Super Bowl Dissillusionment

Okay. This will be brief...

The Super Bowl was a letdown. It's not necessarily anyone's fault. The rain had a lot to do with it. It rained for literally the ENTIRE game and that definitely deadened the whole pace of the game. There were more turnovers and kooky plays than I can even count or remember properly; a botched hold on an extra point, a missed chip-shot field goal (both by the Colts), the requisite two INTs from Grossman (one of which arguably cost him the game), one INT from Manning early in...throw in a dozen fumbles and you've got a strange game that seemed to have been won more on paper than on the sloppy Miami gridiron.

When the Bears returned the OPENING KICKOFF for a TD and followed up with an INT on the next series, I really thought we had a game on our hands. I was wrong. I expected some more from Grossman, though I don't know why exactly I expected that. He didn't play badly, I guess, but he didn't have a great game either. Chicago continued to play some tight defense, but without a corresponding offensive attack, it wasn't enough.

Manning had a game that could safely be called above-average; with 250 yards passing and a TD. He also had the benefit of being able to hand off to Adai and Rhodes, who pulled the sleigh half the time and combined for about 200 yards between them and a TD. Manning deserved the MVP and the Colts deserved the win.

There was one play, however, that I think could have changed the outcome of the game. The Bears had the ball on their own 40 (or thereabouts), it was 4th down and nine with 5:00 left in the 4th quarter. Grossman made a perfect 20 yard pass to Desmond Clark, who caught the ball and proceeded about three steps before he was annihilated by the Colts safety Giordano [sic], causing him to drop the ball for an incomplete pass. The score was 29 to 17, the way the game would end actually. The Colts took over and that was basically all she wrote. I think if Clark held on to that ball, everything would have been different. Grossman was on FIRE during that drive, and I think he could have taken them to the end zone, making the game 29 to 24 (assuming the extra point, yada yada). Who knows what could've happened after that. Few people will recognize it, but I think that was the actual break point of the game, or the final nail in the coffin, I should say.

It's over now, and I must say, even with the rain, I was let down by this Super Bowl. But, honestly, I haven't seen a good, exciting Super Bowl probably since 2000 when the Titans lost by 1 yard. That was a good finish. Beyond that, it always just seems to come out as everyone expected, and in a fashion that is basically unexciting.

I'm happy Manning won, because he needed to win to round out and cement his legacy, and now he has. Secretly I wanted Grossman to show his mettle and maybe even silence some doubters out there who have ragged on him the whole season, deservedly so. It'll be interesting, and maybe sad, to watch what happens to Grossman after this. He will likely be back at the helm of the Bears offense next year, but will be under such intense scrutiny that he'll probably snap half way through the season and be replaced. Who knows. Anything can happen in the topsy-turvy world of professional sport...

The thrill of victory...the agony of defeat. The beat goes on...

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