Super Bowl XLI Running Thread

I agree, Rex will get all the criticism, but the Colts owned both lines and they tore up the Bears' defense. Rex had to try to make plays, and he couldn't.

 

They got their kickoff-return TD.

And got walloped.

 

Dungy had the under.

 

The defense was the biggest goat for the Bears.

Did Briggs and Ogunleye dress?

 

No way.

You're talking about a guy who hasn't played a meaningful snap all year and who had trouble dealing with pressure in Denver relieving someone at halftime of the Super Bowl. Griese would have made Grossman's train wreck look like Steve Young circa '95 (to reference that yet again).

 

I would have run the ball more (despite Benson's injury) and not relied so much on Grossman. But that's just me.

 

Two crucial sequences in the game: On the Bears' first possession of the second half, Jones ran for 9 yards on first down. But instead of running to pick up the first down, the easy way to get a new set of downs and give the defense a much-needed rest, Ron Turner calls a pass play. A block is missed and Grossman is sacked. He fumbles the ball the next play and recovers. Punt.

On a subsequent drive (might have been the next one), Jones runs for 15 yards on first down, but there's a holding call. Now it's 1st & 20, and the Bears end up punting again. If the Bears move the ball on either of those drives and score (even a field goal), it might have been a different game.

One of the problems that was never addressed this year is that Ron Turner's playcalling was often detrimental. In the Seahawks game, the Bears had the ball with about 1:30 left in the game in great field position. A couple first downs and they're in FG range. But Turner calls a pass on first down. It's incomplete, forcing another pass, then another. The Bears don't make a first down, but, more importantly, the entire drive takes 17 seconds. Not only denying the chance at a field goal, but giving the Seahawks the ball back with another shot to win the game. Luckily, they didn't.

 

I watched the game in San Juan, PR as part of an annual Super Bowl party with friends from school (held each year in a different city). For the most part, we did not get the US commercials and instead got never ending ads for Corona and Kia.

 

that is solid analysis. Going in Bears knew that they would not win if game came down to relying on Rex Grossman.

What lost it for the Bears was their play calling and defense. The teams that won Super Bowls in past few years with marginal QB's ( see Bucs and Ravens ) won with their defenses and running. They went in with game plans that minimised need for QB to have big game. Grossman played well enough for Bears to win if defense could have stopped Colts. He was 20-28 passing.

To say that Grossman cost them the game is too simplistic.

 

I can't agree with that. As awful as the Bears were nearly all-around, they were STILL only one play from taking the lead in the fourth quarter.

If Rex (or Thomas Jones, for that matter) simply makes one big play early in the fourth quarter, we've got a 24-22 game. Rex didn't need Young's game, IMO, he only needed Dilfer's.