Here's where I agree with Paolantonio - that game was awful. There have been some bad Super Bowls before (XXIV, XXIX, XXXIII, just to name a few), but I don't remember any being as sloppy as SB XLI. Sure, the rain had something to do with it, but not all of both team's miscues were forced by weather. A couple of examples:
- Tony Dungy's inexplicably stupid decision to kick-off to Devin Hester to start the game.
- Rex Grossman's third quarter series when the Bears had the football trailing by five on their own 46-yard line: pass to Mushin Muhammad (+9 yards), -11 yards (sack), -11 yards (fumble), punt on 4th-and-23.
- Peyton Manning's MVP "moment" - lobbing a lame-duck ball 47 yards to a wide open Reggie Wayne in broken coverage.
- Grossman's "fade" pass to Muhammad that is likely the worst Super Bowl pass attempt you'll ever see. It was returned 56 yards by Kelvin Hayden for the game-clinching touchdown.
Don't blame the Colts for Rex's SB XLI suck-festI also agree that Peyton Manning shouldn't have won MVP. In fact, Manning may have turned in the worst performance (25-38, 247 yds, TD, INT, 81.8 rating) of any Super Bowl MVP in football history. But it's not Manning's fault - the face of the Colts and one of the star's of the NFL - that he won what was a pre-determined MVP Award (like Elway did in his first win). He wasn't bad that night, but he was hardly MVP worthy. Say what you want about Eli last year, but at least he engineered a game-winning drive and had a Super Bowl moment. Peyton's moment was when Danieal Manning fell down.
But, I disagree that the 2006 Colts were the most overrated Super Bowl champion ever. Just because it was a sloppy and crappy Super Bowl, that shouldn't tarnish what the Colts accomplished. The running game was outstanding (191 yards!) against a very tough Bears' defense, and the Colts' D played lights-out.
Have we overrated the 2006 Colts? Maybe. But, you can say the same about every Super Bowl Champion with elite quarterbacks. Look at the 1997 Packers or 2001 Patriots. Those teams weren't all-time greats, but because of Tom Brady and Brett Favre, we sometimes remember them for being better than they were.
How about the 1990 Superbowl game that had Elway's Broncos against Montana's 49'ers? I am not saying that we should take away how great the 49'ers were in the 90's, but a 55-10 rout and the largest point difference in Superbowl history has to tell you it wasn’t even meant to be close in the first place. Elway completion percentage for the season was 53.6% with 18 td's and 18 int's and a QB rating of 73.7. Montana had a completion percentage of 70.2 with 26 td's and 8 int's and a QB rating of 112.4. Montana was the #1 QB for the season and Elway was the #19. This game was never going to be close before or after the kickoff. The Broncos never lead and were down 27-3 at halftime. Yeah it was there fourth ring for the 49’ers, but the Steelers already had four so that isn’t special. The only thing I think you can see from that game was how dominate the 49’ers were in that era and a pretty overrated Superbowl.
ReplyDeleteI agree that 55-10 Bowl was an awful game, as was the Ravens/Giants, Broncos/Redskins and other blowouts. My point of this was more focused on the sloppiness of both the Colts and Bears in their game.
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