Riding the Pine - Super Bowl forecast

"We're not here to cause any trouble, we're just here to do the Super Bowl Shuffle." - 1985 Chicago Bears


Get ready for an upset on Sunday.

From talking to people on campus and from what I've read, the general consensus seems to be that Peyton Manning's laser rocket arm will guide the Indianapolis Colts to their first title since their Baltimore days. This will lead to dozens of columns praising good guys (like Manning and Tony Dungy) finally getting their ring and Manning doing commercials for every product from cell phones to RepHresh gel.

But I just don't see it happening. I'm actually rooting for the Colts. They remind me of the Super Bowl Bills team (they were both built by the genius of Bill Polian). But unfortunately for both myself and the Colts, those Bills teams never won the Super Bowl and the Colts may face a similar upset as the infamous Bills-Giants game (I know it's painful to bring up). The parallels are there and history has been known to repeat itself.

Not only that but this game also reminds me of the recent World Series and BCS Championship. The Cardinals and Gators weren't given much of a chance to win, yet they both came out on top - in relatively dominating fashion too.

I don't think the Bears will dominate , I think it will be close, but the Bears are better than they are perceived. The weak NFC is partially to blame for that, people just assume that because the rest of the conference is weak that it's champion must also be an also-ran. Not true. The Bears have an impress one-two punch of defense and special teams that has one several games single handily a few times already.

Against the Colts they'll need some offense too. This is the Colts biggest advantage. Especially at Quarterback where Manning is far superior to Rex Grossman (by the way, is that his real name or a nickname? His parents thought it was a good idea to name him Rex?). One thing that Grossman does real well though, is to throw the deep ball. And I think he'll connect on a few of these again Sunday. This will open up things enough for the Bears to pound the ball and control the clock and more importantly keeping Manning off the field.

This brings me to the quote at the top of the post. That, of course is a line from the hit song "The Super Bowl Shuffle." That was sung (and danced to) the last time the Bears made the big game. It was also the Bears only appearance in the Super Bowl until now. That team was one of the best and fun teams the NFL has ever seen. It even spawned the great "Super Fans" sketch on SNL that launched the always entertaining phrase: "Da Bears."

So if that was the Super Bowl shuffle, let's call this the Upset Shuffle. It will be especially painful for Manning (went to school at Tennessee) to lose to a Florida product like Grossman. But I guess that's the way of life for one of the game's greatest players - having to bare the pain of another championship-less year.

Score:
Bears- 27
Colts- 22