Chip Shots

Super Bowl thoughts

A couple thoughts on the Super Bowl.

Indianapolis seemingly was able to just hit the switch for the playoffs and become a smash mouth football team on both sides of the football. The regular season Colts weren't quite what we saw in the playoffs, but the transformation allowed the Colts to win the Super Bowl 29-17 on Sunday over the Chicago Bears.

During the regular season the Colts were prolific on offense as usual, but their defense surrendered tons of rushing yardage. Indy was typically the loser in time of possession. Of course time of possession is often a very overrated stat, but going into the playoffs one had to think the Colts would not be able to withstand the strong ground games they were going to see.

Eyes opened wide when the Colts shut down Larry Johnson in the first round. A fluke I thought, but the Colts did it against the Ravens and against the Patriots. The Colts did it to the Bears again on Sunday. So effective was the Colts' defense in the playoffs that they were averaging two more possessions in the post season than they did in the regular season.

It has been said that it is hard to pull the switch like that in any sport, but the Colts were able to do so. Apparently with nothing more than will. The players and scheme was essentially the same.

Got a kick out of CBS analyst Phil Simms after the Bears won the coin flip and elected to receive. Simms suggested that with the bad weather and the pressure of the game, electing to kick off and defer to the second half might be the way to go.

Then Devin Hester returned the kick for a 92 yard Bears touchdown. That return prompted shorter kickoffs by the Colts which helped the Bears obtain desirable field position, but with quarterback Rex Grossman playing poorly, the Bears could not take advantage.

Finally, the halftime of the Super Bowls should be evaluated. In the regular season the halftime is 10 minutes. In the Super Bowl the length is three times that. And for what?

This year it was for Prince. Yeah, that Prince who was popular 20 years ago. I mean if it was 1988 that act might make sense, in any event a big act at halftime of the Super Bowl makes little sense. Just play the game.