The hair likes the Colts

Jimmy Johnson answers questions about the Super Bowl

5. Who has the advantage with the extra week to prepare?

Well, one thing is that everyone knows what Indianapolis is going to do on both sides of the ball. The thing about New Orleans is that Gregg Williams understands he has to blitz and he has to do some things differently to be productive against Manning. I really think having two weeks to prepare will really help New Orleans more so than it does Indianapolis.

What could be a wild card in this thing, and even I have been saying it, is that everybody is expecting New Orleans to do a lot of blitzing to put pressure on Manning. But the Saints might very well go back to their game plan that they used so effectively against New England in Week 12 when Tom Brady was throwing the ball all over the field. I mean, defend the pass rather than blitz a lot and use a three-man line at times. That look really gave Brady problems.

I talk to Howie (Long) all the time about the general thinking is that you defend the great passer and you rush the poor passer. Obviously you also have to change it up and you can’t be doing the same thing all the time.

But if you’re not going to get to Manning, you are really hurting your team if you do too much blitzing. I believe you have to do some to break Manning’s rhythm. But if you are blitzing and not getting to him, then you really open up a lot of holes in your coverage.

The smart thing to do against Manning; particularly if you are not hitting him and forcing him to rush his throws is to maximum defend with eight defensive backs.