Banks has more thoughts on the matchup
• There’s never anything “easy” about reaching the Super Bowl, but I can make a clear-cut case that the Colts’ route this season wasn’t as taxing as most teams’ journeys.
No. 1 seed Indianapolis had to only get past the sixth-seeded Ravens and the fifth-seeded Jets to qualify. Both opponents were 9-7 wild-card teams. That makes the Colts the first team to reach the Super Bowl without knocking off at least one division champion since the 2005 Seahawks. Seattle was the top seed, and beat the No. 6 Redskins and No. 5 Panthers at home in the playoffs.
Since the NFL went to a 12-team playoff format and started seeding both conferences 1 through 6 in 1990, no team in either conference had made it to the Super Bowl without beating at least one team that won 10 or more games in the regular season, and no AFC champion had reached the Super Bowl without beating at least one division champion.
To get to this year’s Super Bowl, the Saints, by comparison, had to go through the No. 4-seeded Cardinals (10-6) and the No. 2-seeded Vikings (12-4), a much more traditional route to the big game. All of which I imagine won’t matter a bit to the Colts if they’re hoisting that Lombardi Trophy on Sunday night, Feb. 7.
I agree. Not a tough road.
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