This post will be quickly deleted, but it's delicious to write. Orrin = mullah omar; Pats = taliban. New England is clogged with a tidal wave of illiterates who do not represent the future of anything...

Man, did the genius Belichick think he could win the game without even putting a defense on the field in the 2nd half?

32 2nd half points from Peyton.

These were the Colts possessions beginning with the last of the first 1/2:

fg, td, td, td, punt, fg, punt, td.

I have mixed feelings tho. As satisfying as it was to watch the Colts have their way with the Pats D, and as great as it was to watch the golden boy throw that final interception, the Bears would've walked all over NE in 2 weeks. The Colts will be much tougher.

Why did the Patriots through three passes with 3:30 left in the game when they had to run down the clock?

Why'd he stop running it when the run had given them a 21-3 lead?

I told you, OJ, I told you! Taunting San Diego angered the Football Gods, and what happened? Brady back to throw on third down, he throws to a wider-than-the-Grand-Canyon-open Reche Caldwell . . . smote by the Football Gods, Caldwell drops the gimmie pass. Reggie Wayne gets the ball popped loose, and thanks to divie intervention, he recovers his own bobble.

O ye mortals, trifle not with the Football Gods!

In all seriousness, that was one of the best football games I've ever seen. I tuned in at the end of the first half (after my wife indulged her Howie Mandel addiction) and it looked like a steam-cleaning in progress--but the second half was a comeback for the ages, and the Pats have nothing to be ashamed of.

I had the same thoughts about the football gods Mike.

Ditto for the Saints/Bears after Reggie Bush taunted and hotdogged it into the endzone.

M:

We'll kick your butts in buzkashi.

Based on my perception of public attitudes, I have to ask: Were any of you folks here who aren't from New England and weren't betting on the game actually rooting for the Patriots?

No one roots for the dynasty.

Dynasties are ok with me, I'm just against anything that might make anyone in NE happy.

Answers to some questions above:

1) Golic pointed out this morning that on that last drive of the 1st half the Colt's hurry-up kept NE from making their usual massive defensive substitutions and kept them back on their heels with some of the wrong personnel on the field. They rushed 4. They were just gassed.

2) NE stopped running the ball for 2 reasons, First, they weren't having any success. Except for Dillon's long run on 4th and inches in the first quarter the Pats were getting less than 3 yards per carry. Second, the Pats were very successful this year passing from the the spread formation against the "Cover 2" type of defense that the Colts run. The prototype was their game against Minnesota where they ran up huge numbers without running the ball against a similar defense.

3) NE had to pass on that last drive because of the 12-men-in-the-huddle penalty that put them at 1st & 15. As pointed out above, they weren't running successfully. As it happens, the incomplete pass on 3rd down made no difference because the Colts ended the game with a time-out in hand. If they stopped the run on 3rd and 3 they would have used that unused time-out and ended up in the same position.

It will be nuts here in Fort Wayne for the next two weeks. The Colts and Bears are by far the most popular teams here and I'm already looking forward to pulling out my orange and navy for the Super Bowl Party. I wonder if anyone has Rex and Peyton's career records for games played in Florida?

Also, don't forget, the Colts burned off the clock at the end of the first half on that long drive for the field goal; NE came back on just long enough to kill off the last six or seven seconds of the half. The Colts received the kick at the start of the second, and ran another long drive for a TD. From the time it was 21-3 to the time it was 21-13, the Colts ran thirty some offensive plays, to NE's one (the kneel-down at the end of the first half). The NE offense couldn't run because it wasn't on the field to run.

I was rooting for the Colts but I have nothing against the Pats. Great game.

jp

JIm in Chicago has the right attitude.

Go Blue Jays!

Let's walk back the cat. It was a great coaching job that got NE to the AFC championship game with Reche Caldwell and Jabbar Gaffney wide. Just think what they could have done with, say, a Super Bowl MVP-type receiver.

They didn't have the cap money for that, however. They used to have more cap money to spare, before signing Tom Brady to a big contract.

A lot of the Patriot's success is attributable to Belichick, and his system of signing lots of good cost/benefit free agents. But how much was attributable to having a Hall of Fame quarterback at sixth-round draft choice prices, while your main competitor had a Hall of Fame quarterback at Hall of Fame prices?

Thank goodness the Saints lost. All that team of destiny nonsense.

Is Rex Grossman the worst QB to ever start a Super Bowl? Joe Kapp was worse I guess. Grossman has to be in the worst 3 or 4 though.

The Pats stopped running because they don't do it very well anymore. And their quick slants and look-ins work well, although not so much at the end of this game. Brady looked hurried, even though he wasn't really pressured that much. It was like they were going too fast with their routes.

Even though the Pats jumped to a big lead, they really hadn't earned it (at least on offense). And when they went to the well in the 2nd half, there wasn't enough there to win the game. They had no real long drives, and they just seemed scattered on offense. Peyton looked sloppy at the beginning, but after he threw the INT, he settled down and played much better than Brady.

For some reason, the Pats just don't want to throw long. That hurt them, too. I didn't see the whole game, but was the fourth down pass to Troy Brown the only play that was downfield (and over the middle)? If Bob Sanders has a bad knee, then why not throw deep?

The Colts could have won this game much easier than they did. NE wasn't going to win like they did last week.

Per the Bears:

Tho I've managed to retain my allegiances to the teams of my NY youth -- Yanks, Knicks, Rangers, and Giants, no expansion franchises for this theocon -- I have become a Bears fan in my 12 years in Chicago -- as long as they're not playing the Giants.

Indeed, listening to Chicago's great classical FM station, WFMT, on the drive, yes drive in a car and everything, to work this morning I got a little teary-eyed when they played the Solti CSO's version of "Bear Down, Chicago Bears," which was the CSO's encore at a performance 3 days before the '86 Superbowl.

The best part is listening to the audience go absolutely bananas, first when they realize what the CSO is playing, and then at the end. I hope the CSO does something similar in the next 2 weeks.

The Bears and Colts are originals and the kept running the ball--what's not to like?

They were running the ball fine and built a lead. Throwing just kept a banged up defense on the field more. Even more inexplicable is why the Saints abandoned the run.

Grossman is actually fairly typical of winning QBs--McMahon, Dilfer, Ripen, Williams, Plunkett, Hostetler...

They had a Super Bowl receiving corps. Belichick pulled a Herm Edwards and stopped running.

Mike:

Exactly. And using the Prevent D at the end of the half got the Colts into their rhythm.

Funniest stat of the game--explaining what's wrong with the modern game--Brady was 5 for 8 at one point on 3rd down for two first downs.

Jeff:

Yes, the last drive didn't matter. they had under a minute so no way to score a TD. Contra Simms, the Colts won only because they went for the two.

Jim:

This season furthers the dynasty. Despite injuries they lost in the final minute on the road in the AFC championship game.

Dynasties win, they don't come in third. Talk about fan rationalization.

And what do you call teams like the Vikings whose "dynasties" could never win the big one?

Yes, Raoul, by that standard the Yankees remain a dynasty by virtue of making the playoffs every year.

Have you ever heard anyone say the Yankees under Torre aren't a dynasty?

The Vikings, as you point out, never won. The Brady/Belichick Pats win repeatedly, just not every year.

1996-2000 = dynasty

2001-2006 = not so much

So are the Atlanta Braves of 1991-2005 the greatest dynasty ever?

Hardly.

The Bobby Cox Braves are certainly the great recent baseball dynasty. That playoff stretch is unmatched.

The Braves beat a dysfunctional team when they won the Series in 1995. Their 'best' showing was in 1991, the first year of their run. But in every other post-season, they either failed to hit or had no bullpen (or both). Most telling is that (with the exception of the Marlins) everyone who beat them in the playoffs lost the next series. Over a 15 year period, that says something. The Braves were a good commercial enterprise, but not a great baseball team.

You lost the argument at "run"

No, you lost at 'great'.