Don?t hand the Colts the title just yet
Conventional wisdom would lead us to believe the early seven-point line favoring Peyton Manning and the Colts should be right on the nose, seeing the Colts have seemingly gotten over their traditional hump ? the New England Patriots.
After all, when you compared Peyton Manning and Rex Grossman, well, you can?t compare them. One, even if he retired today, would be a first-ballot hall of famer while the other may go the way of Trent Dilfer and not even have a starting job next year given his struggles at times during the season. Actually, during the first part of the season we heard some clamor for Grossman for MVP, but about the mid-point of the season there was more clamor to replace Grossman with Brian Griese after Grossman seemingly single handedly lost games by throwing to men in the opposite color jerseys on a regular basis.
With that said many experts fully expect Grossman to choke hard when he takes to the biggest stage in all of football, as it appears Manning has already passed his choking stage by leading the Colts from a 21-3 deficit past Tom Brady and the Pats. Also, the struggle of the Chicago Bears at their strongest point, that being their defense, has also raised some eyebrows. Prior to their win 39-14 against the Saints last week, the Bears had been stinking it up against poor offenses, playing into overtime and giving up 31 to the Bucs, barely holding off the Lions in a shootout and then giving up points in droves against Bret Favre and the Packers in the last regular season game, which they lost to the 8-8 Pack.
While I want to jump on the Manning bandwagon and concur with conventional wisdom, there are a few things that are keeping me from mortgaging the farm and putting it all on the Colts to win. One of the first things comes from another sport, namely baseball where there was no way the Cardinals could win the World Series given their near complete collapse at the end of the regular season. If you will recall, the Cards nearly blew a double-digit lead at the end, having to win the last weekend to keep a surging Astro team from taking their place in the postseason. Then, this struggling team advances to wax the Tigers in the World Series after the Tigers dispatched the Yankees.
In other words, a playoff team can be totally different from a regular season team. My son?s basketball team, for instance, went 0-8 during the regular season but then came out against the No. 1-seeded team in the opening round Friday night and beat them for their first win of the year. It is the same at all levels of play.
In addition to changes in play from regular to postseason, the Bears? dedication to the run behind Thomas Jones could be a major factor if they can keep Manning off the field. During the late season collapse of the Colts ? in which they lost games to the Titans, Texans and Jags ? it was the ability of the other team to control the game through running the ball that was the Achilles? Heel for the Colts.
The Bears showed great ball control against both the Seahawks and the Saints. And, let?s not forget, the Saints were the No. 1 offense in the league going into the playoffs so perhaps the Bears? playoff defense will be more akin to the defense which got them out to the furious start this season.
Who will win? I?m putting everyone down here on record next week.