Chicago Herald-American

While Sean Payton deserves credit for winning the Super Bowl with the Saints, I felt sorry for Jim Haslett, the Saints' former coach.

If Payton thinks he had trying times in the wake of Hurricane Katrina during his first season with the Saints in 2006, it's nothing compared to what Haslett went through the previous year. The Saints were relocated to San Antonio and were vagabonds that season, playing three "home" games in the Alamodome, four at LSU and even one home game on the road at the Meadowlands. They went 3-13 and Haslett was fired. The next season they hired Payton -- and also signed Drew Brees and drafted Reggie Bush and Marques Colston. The quarterback always makes the difference. 

Haslett, a former Bills linebacker who interviewed for the Bears coaching job that went to Dick Jauron in 1999, was hired by the Saints in 2000 when Mike Ditka was fired after a 3-13 season. In his first season, the Saints went 10-6 and made the playoffs and Haslett won the NFL's Coach of the Year Award.

He couldn't sustain it, going 7-9, 9-7, 8-8 and 8-8 without making the playoffs in the next four seasons. So he ligitimately was on the hot seat in 2005. Regardless, I thought it was bad form for the Saints to let him go after such a tumultuous season. Struggling Bears head coaches have been retained with far fewer mitigating factors.

While Payton looks like a genius for his gutsy moves that panned out in the Super Bowl, I still think his success is more typical of NFL coaches: right coach at the right place at the right time. Jim Haslett on paper looks like a failed NFL coach, but based on his record with the Saints (45-51), he's no more of a failed NFL coach than Bill Belichick was after getting fired from the Browns (36-44, one playoff berth).

The point is, if Haslett gets into a situation as favorable as Payton in terms of personnel, it would not be a big surprise if he has similar success.  

Random Super Bowl weekend thoughts: 

1. When Richard Dent didn't make the Hall of Fame again, I figured he was finally paying the price for being a guy who "took plays off." It actually seemed right that "high-motor" guys like Dan Hampton and John Randle got in before Dent. They worked harder. 

But John Jurkovic, a former NFL defensive tackle and co-host of the "Afternoon Saloon" on WMVP-AM, gave a pretty good defense of Dent in that regard on ESPNChicago.com last week:

"One of the biggest knocks against him was that he took plays off," Jurko wrote. "Usually, that's not decided before you start to rush the passer. That's something where, "OK, I was going to try something, it didn't happen, and now I'm just gong to settle things down, and I'm going to get pressure on the quarterback.

"What happens over 75 plays, once in a while, to be able to play that many plays, you've got to say, "OK, I'm not going to have my best effort on this one. I'm going to have to bring the pass rush on the next one, and maybe conserve a little energy."

And whether or not Dent took plays off, 137 1/2 sacks is 137 1/2 sacks. It's not like he was no factor at all when he wasn't getting a sack. Unfortunately, "quarterback pressures" or "quarterback hits" have yet to become as accepted statistically as doubles and RBIs are for home-run hitters in baseball. 

2. The Bears could use a receiver like Torry Holt, but not the Holt who caught 51 passes for 722 yards and no touchdown with the Jaguars last season. They need the Torry Holt who caught 117 passes for 1,696 yards and 12 TDs for the Rams in 2003. Unfortunately, that Holt no longer exists. His last 1,000-yard season was in 2007. It's unlikely Holt, who will turn 34 before training camp begins, will be rejuvenated under Mike Martz -- unless he has Kurt Warner throwing to him, Orlando Pace giving Warner time to throw, Isaac Bruce on the other side and Marshall Faulk coming out of the backfield. The Bears have plenty of guys who can catch 51 passes for 722 yards and no touchdowns. 

3. I guess the Saints' defense deserves the credit for holding the Colts to 17 points in the Super Bowl, but Peyton Manning has to take some of the blame. Besides the interception that Tracy Porter returned 74 yards for a touchdown, he made an even bigger mistake earlier in the fourth quarter. With the Colts leading 17-16 and the ball at the Saints 33, Manning went for the home run and threw a deep ball for Austin Collie on third-and-11 instead of throwing something over the middle that would have at least gotten Matt Stover into better field goal range. 

Stover missed a 51-yarder. He hasn't made a 50-yard field goal since 2006 (0-for-6). If he kicks a 45-yarder, it's 20-16. And if the Saints responde with a touchdown as they did, they go up 23-20 instead of 24-17. With Manning only needing a field goal in the final five minutes instead of a touchdown, he has the edge rather than the other way around. It made a big difference.

4. Sean Payton's onside kick call will go down as maybe the best call in the history of the Super Bowl. But even though it fooled the Colts, they still should have gotten the ball. Hank Baskett, the reserve wide receiver known mostly for his role as husband of Playboy model Kendra Wilkinson (he's certainly not known for his great hands) was there to make the play but the ball bounced off his hands and the Saints recovered. 

5. The Saints' offensive line did a great job against the Colts' defense, allowing one sack (by Dwight Freeney) and only one "quarterback hit." It's a modestly built offensive line, too. Right tackle Jon Stinchcomb was a second-round pick in 2003; right guard Jahri Evans a fifth-round pick in 2006; left tackle Jermon Bushrod was a fourth-round pick in 2007; left guard Carl Nicks a fifth-round pick in 2008 and center Jonathan Goodwin an undrafted free agent in 2006. See how easy it is, Jerry Angelo? 

6. Manning was 31-of-45 for 333 yards, one touchdown and one interception for a respectable 88.5 passer rating. But he really wasn't even that good. He was 6-of-8 for 89 yards in a futile drive at the end of game. So at the point of Tracey Porter's interception, Manning had thrown for only 244 yards and his passer rating was 83.6. Not too good against a defense that ranked 25th in the NFL in yards allowed this season. In eight previous games this season against defenses ranked 20th or lower, Manning's passer rating was an average of 118.8 (20 touchdowns, five interceptions). 

7. Speaking of Manning's interception, why shouldn't interception return yards count against a quarterbacks yardage total? Manning threw for 333 yards, but he gave 74 back on one play that went the other way for a total of 259. Even if you count it from the line of scrimmage, it's still 67 negative yards. For some reason, interception return yardage is not accounted for in total yards, which accounts for misleading total yardage figures. The Colts, for instance, outgained the Saints 432-332 in the Super Bowl. If you subract the 67-yard net loss on the Porter interception return, the margin was only 365-332.