Every Monday during the season, Neil Reynolds has been delivering his verdict on American football's hottest topics using the statistics of the game to give fans an insight into the NFL. In his final column of the season, Neil looks back at an incredible Super Bowl win for the Saints.

If Super Bowl 44 had been a boxing match, they might have stopped it after the opening couple of rounds.

The challenger - in the eyes of most pundits - was on the ropes and reeling. The New Orleans Saints were far from out on their feet but they had been on the receiving end of some big blows from the favoured Indianapolis Colts.

While the Saints sputtered and missed some opportunities to make plays - Marques Colston let a big-gainer slip right through his fingers - the Colts reeled off two text-book 11-play drives worth 154 yards and opened up a quick 10-0 lead.

In the first period alone, the Colts had more points (10) than the Saints had offensive plays from scrimmage (9). All too often I have seen that kind of start in a Super Bowl turn into a 42-10 hammering.

But the Saints not only fought back by punching their opponent firmly on the nose. They knocked the Colts to the ground, ignored the referee's count, climbed onto the top rope and delivered a killer elbow to the solar-plexus, emerging as 31-17 winners.

Okay, my boxing metaphor has morphed into WWE wrestling with an NFL scoreline tacked on the end (that's just weird), but you get my point!

The Saints were shell-shocked but they didn't even blink - they just fought their way back into the contest and did that by playing how they had played and coached all season long - with lots of spirit and a bucket-load of aggression.

Head coach Sean Payton called a very aggressive game and while not all of his moves paid off, he did inspire his players. The Saints on the field knew their coach was going to give them every possible chance to win the biggest game of their lives. And they responded by playing what seemed like care-free, 100 miles-per-hour football.

Payton first rolled the dice on fourth and goal from the Colts' one-yard line as half-time approached. It was certainly a bold move given that the Saints were only down 10-3 at the time. The ensuing run failed but it was a case of no harm done as the defense held firm and New Orleans got the ball back with a few seconds remaining on the clock, moving into field goal range and getting the three they should have got the first time around.

But the gutsiest call - we can hail it gutsy now because it paid off - came to start the second half. Never before has a team playing in a Super Bowl attempted an onside kick outside of a desperation situation in a fourth quarter.

That didn't deter Payton, even though his men only trailed 10-6 going into the final 30 minutes of play. What a risky manoeuvre. Had it failed, the Saints would have handed the ball to the greatest quarterback in the game around their own 40-yard line. That could have been game over.

But the best kind of onside kick is an unexpected onside kick. And there is no way, with the remnants of The Who still ringing in their ears, the Colts could have expected Thomas Morstead to send the ball squibbing towards the sidelines. Hank Baskett was certainly not prepared and the pigskin bounced straight off his chest. Despite the desperate screams of "blue ball" Jonathan Casillas recovered for the Saints and Brees took full advantage, moving into scoring range with four straight completions before putting New Orleans in front on a 16-yard pass to Pierre Thomas.

The Saints were aggressive on defense as well. While they played patiently for much of the contest, often to no avail against Manning, they did start to send more blitzers after the reigning league MVP when trying to defend a 24-17 lead late in the day.

And it paid off. Under some pretty decent pressure, Manning attempted a third down pass to Reggie Wayne only to see Tracy Porter get a great jump on the ball - it was a wonderful example of calculated aggression - and race 74 yards in the other direction for the decisive touchdown.

Manning had one more shot and moved the Colts into scoring range, but more aggressive defense - especially near the goal-line - ended the contest. It was fitting that the Super Bowl should end with some aggressive play from the Saints because they proved to be great fighters after making such a poor start.

And it's somewhat fitting that a city like New Orleans should celebrate its first Super Bowl victory by means of a comeback. It seems the Saints and the people of New Orleans - who continue to make a comeback of their own every single day - really are intrinsically linked.

And that connection between the Saints players and their fans is why very few outside of Indianapolis will begrudge Sean Payton and his men from their moment of NFL glory today.

They'll be dancing on the streets of Louisiana and Leicester today.

Now onto this week's Super Bowl numbers...

29 of 32... Brees may not have the strongest of arms but he certainly knows how to put the ball on the money. When he gets into a rhythm, the former San Diego Charger and surely a future Hall of Famer is incredibly accurate and tough to slow down. Brees, like the rest of the Saints, looked a little nervous in the opening exchanges and completed just 3 of his first 7 passes for 27 yards. That was in an opening 15 minutes that saw the Saints fall 10-0 behind. In the remaining 45 minutes - in which the Saints out-scored the Colts 31-7 - Brees completed 29 of 32 passes. And it should be noted that one of his incompletions was a spike to stop the clock near the end of the first half and another was a perfect pass into the hands of Reggie Bush that ended up on the ground. Brees tied Tom Brady's Super Bowl record of 32 completions and ended the night having hit on 32 of 39 for 288 yards, 2 touchdowns, no interceptions and a 114.5 quarterback rating. It was very pleasing and rather ironic to see Brees - one of the NFL's good guys - lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy in Sun Life Stadium - home of the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins didn't think he was worth a gamble in 2006 and Brees headed to New Orleans. Shame on you, Miami, for going with Daunte Culpepper instead.

863... That's the number of regular season touchdown passes thrown by the two men made to look rather foolish by Tracy Porter in the last two playoff games. Porter picked off Brett Favre (497 career touchdown passes) on the final play of regulation in the NFC Championship Game, ending any hopes of the Minnesota Vikings' kicking a game-winning field goal. And he did the same - but in more dramatic fashion - to Peyton Manning (366 career touchdown strikes) in the latter stages of the Super Bowl. Porter is a good example to young defensive backs - he is still a spring chicken himself - because he knows he cannot rely solely on athletic ability. While he is lightning quick, as evidenced by his scoring return that iced the title game, Porter knows he must also rely on his wits. And he puts his pick of Manning down to film study - he certainly appeared to know where Peyton was going with the football on the crucial third down play. With that knowledge in the back of his mind, Porter got into the right position and then let his athletic ability do the rest.

96... I got this gem from Greg Brady and Arlo White on BBC Radio Five Live's coverage of the Super Bowl. Apparently, in the space of one hour at Media Day earlier in the week, Dwight Freeney was asked 96 different times about the state of his ankle. There didn't appear to be too much wrong with Freeney in the first half as he got into the backfield on several occasions and even showed some burst out of his patented spin move. There was even one time when he took left tackle Jermon Bushrod with him en route to sacking Brees. But the ankle was a factor as the game went on. Freeney twice went to the sidelines to have the injury re-taped and it seemed Brees had increased and largely excellent pressure as the night went on. And that allowed Brees to pick the Colts apart as he secured the Super Bowl MVP crown. That Freeney sack was the only one Indianapolis recorded. And while we're on the subject of stats, it was a clean game. The Manning interception was the only turnover but what a costly one it was, and the two teams combined for just eight penalties in what was a crisp, well-played contest.

Monday Musings...

• The NFL does so many things wonderfully well during Super Bowl week but I think they have to find a way to reduce the number of media who swarm the field at the end of the game. Surely there is a time and a place for the post-match interviews? Within 30 seconds of the final gun, Brees was literally engulfed by reporters and cameramen. A microphone was shoved under his nose and he was robbed of the chance to celebrate with his team-mates. He even struggled to break through the crowd to shake hands with Peyton Manning. It was the same with Jim Caldwell. If I'm a fan in the stadium or a member of the NFL's valued television audience, I would prefer to see an empty field so I get a good look at Reggie Bush hugging Brees or some hefty offensive lineman doing a victory dance at midfield. At the end of last night's Super Bowl, it was hard to make out a great many of the players. All photographers have camera lenses bigger than my car these days, so why do they need to be right under the players' noses? I am convinced they would get much better pictures if the field were kept clean until after the presentation of the Super Bowl trophy. That might be the best way to handle the post-match festivities without the need to reduce the number of media in the stadium. Of course, the number of people on NFL sidelines is a personal bug bear of mine anyway. There seemed to be an awful lot of people in suits and ties just milling around on the sidelines in Miami. And it gets to the point where it becomes dangerous. NFL players are big and fast - and when they get rolling towards the sidelines they sometimes need a little bit of run-off to slow down. Bush got shoved out of bounds on one play and just crashed into the crowd. That's when legs get broken. I'm sure the NFL has bigger concerns on Super Bowl Sunday, but my personal wish for the future is that the sidelines and - more importantly - the post-match field get cleaned up.

• What a great effort by Lance Moore on the two-point conversion that put New Orleans into a 24-17 fourth quarter lead. Not only did he need to secure a bobbling ball while falling at high speed to the ground, he also had the nous to twist his body so the football broke the plane of the goal-line. The play was initially ruled incomplete - which did not exactly paint line judge Jeff Seeman in a glorious light as the play occurred right under his nose and he chose to make a rather dramatic bobbling motion before signalling incomplete pass. Payton challenged and Moore received the two points his efforts richly deserved. Sadly, there was no Wembley Stadium, soccer-style celebration from Moore due to the delayed announcement of the two-point conversion. But they were crucial points at the time.

• Jeremy Shockey looked like he enjoyed his Super Bowl experience a bit more this time around, catching a two-yard touchdown pass from Brees in the final period before being mobbed in the end zone by his team-mates. Shockey does have another Super Bowl ring following the New York Giants' upset of the New England Patriots but he was injured, on his way out of town by that stage and watched the action unfold from a luxury box. He was not on the sidelines, he didn't feel part of the team and he even had the injustice of flying to Arizona on his own in a middle seat. As someone who has done a great deal of travelling back and forth to the United States during the course of this thrilling season, I would guess it was the middle seat issue that forced Shockey to seek a trade away from the Giants! And I loved Shockey's quotes after walking off the field a winner in Miami. He said: "A great feeling... I work hard. I don't just do this for the money. I've got metal in my leg. I've got broken bones. I've got ligaments that are torn and I do this for the love of the game. The passion I have is still there." There were those in New York who questioned whether Shockey still had that desire and passion. They were wrong. Shockey still wants it badly - he just wants to feel wanted himself along the way.

Final Thought

Can anyone else remember those dark days when the Super Bowl was over by half-time? Not in today's NFL. The teams are, more often than not, just too evenly matched and gone are the days of the Chicago Bears' 46-10 shellacking of the New England Patriots or the San Francisco 49ers putting up a 55-10 beating of the Denver Broncos. It was enough to make you consider hitting the sack before the fourth quarter was anywhere near in sight. Super Bowl 44 was another superb title game and brought to an end what has been one of the most thrilling seasons in living memory. On a personal level, I have had an absolute blast, commentating on games from Green Bay, Arizona and San Diego. Those trips were obviously great, but even when I was sat in the studios at BBC Television Centre every week, it seemed like the big games and dramatic moments kept on coming. Sometimes myself and my partner in crime, Arlo White, would simply shake our heads at the way events were unfolding around the league. An NFL season is a thrilling roller-coaster ride with shocks, comebacks and many examples of outstanding athletic excellence. The league's popularity is on the rise around the world and the NFL is definitely onto a good thing. Surely the powers that be - on both sides of the negotiating table - will realise that and we will get to enjoy such high-quality, uninterrupted sporting drama for many years to come. Thanks for taking the time to read this column this season and I hope you enjoyed a thrilling finale in Miami.