Colts 29, Bears 17

Glad to see Dungy and Manning win. Both men handled defeats with grace and dignity. Now they are winner and the sports hacks will have to find some other whipping boy.

Grossman played poorly at the end, so he is apparently the designated goat. Lost in the discussion will be the fact that the vaunted Bears defense was unable to stop the Colts running game while the Colts defense shut down all phases of the Bears offense.

Steve Young was especially hard on Grossman on ESPN. No one asked him about his Super Bowl performance when he was Grossman's age. Young QBs will sometimes play like young QBs. Unless they ride the bench like Steve Young did in San Francisco.

I wonder what Tampa Bay thinks now that Dungy showed he can win the Super Bowl. They got that Lombardi Trophy in 2002 when Gruden took over. Since then it has been a rather pathetic slide. Dungy, OTOH, did not skip a beat when he went to the Colts. He's a winner and a builder. Something the Bucs could use right now.

UPDATE: I like this comment by Mike Wilbon from his live blog of the game:

To quote Tony, "I believe I called that." I watch this team too much and know the tendencies as well as their coaches...And one of those coaches, offensive coordinator Ron Turner, just killed his team. You're finally moving the ball, you're mixing the run and pass effectively down only five points, and you either call or let your shaky QB select a play you gave him the option to select....That's the fifth interception this year return for a touchdown against Grossman...Yes, I blame Grossman...But you have to really blame the coach for not putting a player in the best position to succede...I've increasingly disliked Turner's offense all year...It's too bad, too, because the Colts--while the better team--were beatable tonight...And the Bears don't have a sophisticated enough an offense to do it...And Turner, once again, has Grossman throw it deep with 10 mins. to play when it isn't necessary...

I think coaches frequently get a pass on this sort of thing. Players have strengths and weaknesses. Coaches, of all people, should know what their players can and cannot do.