Super Bowl Thoughts

Well the big game has officially happened, and it's all in the books now. The Bears versus the Colts. Two long traditioned teams battled off on February 4th, 2007. Who won? The Indianapolis Colts, 29-17 (Note: I guessed the score exactly right. Please..please..thank you..oh no, you shouldn't have..thank you.) Yes, Peyton Manning wins his Super Bowl. My Dad, my [most favorable] Uncle, and I always said that Manning would never win a Super Bowl ring. Friday morning, I gave in, and said he would get his ring and actually win the MVP trophy. He most certainly did that, and I can't believe I'm going to say this but congratulations Peyton Manning. You earned it.

However, don't give all the emotional credit to Peyton Manning. Why not give it to the real Indianapolis Colts' leader, Tony Dungy? The guy is one of the best coaches in the league. He has been for the past couple of years, while unfortunately they were losing playoff games by subvisional mistakes that accidentally happen, and which costed them the games (Peyton Manning's Patriot picks, Mike Vanderjagt's missed field goal, Nick Harper unable to return an INT (only having to get by one guy, the Quarterback.) Most of the losses, alot of people put it on Tony's back (while most put it on Peyton.) Nobody really paid attention to that, but he made good calls; he ran good plays. What went wrong? His players didn't show up.

But this year, they did. For the man in the blue Colts' cap, Dungy has been through not only the playoff losses in his life, but also to a family death when his son, James, took his own life a little over a year ago (December 2005.) I can surely relate to losing someone (I've lost enough) to death, but losing an actual son, someone that is suppose to outlive you, instead you outliving them must hurt pretty bad, and I'm too young to relate to something like that, but I know what Tony has felt over the past year. The guy is an emotional leader, he doesn't need to go off the top on the sidelines to yell. Dungy preached the power of "NOW" to his team all year, and they listened this time. They done it in the playoffs, and made "NOW" count. Not the regular season where they had some mediocre games. They proved everyone wrong. I'm not a Colts' fan, but I have to say thank you, Tony Dungy, thanks for showing the football world that someone can turn things around and get it done, upset all of the odds, and win the "big game."

What the Colts did right in this game:
The Colts really controlled the tempo of this game. What I mean is, they really controlled the time of the clock, and they mostly did that in the first half only giving Rex Grossman only 19 snaps to work with. That's a big statistic, and the Colts really worked the time of possession greatly. However, how did they do it, you ask? The turnovers. They turned it over alot, but the Bears gave the ball right back to them, and that really helped Peyton Manning, keeping the ball, controlling the game time, and making some great audibling calls to confuse the Bears' defense, wearing them down with short passes out into the flats to Joseph Addai, Dallas Clark, and Ben Utecht. The other thing they did well was keeping motivation in control, and when Devin Hester scored that touchdown in the First Quarter to give the Bears a 7-0 on the opening kickoff, the Colts stuck in there and battled back, and kept battling all game long.

What the Bears did wrong in this game:
The Bears simply just couldn't stop the Colts' offense. The only player that consistently did his job last night was Brian Urlacher. Every other player was just on bum legs dropping back into coverage, giving Manning time and letting Manning pass out into the flats to Addai, or send it off on a draw to Rhodes. That really hurt the Bears in Super Bowl XLI, and ultimately costed them the game by keeping them on the field too long. And if that wasn't hurting them enough, Grossman came out, and made some terrible mistakes. Dropping the ball, fumbling, having to run back and dive at the ground due to ignorant mistakes, and then making terrible passes to Colts' defenders in which he should have ended up with three interceptions.