Much More Than Super
Manning Is All Alone In The Limelight, Truth Is-He Should Be
By Nick Dimichino
For most people, the Super Bowl is a time to gather with friends and family, with the epic battle between representatives from the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference monopolizing the attention of nearly every American. But Peyton Manning isn’t most people. Following last week’s win over the New England Patriots, the biggest game of his career, Manning now has a different task-the new biggest game of his career.
The Indianapolis Colts were down 18 at halftime to the New England Patriots, the RCA Dome was pin drop silent, and the fans were thinking “here we go again”. It wasn’t looking good for the home team, and another AFC Championship loss seemed to be in order. Enter Peyton Manning. Despite throwing 20 total incompletions and an interception that went for a touchdown in the first half, Manning orchestrated a game-winning drive that went for 80-yards and a touchdown. Colts win 38-34. Peyton finally did it, he beat Tom Brady. A huge weight lifted off the shoulders of possibly the best quarterback in NFL history. But that game was a mere foothill compared to the mountain he needs to climb next, a mountain full of Bears. The Super Bowl versus
Chicago is by far the biggest game of Peyton Manning’s stellar career.
The Chicago Bears got there with a dominant performance against the New Orleans Saints-a team that most of America wanted to see go on to the big dance. The Bears excelled on the defensive side of the ball, collecting 4 turnovers, 5 punts, a missed field goal and two turnover on downs against the Saints. The Bears offense was struggling early against a bad Saints defense, but piled on the points in the end, winning in a laugher 39-14. The Bears did what they have been doing for the latter part of the season-not allow Rex Grossman to hurt them. Rex completed 11 passes, netting 144 yards and a touchdown that should have never been. The real story of the Bears offense lies in its backfield, with the two-headed attack of Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. The two backs combined for 43 carries, 183 yards and 3 touchdowns, dominating the Saints run defense.
The Colts and Bears are eerily similar in most aspects except one, the quarterbacks. Both teams play a Cover 2 defense, and both have two capable running backs in Jones, Benson, Addai, and Rhodes. Both teams are from the mid-west with close proximity to each other and both have large fan bases. The difference is in the men under center. The Colts have Peyton Manning, first pick overall out of Tennessee in the 1998 NFL Draft. His resume is as follows: 2-time MVP, 7-time Pro Bowler, Pro Bowl MVP, 2004 Offensive Player of the Year, 10-time AFC Player of the Week, 2-time AFC Player of the Month, all while netting 275 touchdowns (7th all-time), 37,586 yards (13th all-time), and a career 94.4 Quarterback rating (2nd all-time). One thing is missing… the ring.
As for the Bears, they owned the best record in an extremely mediocre NFC. With Rex Grossman, 22nd overall pick out of Florida leading the pack, they should be called “Average Joe’s”, for this is the true underdog story. Grossman is the Peter LaFleur of the NFL, somehow leading his similar crew of flunkies to a Super Bowl. He has had 7 games with a passer rating of over 100, and games with ratings of 36.8, 23.6, 10.2, 1.3, and yes, 0.0. In these 5 games, Grossman threw fo
r a combined 16 interceptions (Manning had 9 the whole season). Although his numbers have not been impressive by any means of the word, he is winning games, and managed to reach the Super Bowl. The Chicago Bears winning this weekend would be as much of a great story as the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, dominating in defense and special teams to get where they’re at.
There are many match-ups in the upcoming game that can be analyzed, but I feel two are worthy of discussion. The Bears run game against the Colts suddenly tight rushing defense and Peyton Manning versus a blitzing, swarming Chicago front 7. Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson have run well on Seattle and New Orleans gaining 294 yards to this point. The resurgent Colts run defense has only given up 133 yards in 3 games against guys named LJ, Jamal Lewis and Corey Dillon. Look for the Colts defense to continue to put 8 guys in the box and make Rex Grossman beat them. Brian Urlacher will likely dictate the Bears defense, hoping to gain a Super Bowl victory for the city of Chicago. The Bears have been dominating in the turnover category, being able to force punts and bad passes. They should continue this trend but will have their hands full with Manning, Harrison and Wayne.
The two teams will meet in Miami on February 4th, 2007 in Super Bowl XLI. For Peyton Manning, it is a chance to catapult himself into football greatness, proving worthy and punching his ticket to the Hall of Fame. As for Rex Grossman, he is also on a mission, a much different one-play safe and don’t make costly mistakes. My pick: Indianapolis in a tight one.
-All stats courtesy of ESPN.com and NFL.com