COACHINGPointsDICK THORNTON : Superb Colts offence deserves credit

Bears should keep QB options open

Agood time was had by all who attended our Super Bowl Party at Shenanigans in Pattaya last Monday morning...although the game failed in many respects to live up to the continuous media hype. With the exception of a few spectacular plays, there were no screen passes, flanker reverses, flea-flickers, halfback passes or any other trick that could have broken the game wide open like last year. It was all about taking advantage of turnovers and the Indianapolis Colts proved worthy champions in that department. Anyhow, next year's Party will be even better, since Shenanigans moves to a new location in the Mall currently being constructed across the road and with more and better seating arrangements plus the latest in audio/video technology.

What follows are my thoughts on the Big Game.

Persistence:

Indianapolis was down seven points just 14 seconds after the opening kick-off, bungled an extra point attempt, shanked a field goal at the end of the half, committed three turnovers (interception and two fumbles) and yet, still won the game handily. How did this happen? The Colts simply didn't panic and were persistent in sticking to their game plan of taking whatever the Bears gave them defensively. Those were the short passes underneath the linebackers (ten to RB Joseph Addai for 66 yards) and in the seams (five to Dallas Clark for 64 yards) plus a power ground attack. They also created takeaways of their own (two picks and two fumbles) with tremendous speed, athleticism and ferocious hitting on the other side of the ball.

Bad omen:

History has a way of repeating itself because just four weeks earlier, undefeated Ohio State took on the Florida Gators for the NCAA College Championship. On the opening kickoff, OSU's Ted Ginn Jr found a small opening and sprinted 93 yards for a quick touchdown. Aha, a rout by the Buckeyes is on. Wrong! Final: Florida 41 Ohio State 14. In Super Bowl XLI, the Bears' Devon Hester took the opening kick-off, cut back to his right going full speed and was gone _ a 92-yard TD romp. Aha, an upset of the favoured Colts in the making? Wrong! There were still 59 minutes and 46 seconds left to play and wrote in my notebook, ''don't celebrate too soon, Chicago.''

The luck factor:

When Bear QB Rex Grossman threw a floater off his back foot that was picked off by DB Kelvin Hayden and returned 58 yards for an insurance touchdown, Coach Hook looked over at me and said: ''You still need a lot of luck to win the Super Bowl with a great quarterback, but bad luck always comes into play with a bad quarterback.'' Other than the kick-off return by Hester and a sparkling 52-yard run off right tackle by Jones, the Chicago offence went nowhere all night. Grossman completed 20 passes, but most were meaningless, with the exception of his touchdown strike to Muhammhad. He had a total of 165 yards through the air but 82 of those came playing catch up in the 4th quarter when Indy was in a 'bend, don't break' alignment. However, the latest word out of the Chicago camp is Rex will start next season as the #1 man behind centre. Help!

The turning point:

The Bears were on the move with 7:21 to go in the 3rd quarter trailing 19-14. Grossman hit Jones with a short pass over the middle for 14 yards and came right back with a strike to Muhammad for a 9 yard gain to the Colt 45. Surely, you run the ball and get that extra yard to get another set of downs. Instead, Grossman drops back to pass and gets sacked for an 11 yard loss. Now, it's 3rd and 12. Rex then stumbles, falls down, fumbles and eventually crashes to the turf for another big loss. Now its 4th and 23, forcing Brad Maynard to punt from his own 18 yard line. Chicago never threatened after that.

MVP:

We all know that QB Peyton Manning received the Most Valuable Player Award (the 15th signal caller to get this honour) and it was well deserved _ to a point. He did a superb job of managing the game (the Colts controlled the ball for some 38 minutes and ran 33 more plays) but the Bears helped considerably at critical junctures. My choice for the MVP Award would be the Indianapolis offensive line. Glenn, Lilja, Scott, Diem and Saturday did an outstanding job the entire 60 minutes of protecting Manning (25-38 for 247 yards) while only allowing one sack. They also continually opened up creases in the lanes for RB's Addai and Rhodes who rushed for a combined total of 191 yards against a defense that was considered my many to be vastly superior. It will never happen (giving the top honor to five guys) but they would have gotten my vote...if I had one.

Thank you, Tony:

It didn't seem very significant when the Colts had the ball 4th and 6 on the Bear 17 yard line with a 1:49 remaining and a comfortable 12 point lead. Yet, the betting public were having nervous tremors because the line on the Over/Under total was 48.5 and the score stood at 29-17 or 46 combined points. Under ordinary circumstances, the head coach would probably call for a field goal, making it theoretically at least _ an insurmountable 32-17 lead. But it would also turn the Under to an Over in a heartbeat. I zeroed in on the Under in my column as well, rain or no rain and when HC Tony Dungy elected to simply run the ball up the middle for a one yard gain with special thanks to Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher for making the stop. Indy had to turn the ball over on downs and when time expired shortly thereafter _ the scoreline remained the same and lots of folks were very happy, myself included.

The Pro Bowl: AFC All-Stars (-4) against NFC All-Stars in Honolulu, Hawaii

If you're reading this column with your morning coffee, the game might still be on ESPN as almost 70 million votes were cast via Internet/Mobile Phone technology and named 48 players from each Conference to participate in this year's Pro Bowl. Like the SB week before, it was surrounded by celebrity parties, a golf tournament, local festivals and a big tailgate affair just prior to the game. For the record, I took the AFC (-4) here. In my opinion, they have better proven performers on both sides of the ball. Just before kickoff, if it's raining, I'll jump on the UNDER 65, but if not...taking the OVER. _ 6am This Morning on True Visions Channels 61, 65

London , England:

It was announced on February 2nd that the first 'NFL regular season' game to be held outside the continental United States _ will be played in Wembley Stadium on October 28 between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins. In the first week alone, there have been requests for more than 500,000 tickets in a stadium that holds 90,000 people. Who said American football is not popular on a global basis?

Last slot filled:

After interviewing a myriad of candidates, Jerry Jones, the enigmatic owner of the Cowboys officially announced last Friday that San Diego Charger DC Wade Phillips will be the new head coach. Thus, Philips becomes the 5th lead horse in the Dallas parade over the past 11 years. His previous head coaching record with four other teams is a paltry 48-42 and he's 0-3 in play-off games, so it will be interesting to see how this move plays out next season. Hopefully, WR Terrell Owens will give his blessing because otherwise, it will be a rocky road ahead.

Sincere appreciation:

Just a short note to say thanks to all my readers for their continuous support and the many kind words sent in person and via e-mail throughout my 5th season doing Coaching Points. Ended up at a 51.6% winning percentage and I'll take that any time. It seems to get tougher every year, but that's why we play the game. I'll be back in late April with my thoughts on the 2007 College Draft. See ya then!

Coach Dick Thornton is a regional marketing consultant and free lance journalist and can be reached at coachdt.

Bangkok Post
Sunday February 11, 2007