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Grossman is inconsistant, but when he's good, he's real good. His 7 games with a passer rating above 100 were second this year only to Bulger. When he's bad, he's real bad, obviously (no stats needed). But the Bears have a great team AND they have motivation. Everyone has counted them out ever since they had a bad game against Arizona, then the eventual loss against Miami. I've heard it all; "the worst 13-3 team", "they'll loose in the first round", "the Saints will kill them"..... well screw all that....they are in the Super Bowl. And if people want to keep taunting them....well then they can watch what happened to Reggie's little punk ass and his Saints after showing Urlacher the ball and doing a little flip in the end zone. That was the end of their game and it fired up the crowd and the Bears beyond belief. By the way, wanna talk about bad teams, how about losing to the Houston Texans.
Posts: 475 | Registered: Jan 2004
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Thanks labmskin for your comments! I couldn't have said it better myself! Plus I'll also add earlier this year before the season started, Grossman was expecting of himself to just go thru a complete season without being injured. Mission accomplished. The fact that his team got him to the playoffs is more of a bonus.
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Most people are expecting this superbowl to be peyton manning vs the bears defense,you know,great offense vs great defense.I think the crucial matchup may be the colts defense vs the bears offense.Grossman is no tom brady,and if the colts defense can stop brady(and they did) then they can dominate grossman.But which grossman will show up?If he has a bad game,the bears have no chance.Even if he has a good game,the colts are almost definately going to score points.It'll be an interesting game.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Aug 2006
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The Colts do a pretty decent job of stopping the inside running game when they're properly motivated, the way they stopped Larry Johnson and Jamal Lewis, but the Patriots did occasionally show that the outside run can be very effective. Unfortunately, they didn't try to run as much to the outside as they should have. So while the Colts may be able to stop Cedric Benson, I think Thomas Jones might have a big game.
Special teams advantage goes to the Bears. Even though the Colts have the best kicker of the last 6 years with Adam Vinatieri, the Bears have a good kicker as well (Robbie Gould), and have advantages in every other department, especially the return game with Devin Hester. However, special teams can't be vital without this matchup: the high-powered Colts offense vs. the smothering Bears defense.
History shows that in the Super Bowl, a great defense will more often defeat a great offense. The glaring example here is SB XXXVII, when the Buccaneer D completely shut down the Raider offense and made Rich Gannon look like Tony Eason. While the Colts are gonna be big favorites, they would be well served studying SV XXXVI, where a hard-hitting Patriots D annihilated the explosive, but small, Rams receivers. Same goes here. The Bears secondary has to make Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne suffer every time they go over the middle, or just about anytime they get near the ball. The Bears run defense is also very capable of pressuring Peyton Manning and stuffing the run. The biggest threat, therefore, will be Dallas Clark, who I think will be the key to this match-up. If Clark has a big game, it's gonna be a long day for the Bears D.
Anyway, I'm kinda split. A part of me wants to see Manning get that monkey off his back, but another part of me wants the heavy underdog to pull the upset. In the end, I'll take the dog: Bears 27, Colts 21.
Posts: 2681 | Registered: Mar 2006
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