After pointing to and playing for a Super Bowl victory all season, the Bears must wait until the 2007 season.
They came up one step short of their dream, falling to Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI before a crowd of 74,512 Sunday night at Dolphin Stadium.
Several Bears stayed out on the field and forced themselves to watch the Colts celebrate. In their minds, the Bears were envisioning what they hope to be their own coronation a year from now.
“I wanted to know what it looked like, I wanted to see them get the trophy and experience it all,” cornerback Charles Tillman said. “I am so disappointed right now and disappointment will be my trainer to help me try to . . . no, to get back and win a Super Bowl.”
The Bears won as a team most of the season and they fell as one Sunday. The defense could not get the Colts’ offense off the field and the offense could not stay on it.
Indeed, the Bears saved their collective worst for last. They gave up 430 yards to the Colts, their second worst all season, and managed only 265 themselves.
The only poorer games by the offense were 168 yards against the Cardinals and 107 against the Vikings. The Bears won those games improbably, only because of plays by the defense and special teams.
“It didn’t go as planned,” said quarterback Rex Grossman, who finished with 20 completions in 28 attempts but for only 165 yards with two costly interceptions.
They could not make big plays when they needed them in any area of the game. With the Bears trailing only 22-17 going into the fourth quarter, Grossman made two bad passes that were intercepted. Former Illini cornerback Kelvin Hayden returned the first 56 yards for a back-breaking touchdown, and Bob Sanders picked off the other one possession later, ending what little hope remained.
Grossman thought he was in business with a completion to Muhammad for 22 yards early in the fourth quarter. He came back with a pump fake on the next play and threw down the right sideline toward Muhammad. But Hayden had the play in front of him, saw the ball before Muhammad and made the interception.
“We were trying to set that up, but the corner saw the ball before Moose,” Grossman said. “In hindsight, I wish I had thrown it away, but I was trying to give Moose a chance to make a play.”
It all had started well enough, with Devin Hester streaking 92 yards with the opening kickoff and Grossman throwing a 4-yard touchdown pass to Muhammad to give the Bears a 14-6 lead after the first quarter.
But they were outscored 23-3 from that point and squandered chances to retake control on the rare occasions Manning and the Colts allowed them within range. Manning was voted MVP of the game for his 25 completions in 38 attempts for 247 yards and a 53-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Wayne in the first quarter.
The Colts were fortunate not to be buried after the first quarter, and the Bears should have been shocked to trail by only two points at halftime.
The defense missed several early opportunities for takeaways, and the offense did virtually nothing with the ones the defense did come up with. The Bears had only one possession on which they picked up more than 9 yards in the first half.
The Colts had the ball for 38 minutes 4 seconds in a game in which time of possession was key. After rushing the ball an average of 35 times in their three conference playoff victories, the Colts ran 40 times against the Bears, the most any team had done all season. Of more importance, they ran Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes, who had his first 100-yard game (113) of the season, a combined 28 times through three quarters. The Colts ran 66 plays to the Bears’ 28 over that span.
And yet the Bears had the ball in the fourth quarter with a chance to drive for the lead before the first Grossman interception.
“I told our team how proud I was of them and that we’re going to continue to take steps to build our program,” coach Lovie Smith said. “This is our third year and I felt like we took a big step.”
Just not quite big enough, as it turned out.
– – –
In hindsight, I wish I had thrown it away. . . . The timing on it wasn’t right.’ –Rex Grossman on Kelvin Hayden’s interception and TD
– – –
`We’ve won as a team. No panic, we stayed calm throughout the entire game.’–Peyton Manning
———-
jmullin@tribune.com
