Who needs Mardi Gras? Saints march on By BARRY WILNER, AP Football Writer
NEW ORLEANS - Who needs Mardi Gras when you're one game from the Super Bowl? Deuce McAllister and rookie sensation Reggie Bush gave this battered city a reason to throw itself a party, carrying the New Orleans Saints where they've never been before — one game from the Super Bowl.
To constant chants of "DEUCE!" or "REG-GIE! REG-GIE!" the Saints used an assortment of spectacular plays to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27-24.
"This year, some things have happened for us and it's like, wow, this may be destiny," McAllister said.
"It means everything," Bush said. "All that stuff we went through as a team, these are the type of games we live for. And this game is even bigger for the city."
The Saints are the first team in NFL history to make a conference championship after losing 13 or more games the previous season.
With victory secured for the Saints (11-6) on McAllister's powerful rushes for a clinching first down to run out the clock, team owner Tom Benson did his "Benson Boogie" on the field. The players hugged and saluted their long-suffering fans while a jazz band belted out tunes.
"I think it means a tremendous amount," quarterback Drew Brees said. "You could see it and feel it after the game, people still standing and yelling and screaming."
It was the veteran McAllister with his two touchdowns and team playoff mark of 143 yards rushing, and the rookie Bush with his collection of magnificent moves, that made the difference in the raucous Superdome.
"It's my first opportunity to be in the playoffs, I didn't want to be one and out," McAllister said. "I didn't want to say, `If I had done this or prepared differently, we would have been successful.'
"It's just the determination of this team and this city — to give them everything we have."
Even after Brees' high pitchout got away from Bush with 3:18 remaining and Philadelphia recovering, the Saints would not be denied. Their defense held Brian Westbrook, who was brilliant for the Eagles (11-7), near midfield.
McAllister became the first Saints player to rush for more than 100 yards in the playoffs.
"Deuce was fantastic tonight and they weren't going to stop him," Saints coach Sean Payton said. "He ran his heart out."
McAllister scored on a 5-yard run and an 11-yard pass in the third quarter.
The Eagles, who won six in a row after losing quarterback Donovan McNabb, got a superb performance from Westbrook, who rushed for 116 yards and scored twice, including a 62-yard run that was a franchise playoff record.
Quarterback Jeff Garcia's run of success ended, but he combined with former Saints receiver Donte' Stallworth on an Eagles-record 75-yard touchdown in the first half.
McAllister, who missed 11 games last season with a knee injury, has been overshadowed by the spectacular Bush and surprising seventh-round draft pick Marques Colston. But he came through when he was needed most against the NFC's hottest team.
So did Bush, the 2005 Heisman Trophy winner whose arrival after Houston passed on him in the draft lifted the spirits of the Gulf Region. He scored on an eye-popping 4-yard run in the first half and had an equally scintillating 25-yarder to set up one of John Carney's two field goals.
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Who needs Mardi Gras? Saints march on - Yahoo! News
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