Key Super Bowl matchup: Freeney vs. Bushrod

COLTS DRE DWIGHT FREENEY vs. SAINTS OLT JERMON BUSHROD

This would have been a major mismatch, but Freeney suffered a severe ankle sprain late in the AFC championship game. Now he's questionable for Sunday and even if he plays he won't be the same guy whose 131/2 sacks were the third most in the NFL this season.

If Freeney were healthy, Bushrod, a fourth-round draft pick in 2007 from Towson, who had never started a game before this season, would need help and lots of it. Sometimes that help would come from tight end Jeremy Shockey, which would minimize his effectiveness as a receiver, especially given the knee injury that has hobbled him throughout the postseason. The Saints would also be expected to give the 25-year-old Bushrod help by chipping Freeney with a running back on his way into a pass route, or keeping a back in for extra protection.

But now that may not be necessary because Freeney's greatest asset, his quickness, will be diminished. Now the 6-foot-3, 315-pound Bushrod may be able to handle him one-on-one on most plays.

Once upon a time, eight years ago, when he was coming out of Syracuse, despite 301/2 sacks in his final two seasons for the Orangemen, Freeney was considered a marginal first-round talent by some teams because he stood just 6-foot-1. But the Colts took him 11th overall, and five Pro Bowls later, he's more than lived up to his draft status, starting with his rookie season, when he had 13 sacks, the second most by a rookie since sacks became an official statistic in 1982.

Freeney has had double-digit sacks in six of his eight seasons, for a total of 84, and he's also forced 36 fumbles, the most in the NFL over the past eight seasons.

Despite not becoming a starter until he replaced injured Pro Bowler Jammal Brown in the preseason, Bushrod has already passed some difficult tests. He held the Falcons' John Abraham the Panthers' Julius Peppers, both Pro Bowl players, without a sack in back-to-back games at midseason.

But he had help in passing situations in both games. If he can contain Freeney without help Sunday, it will give the Saints' explosive offense even more weapons.