World Champion Colts

By Jeff Wilson: The Super Bowl captured world attention with the play on the field and the commercials in between. It was watched by an audience of about 1 billion viewers in over 230 countries. In the end though, what really mattered was the scoreboard.

Indianapolis 29, Chicago 17

The game opened up with heavier rain than anticipated, conditions that were expected to favor the run oriented Bears. And when Chicago’s Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff for a 92 yard touchdown, it appeared that the football gods were looking down on the Windy City squad.

Hester’s spectacular run was the first kickoff return for a touchdown to start a Super Bowl, but it was the Colts who dominated the first half with a 2:1 ratio in time of possession.

Indianapolis quarterback, Peyton Manning looked shaky early on with an interception, but he soon found his rhythm and he ended the half with 193 yards passing. Many of those yards were on underneath routes as the Bears’ secondary played well back in coverage, and Manning took what the defense gave him.

For Chicago, quarterback Rex Grossman had only 32 yards passing at the half and was not inspiring much fear on the Indianapolis sidelines. The teams had roughly the same rushing yardage at the break, but most of Chicago’s came on one long run by Thomas Jones.

The other story of the first half was turnovers. There were six overall in the first half, including three by each team. The four in the first quarter was a new Super Bowl record. Even with turnovers even, Chicago was fortunate to only be down 16-14 at halftime.

The Colts got the ball to start the second half and promptly moved down to the Chicago six-yard line. There they kicked a field goal to stretch their lead to 19-14. Indianapolis tacked on another field goal to make the score 22-14, but the game wasn’t over until a Kelvin Hayden 56 yard interception return for a touchdown early in the 4th quarter.

Chicago needed at least a mediocre day from Grossman to get the job done, and he did not look anything close to a Super Bowl level quarterback.

The final statistics did not tell the entire story. Indianapolis had 430 total yards to Chicago’s 265, but many of the Bears’ yards came when the game was out of reach. This was a decisive performance by the Colts overall.

Manning played very solid overall in his first Super Bowl appearance, and he deserved the game MVP. A special note has to be given to the Colts’ defense which played like a different unit once the playoffs began, and it continued right through this game.

Now, the Colts will try to accomplish what the Patriots did just two years ago, win back-to-back Super Bowl titles.

Their quest gets underway in just a short seven months.

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