As the dust settles from Super Bowl XLIV, several players are pointing to the surprise onside kick to start the second half -- and the guts shown by coach Sean Payton in calling it -- as the single biggest play of the game.
“It was amazing,” Saints center Jonathan Goodwin said Monday on ESPN radio’s Mike and Mike in the Morning. “When we took the field after we recovered the onside kick it was just a whole different feel to the game. It just felt like there was no way we could lose the game. . . . That particular moment changed history for us.”
“I wasn’t worried,” kicker Thomas Morstead said, per the New York Times. “I was just terrified. I was terrified and excited at the same time.”
Morstead said John Carney, the former Saints kicker who now works with the team as a kicking consultant, worked with him on onside kick technique and told him to “bend it like Beckham.”
It took the officials a long time to determine who had recovered the kick, and Morstead said at one point he actually heard an official say the Colts had it. If the Colts had actually gained possession, maybe we’d all be talking this morning about the bonehead decision by Payton that handed the Colts the Super Bowl.
Colts defensive back Melvin Bullitt said: “That was a huge turning point. They caught us off guard. It was gutsy. If we would have got it, the game might have been a blowout.”
But Payton was always confident, telling his players beforehand, “It’s going to be a great play.” It was.