Last week, I tried to bring up 41 reasons to make people realize that the upcoming Super Bowl would be a memorable one. One full day after the event I am still in full awe because of the way this game unfolded.

No, I’m not talking about the Cirque du Soleil, Prince, Billy Joel or any of the other sideshow festivities - what I am talking about is the game that was played on the field. What we were to witness this past Sunday was greatness in action. This game hopefully opened the eyes of all those who doubted Peyton Manning, who doubted Tony Dungy, or who doubted the strength that the Colts represented.

Now I promise that this article will not be about Peyton getting that monkey off his back. Let me just dedicate this one paragraph to remind every sportswriter who ever doubted this guy just how wrong they were. Anyone in their right mind knows that a player with such God-given talent, such a work ethic, such desire to win and such a great personality is destined to be a champion. Don’t even mention Dan Marino to me. Marino is the anomaly, the exception to the rule. Marino’s fate has made guys like Peyton work harder and be more dedicated than it is humanly possible.

Before you think this is meant to be an ‘I told you so!’ thing, well it could not be further from it. You see, my eyes were also opened on Sunday.  I was one of the doubters. Just how much irony can fate deliver? The first possessions of the game had me believing that all my doubts about Manning were to be justified. A Devin Hester kick-off return TD and Peyton’s interception had us all fooled. Yet from then on you could do nothing more than admire the precision with which Manning took the Chicago defense apart.

At the other end of the spectrum, I felt really sorry for Rex Grossman. I’ve read a ton of articles about the game in the past 24 hours and almost everyone feels Rex gave the game away. I have to say that, no matter how hard I try, I can not deny the fact that his turnovers were costly enough to have the Bears lose this one. At the same time I do not see Grossman as the reason for Chicago’s demise. A paradox? Well, sort of.

Botched snaps will always get you the argument of who is to blame, the center who snaps the ball, or the QB who takes the snap. Since only the two of them know who made the mistake, I say with those turnovers both Rex and his center Olin Kreutz are equally to blame. The two interceptions were both badly-thrown passes that were not all that difficult for the defense to catch. Rex deserves to be bashed for both as even on his worst day (with bad Rex in full effect), he never made the mistake of floating those long ones this high. Maybe it was the rain, who knows?

Yet all of these mistakes are secondary to the one that coach Lovie Smith has made. What mistake is that, you might ask. How about the fact that he was too stubborn to realize the rushing game was not getting the yards? Early in the second quarter, Grossman was looking good with short passes. He was five for seven at that point, and it was clear Indy’s defense was trying to stop only two things: the rushing and the long passes. Yet it took Lovie till late in the fourth quarter to realize that he could use Desmond Clark as a mid-short gain receiver simply because the Colts backed off the slots to make sure they did not allow another long range Bernard Berrian effort.

This mistake pretty much created the other. Everyone who watched the Colts-Patriots game two weeks ago was aware that the longer the Bears’ defense is on the field, the less they would have a chance to win the game. Lovie likes to have his D unit out there. Those guys have produced almost as many points as their offensive line-up. Yet in this game, against a Manning who spent the two-week build up to the game to catch as much game film of the Bears’ D to dissect every move, this simply should not have been an option.

Had Rex been given the green light on a few more short passes early on, Chicago would have moved the chains a lot more than they did in the first half, and the Colts would have had less possession time. Before anybody bashes Grossman, they better check out his passing chart and the number of times he was given the green light by the coaching staff in the first quarter. They’ll see that Rex is not the only one to blame (I mean, the guy threw 20 for 28 with one TD and two INTs; let’s be honest these are not dreadful stats, they don’t look good, but they’re definitely not dreadful)

Now we come to the most important question which almost everyone has forgotten to ask. What happened to the Bears’ defense? I'm sorry to point this out, but had they held the Colts to their usual opponent points-allowed average of 16,  this game would have been theirs. Whilst it is easy to point at fatigue, fact is, their biggest defensive mistake was seen early on in the game with that Reggie Wayne touchdown reception. No Bears defender was even within ten yards of the guy.

Peyton was so surprised to see Wayne this open that he almost took a sack because his jaw dropped so low. I don’t think Wayne has ever been left this open since his high-school playing days.

We all expected that the Colts would find some way of getting Teddy Bruschi out of the game (which they did mostly). Yet you would think that the Chicago coaching staff would have expected that, too, and would have tried to come up with a plan B in case their regular rotations didn’t work. We saw none of that on Sunday. In fact, if you figure in the missed field goal and extra point, the Colts would have had this wrapped up by the beginning of the third quarter.

To finish off the article, let’s take a look at the prospects for next season for both of these teams. Interestingly enough, the Bears seem to be in better shape. They have ample cap room and fewer free-agents-to-be. Their biggest question is whether they will re-sign Thomas Jones. Before the game it was almost 100% that Jones was gone, because the team felt Cedric Benson and a young RB from the draft could be just as productive as the Jones-Benson duo. Plus they have invested enough into Benson to make him a starter. Seeing how Cedric injured that knee early on Sunday makes you think the Bears might now think about bringing Jones back.

The Colts have stated that Dwight Freeney’s free-agency status is not a concern because if they cannot get a deal done, they will use the franchise tag on him. Yet the Colts should be concerned about their overall situation. They have very little cap room, plus they have a few key free agents. Most notable is Dominic Rhodes, who would have been a deserving Super Bowl MVP as well (in all fairness he should have shared the award with Manning). With Addai around, the Colts might feel Rhodes is expendable, but it will be tough for them to find another back who can produce the way Dominic has in the playoffs.

But hey, all of this means we’re not going to be bored in the off-season, either.

Who do you fancy for Superbowl XLII - and why? Sportingo would welcome your thoughts on next season's NFL campaign.