For the 2nd straight season, the Super Bowl turned into a dud. The Colts 29-17 victory over the Bears wasn't nearly as close as the score indicated. If not for the rain in Miami....the Colts may have turned this one into an all time blowout.
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't as bad as last year. In Super Bowl XL, there was piss poor officiating, mistakes everywhere and the team that played the best didn't win. The best play of the night was when a wide receiver threw a TD pass.
In this one....there were mistakes everywhere. Chicago turned the ball over 5 times....Indy had 3 turnovers. There were two different times in this game where both teams turned the ball over on consecutive plays. Unreal. Three interceptions were thrown when passes were hung up in the air. And that doesn't even include a botched extra point attempt.
The team that played better did win the game...and the officiating was about as perfect as you could ask for. Aside from a Marvin Harrison catch that they missed [he did get it after a challenge], the officials did a great job getting every call correct.
I'm not knocking the play in this game...as I did last year. The Colts offense looked good considering the conditions. Manning was outstanding at taking what the defense gave him. The Colts....yeah, those Colts....ran 42 times in this game. Indy nearly had the ball twice as much as the Bears and just bled them of it. If not for Chicago's ability to hold off the Indy attack in the redzone....this game could've been bad.
Really, the Colts had two big plays that came from Bears mistakes. One was an interception return for a TD...and the other was a 53-yd TD pass to Reggie Wayne that came from a blown coverage. Again, not that the Colts played bad...but they really did nothing more than just nickel and dime the Bears to death.
And, boy, was Rex Grossman bad. He was responsible for four turnovers. He threw two horriblepasses that were picked off [one for a TD] and then fumbled two snaps that resulted in turnovers. Also, on a 2nd and 1....Grossman twice slips and falls, resulting in a 4th and long and a punting situation. It's one thing if your QB just doesn't make any big plays [a la Trent Dilfer], but it is another thing when he makes huge mistakes that cost the team a win. Despite the Bears playing badly, they were in the game [down just 22-17] when Grossman threw up a bad pass that was returned for a TD.
If not for the Devin Hester opening kickoff for a TD and a Thomas Jones long run....the Bears woulda been blown out of this one. Plain and simple. The offense just couldn't get anything going...but the defense really let Chicago down. The Colts were 8-for-18 on 3rd down and just mowed down a confused Bears defense.
The stats bear it out. The Colts had 24 first downs to Chicago's 11 and outgained the Bears 430 to 265.
Don't get it twisted. The 29-17 score and the fact that in the 4th quarter the Bears were within five points will make history view this Super Bowl in some sort of a decent light. But to the people who watched it...it was nothing more than a rainy, sloppy mess.
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