in the half. On the possession, Ryan Torain picked up forty yards on the ground on the march and added one reception for 11 yards. With the score tied at halftime, the Broncos knew they had an opportunity to take the lead in the second half for the first time in the game if they scored on their opening possession. "I reminded them of how hard they had fought to get here," Hank Sienzant said, "Then I opened the doors and got out of the way." The Broncos did it according to their blueprint, moving from their own 13 yard line to a touchdown in 12 plays, taking nearly half the third quarter off the clock in the process. They did it with sharp passing (Freeman was five of five for 58 yards on the march, including the scoring pass to Brandon Pettigrew from four yards out), while the Torain and Williams tandem carried seven times for 28 yards. In the prior eleven minutes of game time, the Broncos had run off 25 plays from scrimmage to the Saints two plays, and had picked up 170 yards to the Saints minus one (a Romo kneeldown to end the half). And the score had tipped in the Broncos favor, from down 14-7 to up 21-14. It was about to reach another tipping point. As the Broncos had done against the Bills in the AFC Championship, after scoring a touchdown to open the second half and intercepting Brady to set up another touchdown, the Broncos used the same blueprint here. After Charles had run three times for 17 yards, setting up a third and seven, Tracy Porter (who was questionable for the game but played through a lingering leg injury) intercepted Romo and Denver quickly added another touchdown to open up a two-touchdown lead. The Broncos biggest gain on the march after the Porter pick was a 23-yard completion to Nate Washington, but it was two Freeman runs that allowed the Broncos to score the touchdown. After a Campbell sack of Freeman cost the Broncos 11 yards and moved them back to the Saints 23, Freeman ran a second down-and-21 draw play for ten yards, then on third and eleven scrambled outside and picked up another ten. Fourth and one at the Saints three. As Ed Minshull had done earlier, Sienzant responded by going for it. Freeman feinted a handoff to Torain into the line, and hitting Jermichael Finley for the second time in the game, this time from three yards out for the touchdown with just five seconds left in the third quarter. Finley finished the game catching only two passes in the game, but scored two touchdowns, from four and three yards out. The Saints came back with a touchdown of their own to cut it to 28-21, keeping the pressure on the Broncos. Jamaal Charles was the key man on the possession, running five times for 32 yards. Charles finished off the drive in style with a 31-yard catch and run for a touchdown. Charles went down and out, and the Broncos tried to cover him with linebacker Will Witherspoon. It was a mismatch from the start, and Witherspoon had no chance to catch Charles once Charles caught the ball. The Broncos needed to respond in kind. They could not curl up into a ball and just try to run out the final ten minutes of the game. They didn't. Starting from their own 35, Freeman hit Bowe for 18 with the Saints looking for a run to Williams, then Freeman faked a handoff to Williams and took the ball on a bootleg around left end for 39 yards, getting dragged down from behind at the Saints eight. Ricky Williams finished off the drive, and to a great extent the Saints, with an eight yard touchdown run on the next play, plowing over two Saint defenders near the goal line to put the Broncos up 35-21 with 8:23 to play. Bang, bang, bang, three plays, 65 yards, and another touchdown. The Saints went into a hurry-up, but two illegal motion penalties kept them from getting into a rhythm, and a fourth and two at the Bronco 30 became a fourth and seven at the 35 after yet another illegal motion call. Fourth and seven at the Bronco 35. Romo hit Lance Moore for seven, but the spot was in the Broncos favor, and just short of the line to gain. Denver took over at their own 28 with 5:22 left in the contest and a two-score lead. Running on nearly every down, the Broncos picked up three first downs and moved the ball to the Saints 19, from where Mason Crosby finished off the Broncos last possession in the contest with a 37-yard field goal with 1:27 left to make it 38-21 in the Broncos favor. That forged the final score, but the game wasn't over yet. The Saints, with nothing on the line but pride, tried to score one final touchdown, but after getting to the Broncos four yard line, two Romo passes fell incomplete and the Broncos had won their first Super Bowl under Hank Sienzant, and their second in the last seven years. Game Notes: Jamaal Charles was the Saints leading rusher with 18 for 94 (5.2), but he was bottled up in the first half, picking up only 25 yards on eight carries (3.1). In the second half, he carried ten times for another 69 yards. Arian Foster, who was fourth in the league in rushing during the regular season, ended up with six for 25, but carried only once for no gain in the second half. Tony Romo had a good game, completing 21 of 30 for 259 yards with one touchdown and one pick, and he was equally effective in each half (94.0 in the first, 93.2 in the second). Josh Freeman had a good first half (7 of 9 for 71, one touchdown, one pick), but a second half for the ages as he went 11 of 12 for 134 and two touchdowns (152.8). He completed his first eleven passes of the second half until he missed his last attempt on the Broncos final scoring drive. The Broncos Ryan Torain led both teams in rushing with 17 for 96 (5.6), with one touchdown, while Ricky Williams wasn't far behind, with 17 for 88 (5.2) and one score. Josh Freeman, was the unaccounted-for factor, as he scrambled and ran for 75 yards on just seven carries (10.7), including a big 39-yard bootleg that helped the Broncos put the game away midway through the fourth quarter after the Saints had rallied back to cut the Bronco lead to 28-21. New Orleans' Lance Moore finished with six receptions but did minimal damage, picking up only forty yards. Michael Jenkins for the Saints gained 69 yards on four receptions, while Arian Foster added 68 through the air on five catches. Dwayne Bowe was the Broncos leading receiver, with five for 90 yards. Josh Freeman's three touchdown passes were Bogarted by the tight ends, with Finley scoring twice and Pettigrew once.