Everything had lined up well this Super Bowl. Chicago was the underdog. So no pressure. There were chances of rain. Chicago plays well in bad weather. Peyton Manning had one monkey off his back (playoff win against the Pats) but he had an even bigger one now, to win the real Big One. So pressure, high pressure.

On my side, things lined up well too. Had some friends coming over. No HD at home, but so what? Since I have not had great HD experience, it is quite alright to continue the non-HD experience. But we were going to watch it at my place, so it was going to be a comfortable evening.

In any case, after all the waiting around, there came the kickoff. And what a start! The kickoff return for TD added to the signs that things were falling in place for my Bears to win the big one. Special teams were going to play a critical role in the game, especially because of the rain. And Chicago fired the first shot by taking the kickoff to the house. 7-0, and the Bears were in business.

Things were about to get even more exciting - Peyton Manning almost got intercepted on the first possession. He was not though, but later in the series, he was intercepted and I told myself that this is probably not a good sign. If things fall apart so early in the game, it gives the Colts time to correct themselves.

And correct they did. After a few more turnovers on both sides, Indy locked down and started playing championship-style football. There was a discipline in the offense (at the end, Indy had 38 minutes of possession as opposed to 22 minutes for the Bears), and a calmness in the defense which did not allow too many first downs.

Rex Grossman clearly exposed himself as an inexperienced quarterback, with some ridiculous passes when they needed to continue the momentum, and Peyton Manning on the other side showed the value of experience in big games by making huge plays just when the team needed them, and the result was a gentle spanking of the Bears at the hands of the Colts.

Whatever happened to the Bears defense? Peyton Manning was able to rip them apart pretty much on demand, and he was virtually untouched the entire game! What happened to the smashmouth Bears defense which would win games by themselves? Every time there was a huge pass rush, he was able to make long pass plays and whenever the defense dropped back, he was able to make dump passes to Addai and cover 5-6 yards with ease. It was quite unbelievable how easy he found it to make those key plays for first downs.

On the other hand, I think the Chicago offense, and Rex Grossman in particular with his fumbled snaps, made it easy for the Colts defense to get the ball back. Most of the turnovers were not a result of extremely active defense, but stupid mistakes by the offense. And I think small things like fumbled snaps can cause huge changes in momentum and they did. Add some underthrown passes and some purely stupid passes in coverage, and you see that Grossman was as much a part of the breakdown if not more than the Chicago defense.

In any case, congratulations to everyone in the Colts organization for a great season. They have been really classy on and off the field and the coach Tony Dungy deserves all the compliments for running a committed organization and keeping everyone bound together and playing for a team.

And for Chicago, its going to be a rough next few weeks especially if they lose their defensive coordinator to Dallas. Good luck to them for the upcoming season.

On the ads front, not many stuck with me. The one that was really funny was the Blue Shield ad, which I don’t think was a national ad, because the URL provided in the ad was blueshieldca.com. I loved it! There was another one with the hitchhiker with Bud Light and axe and the other one with the chainsaw. That was also quite cool. But nothing else really popped out at me. Don’t know about others.

As for me, I was the only Chicago supporter, so it was a tough evening. Anyway, I stuck with them to the end, doesn’t matter that I kept cursing Rex Grossman and the defense over and over again. But like Chicago, I can say there is always the next season! :-)

By the way, the Trader Joe’s Caramel Popcorn is awesome, and so it Tetley’s beer from Yorshire ;-)