Almost Super

Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007, was the first Super Bowl played in a driving rain, the first to feature even one African-American head coach (let alone two), and the first in which the opening kickoff was returned for a touchdown.  

The Bears had rolled through a league-best 13-3 regular season. They scored 427 points (including 65 by the defense and special teams), while allowing only 255. Eight Bears were selected for the Pro Bowl: center Olin Kreutz, guard Ruben Brown, defensive end Tommie Harris, linebackers Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs, special teamer Brendan Ayanbadejo, kicker Robbie Gould, and return man Devin Hester. 

 

DEVIN HESTER TAKES THE OPENING KICKOFF TO THE HOUSE.

Quarterback Rex Grossman had excelled while leading the Bears to wins in their first seven games, but he struggled as the season went along. After Grossman committed 19 turnovers in the second half of the season, sportswriters asked head coach Lovie Smith whether he might make a change for the playoffs. Smith’s answer has lived on as a sound bite ever since. “Rex is our quarterback,” he said in his syrupy Texas drawl.

     Smith’s trust in Grossman was rewarded when the Bears squeaked past the Seattle Seahawks in overtime and then routed the New Orleans Saints to punch their ticket to the franchise’s first Super Bowl since the legendary 1985 season.

     When Smith met his counterpart and old friend, Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts, on the field at Miami’s Dolphin Stadium before the game, they shook hands as the first African-American head coaches in Super Bowl history. “I just told Lovie how proud I was of the moment,” said Dungy.

     Then the Colts’ Adam Vinatieri kicked off to Hester, and the sensational rookie who’d set an NFL record with six return touchdowns on the year did not disappoint. He raced 92 yards to the opposite end zone. After Gould added the extra point, the Bears led 7-0.

     Fourteen seconds had been played. Fifty-nine minutes and 46 seconds remained, but Hester (who eventually proved to be the greatest returner of all time) was done for all intents and purposes. From then on, the Colts squibbed every kickoff and punted the ball near him only once.

     The Colts’ first possession ended with safety Chris Harris intercepting a Peyton Manning pass at the Bears’ 29-yard line. Alas, the Bears failed to move the ball and were forced to punt. A 53-yard strike from Manning to Reggie Wayne got the Colts onto the scoreboard, but a botched extra point left the Bears ahead 7-6.

     The Bears fumbled the ensuing pooch kick (while Hester waited in vain at his own goal line), and Indianapolis recovered. The Colts returned the favor on the very next play when running back Joseph Addai coughed up the football to Bears defensive end Mark Anderson. On the next play, Bears running back Thomas Jones scampered 52 yards down to the Colts’ five-yard line. Then Grossman found Muhsin Muhammad in the end zone, extending the Bears’ lead to 14-6.

     The Bears did not score again until Gould booted a 44-yard field goal with 1:14 left in the third quarter. In the meantime, Prince delivered a stupendous halftime show and the Colts delivered a touchdown and three field goals against the Bears’ bend-but-don’t-break defense.

     At the outset of the fourth quarter, the Colts were ahead 22-17, not an insurmountable lead by any means. But then came the play of the game. Grossman’s pass intended for Muhammad was picked off by Kelvin Haynes and taken 56 yards for a touchdown. The Bears had now been outscored 23-3 since the first quarter. The ensuing kickoff was soon followed by the coup de grace, another interception of Grossman.

     The final score was 29-17. “A frustrating loss,” Grossman said. “There were definitely opportunities for us to take that game, and we didn't do it.” For his part, Manning was later overheard saying that the Colts “should’ve scored 70 [points].” They had controlled the ball for 38 minutes, earning 24 first downs to the Bears’ 11 and amassing 430 yards of offense to the Bears’ 265. The Bears had lost to a superior team and to perhaps the greatest quarterback of all time.

 

 

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