posted February 12, 2007 at 19:28 in NFL Betting Trends
Manning, Dungy Win Super Bowl Title With Ease
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Manning, Dungy Win Super Bowl Title With Ease
Forgive me for not being excited about Peyton Manning finally winning a Super Bowl ring. Forgive me for not being excited about Tony Dungy being the first African American coach to win the Super Bowl. Forgive me for not being excited about the first Super Bowl played in the pouring rain. Forgive me for thinking about what Super Bowl XLI could have been.
The main storyline heading into this year’s Super Bowl was the billing of “The Colts Great Offense vs. the Bears’ Great Defense.” Prior history has told us that defense wins championships. Baseball says that good pitching beats good hitting. In hockey, the saying is that a hot goalie can carry the whole team on his back. Super Bowl XLI showed that a great offense actually can beat a great defense, as the Indianapolis Colts dominated the Chicago Bears 29-17.
Everything seemed to be going right for Chicago early in the game. After the Bears won the opening coin toss, Devin Hester made Super Bowl history by returning the opening kickoff 92 yards for touchdown to give Chicago a 7-0 lead. Even though the Colts answered with a big play TD of their own, Indianapolis botched the snap on the extra point, and the Bears still led 7-6. After a 52 yard run by Thomas Jones, Rex Grossman hit Muhsin Muhammad for a 4 yard touchdown pass giving the Chicago Bears a 14-6 lead. Even the weather was cooperating for Chicago, as the dome team Colts were forced to play in a pouring rain.
The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters though belonged to Tony Dungy and his Colts, who outscored Lovie Smith’s Bears 23-3 to close out the game. Indianapolis overcame the weather and the first quarter deficit, basically doubling the opposition in many of the major statistical categories. The Colts had more first downs 24-11, more total yards 430-265, and more rushing yards 191-111. The Colts also won the turnover battle recovering three fumbles and intercepting two passes, while the Bears defense forced 2 fumbles and one INT. The Colts literally wore out the Chicago defense, having more plays 81-48, and dominated the time of possession.
Even though he didn’t put up half his statistics from the AFC championship win over New England, Peyton Manning was still named the Super Bowl MVP. Manning threw for 247 yards, completing 25 of 38 passes, including a 53 yard touchdown to Reggie Wayne in the 1st quarter. With the exception of the Chicago Bears and their fans, most people figured the Colts would win Super Bowl XLI with Manning leading the way. The only question that now remains for Peyton Manning is how many commercials will he make?
The most impressive numbers put up in the game were by the running backs. Dominic Rhodes ran for 113 yards for the Colts, while Thomas Jones rushed for 112 yards to lead the Bears. Indy’s starting rookie RB, Joseph Addai, put up solid statistics as well rushing for 77 yards and racking up 66 receiving yards on 10 catches. Seeing two RB’s rush for over 100 yards, left me wondering “what if Super Bowl XLI was the San Diego Chargers vs. New Orleans Saints?” Imagine the highlight reel runs if it was League MVP LaDainian Tomlinson and Reggie Bush each running for 100+ yards.
The Super Bowl is supposed to be an exciting football game with lots of media hype prior to kick-off. Yes, there have been Super Bowls that were blowouts, but not only was the Colts victory over the Bears not exciting, the hype for two weeks leading up to the game wasn’t that exciting either.
Yes, people were happy to see Tony Dungy finally win the big game. However, wouldn’t it have been more exciting to see Marty Schottenheimer hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy. Also, imagine all the pre-game hype of Drew Brees taking on his former team.
Not only would Saints vs. Chargers been more exciting than the Colts win over the Bears, but how about Patriots vs. Cowboys? The Super Bowl pre-game hype would be off the charts for two weeks with the head coaching match-up of Bill Belichick vs. Bill Parcells. The female audience would appreciate Tom Brady vs. Tony Romo, while the male audience would appreciate the camera constantly showing the reactions of the model / singer both QB’s are dating. The media would not even need Terrell Owens to say something un-intelligent to generate interesting columns. The media hype of great offense vs. great defense wasn’t an exciting match after all.
As of right now, Super Bowl XLI will be remembered as the year that Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy finally won the big game. Years down the road, Super Bowl XLI could be remembered as the first of several championship titles for Peyton Manning. In terms of excitement, Super Bowl XLI could have been so much more.
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