The Lamron

Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Darron Cummings/AP Images Dwight Freeney (93) could be the difference maker in the Super Bowl. Freeney will be playing with a torn ligament in his right ankle.

This year's Super Bowl features an incredible mix of feel-good, triumph over tragedy side stories and a battle of the league's offensive titans, two deep and complex storylines that that make it hard to know where to start.

Peyton Manning, the best quarterback of the decade, versus Drew Brees, a quarterback who is carrying the city of New Orleans on his back. Darren Sharper, the wily veteran safety who has tortured quarterbacks across the league this season, versus the young Indianapolis receivers: Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie are Colts indeed; they're young and full of energy and raw talent that both have slowly harnessed under Manning's tutelage. If you're the betting type, this is probably the toughest Super Bowl pick in recent memory.

Here's a word of advice. Ignore the sentimental current that tugs at your heartstrings telling you to pick the Saints because it's their destiny to win this game and fulfill their mission of pulling New Orleans out of the last of the wreckage left by Hurricane Katrina. As heartwarming as that is and as great of a Sandra Bullock movie it would make, it's not going to happen.

The biggest problem for the Saints is going to be defense, defense and defense. New Orleans has only held opponents to 10 points or less twice this season. The Colts average 26 points per game, which isn't an astronomical number, but if Sean Payton and Brees decide to get into a shootout with Manning, they will lose. He's just too good for that.

To beat Manning you have to disrupt his rhythm, and make him uncomfortable. If you look closely, when Peyton gets upset and out of his zone he looks astonishingly like his younger brother when Eli is out of sync. That lowered head, raising of the hands and look of, "Oh come on, I should've had that," that's a billboard to defensive coordinators saying, "Blitz me please, because my head is just not in the game anymore."

As many Giants fans will tell you, once Eli gets jolted, it's hard to put him on track. While Peyton has a lot more focus, if Sharper and company can get that look of frustration and self-disgust in his eyes, they'll have a shot. The New York Jets managed to do it for the first half in the AFC Championship and then were promptly torn to pieces in the second half.

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