Hammer time!
NEW ORLEANS – Anyone who watched Boise State beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl knows there's a time in football for gimmickry, gadgetry and the unexpected. Then there are times to dispense with the bag of tricks and bring out the toolbox.
Saturday was a night for the latter.
In a city still struggling to rebuild itself more than a year after Hurricane Katrina, with the locals rallying around a football team that has rebuilt itself from perennial sad sacks to Super Bowl contenders, it was time to use a single tool: The Hammer. In this case, the 6-foot-1, 232-pound hammer known as Deuce McAllister.
McAllister, the Saints' veteran running back, pounded Philadelphia defenders as if they were nails. Thwack, thwack, thwack.
When it was over, McAllister had 143 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. He had four catches for 20 yards and another touchdown. He had body cramps, but it was the Eagles who left the Superdome in tremendous pain after the Saints rode McAllister to a 27-24 victory, into the NFC championship for the first time in franchise history and one victory away from the Super Bowl.
"I was just trying to have the will to win," said McAllister, following his first postseason victory. "As much as we've been through as a team, as much as this city's been through, we talked about leaving it all out on the field. And that's what I tried to do."
That will was evident from the first play from scrimmage when McAllister barreled up the middle for 12 yards. It was a sign of things to come – very good things for the Saints.
More impressive than McAllister's numbers was how he amassed them. Short of walking across hot coals or a bed of nails, there's a form of punishment that only the most durable can survive: running through a phalanx of 290-pound linemen with bulging biceps, bulging neck veins and bloodthirsty demeanors.
"Running between the tackles," they call it, and it's where McAllister ran all night in a career-defining performance that also revealed how the Saints must play if they hope to beat the winner of the Seattle-Chicago game in next week's NFC championship game and then win the Super Bowl.
Simply put, it's "Hammer time."
Drew Brees is the poised quarterback suddenly as beloved in this city as beignets, gumbo and, dare we say it, Archie Manning. Sean Payton is the NFL's Coach of the Year and, if he says the word, could probably get a statue of himself erected outside the Superdome. Marques Colston is the rookie receiver who's still inducing night sweats from other team executives who realize they could have had him anytime before the Saints drafted in the seventh round.
And then, of course, there's Reggie Bush, the electrifying rookie who the Saints grabbed with the second pick and a player some thought would diminish McAllister's role, if not make the veteran expendable.
How wrong they were.
If Bush and McAllister are a 1-2 punch, Bush is the stiff jab and occasional uppercut. McAllister is the body blow which wears a defense out round after round until, like Roberto Duran, they're ready to retreat to their corner, wave off the referee and moan "No Mas."
No, McAllister didn't singlehandedly carry the Saints to a 10-6 record in the regular season, the NFC South title or to victory Saturday night. He had help from a diversified offense that gave him time to catch his breath and a defense that again came through in the clutch. Still, it was McAllister who set the tone.
No play better captured McAllister's spirit than the one late in the second quarter, with the Saints trailing 7-6 and facing second-and-goal at the Eagles' 4-yard-line. McAllister took the handoff from Brees and bulled up the middle, between the tackles, into what looked like a wall of granite. But The Hammer kept pounding, his legs kept churning, and the pile of bodies kept moving. And moving, and moving and … with McAllister buried somewhere in the middle of the scrum, he kept pounding until he'd crossed the goal line.
"I'm a big guy," McAllister said later. "So if you get 230 pounds moving plus my fullback is 255. We're a hard tandem to stop and just determined. … If you don't get a direct contact on my knees or anything like that, then I'm pretty hard to bring down."
In transforming the Saints from a 3-13 team into the NFC South champs in one improbable year, Payton has earned a reputation as a shrewd play caller. But with the game on the line and the clock running down, he got some advice – from a sellout crowd of 70,000.
"We want Deuce, we want Deuce," they chanted.
Maybe those headsets Payton wears affected his hearing, or the heat of the moment affected his judgment. With the Saints clinging to their three-point lead and just over three minutes left, Payton closed the toolbox and pulled out his bag of tricks.
He sent Bush into the backfield. He sent Brees into the risky section of the playbook. The Saints quarterback took the snap. Bush stutter-stepped followed by the pitch from Brees.
Bush never caught the toss. The Eagles recovered. They took over at their own 44 with 3:18 left to play, plenty of time to set up for a field goal or score the game-winning touchdown. Now McAllister could do nothing but watch.
But he and the sellout crowd watched a defense that embodied McAllister's spirit. Like jackhammers, the Saints defenders pounded away, surrendering nary a yard in three plays. When the Eagles lined up to go for it on fourth-and-10, the Eagles flinched again, guard Scott Young committing a false-start penalty that forced the Eagles to punt and hope they could stop the Saints in time for one last possession.
It came down to third-and-1 at the Saints' 31 with 1:37 to play. The Eagles called a timeout. The Saints called one of their own. McAllister, his body tightening with cramps, needed an IV. But the Saints needed one yard to run out the clock. So Payton went back to the toolbox and the fans cried out for the play. "Doooooooo-ssssss."
Brees took the snap, buried the ball in McAllister's gut and the Saints veteran pounded through the Eagles' defensive line and sealed the game with a 5-yard run. Moments later the clock ran out, McAllister headed toward the locker room for his IV and Saints fans wondered how far this magical journey might take them.
"Deuce was fantastic tonight," Payton said. "… They weren't going to stop him on that third-and-one."
No, they weren't going to stop him. Now the question is: can anyone stop the Saints?
To win it all, Payton might as well bring the bag of tricks. But he and the rest of the team better remember to get the ball to the man who powers between the tackles and epitomizes the toughness of a team that might have even tougher games ahead.
"You've got to run the ball in the playoffs," McAllister said. "That's what it's all about."
Yes, it's Hammer time.
