ok now that i'm sober and coherent, here's my 2c. been waiting for this superbowl for years now, and all the frustration of watching every team that eliminated indy win the superbowl was getting frustrating. i was beyond happy to see dungy finally win it (especially because he got robbed of the chance to do it in tampa and gave jon gruden a superbowl ready team [p.s. where are the buccs now?]). what's even better is manning finally won it, and those dumbas* sports analysts can finally stfu. and i couldn't be happier to see them win a Superbowl the way they did.
Always considered a finesse team. They go into the playoffs with the worst run defense in the league. Everyone picks Kansas over them, and out of nowhere, Colts D just completly shuts down on Chiefs' running game.
Then, on to Baltimore. Ravens, the best defense in the league this year vs the ol' finesse colts. Everyone says they'll sack the crap out of manning and get him nervous and turnover crazy. the colts D steps up again and shuts down baltimore O, while colts win the game with absolute grit.
Then, new england, ghost of xmas past. down 21-3, manning steps up, ties the game, and they force a win while long time rival tom "mr clutch" brady throws an interception during the most important drive of the game and doesn't properly manage his time outs.
on to the superbowl, bears special teams score on opening kick off, down 7-0, and manning gets picked on his first drive. everyone talks about bears D being one of the best in the league, but colts D was the one that shut a QB down. manning keeps his cool, wins another.
I've never seen a team struggle with self-sabotages this bad and win the bowl on sheer desire alone. everyone on this team stepped up when it came to fixing mistakes. worst run defense in the regular season became the best run defense in the playoffs. manning didn't implode like he used to, he kept his cool and kept playing proving everyone that he can be cool during clutch.
this one was longtime due, and now we focus on next year. now that the monkey is off peyton's back, this can be made into a dynasty.