Super Bowl or Bust: Super Bowl Edition

Here we are the most highly anticipated game in the sporting world, mere hours away from kickoff. Some would point to the International Crochet Knit Offs as the pinnacle of competition and they may have a point. But nothing says sports like the Super Bowl, a one game championship that the average fan has little chance in hell of attending. An event watched by billions of people whose eyeballs companies will compete for and fork over millions of dollars for half a minute of their viewing. I love capitalism and that is not sarcastic. It's the perfect economic system for natural selection, survival of the fittest.

But hey, this isn't the BCS, it's the NFL where most teams realistically have a shot at the Super Bowl. The exception is Detroit of course. Unfortunately, we are at the point where 29 other teams besides the Lions are busy arranging tee times, so it's now down to two teams: The Colts and The Bears.

It really is a must win for the Colts and Payton Manning because he might only get one shot at it. The off-season doesn't look to be kind to Indy. They face the loss of a fourth of their starting defense to free agency, and surely more defections if they win it all. The Colts are projected to be over the salary cap by around five million, and if they don't get under it they face a penalty in future years of a loss of cap room. This team is almost past the point where they had a shot at a dynasty with their current personnel.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is calling Peyton, are you going to answer it? Unlike other sports winning is more important then numbers, especially for quarterbacks. I know it sounds silly to be talking about this now, but this game secures his legacy. Only two out of 23 quarterbacks enshrined in Canton have not played in a championship title game at the pro level. But fifteen of them have won at least one Superbowl (sixteen if you include Warren Moon and his five Canadian Football titles). Will his stats be enough? Perhaps but a win will ensure it.

Like Jeff Sugar's article points out, special teams are huge in the playoffs and the Colts let up a lot of yardage to the Pats in this area two weeks ago. I also expect this to be a huge factor in the game. The Bears defense will be hard-pressed to stop Indy if they get good field position consistently.

An overlooked stat about Indy's defense that may play a part in the Superbowl is third down conversions. In the regular season they were the worst in the league, but the opposite in the postseason with the #1 ranking in this area. Can they continue the success? They will need at least fifteen first downs against a very tough defense.

How the Colts adjust to the Bears' gameplan will be another key point. They did a great job changing things up in the second half of the AFC Championship game, spreading the receivers out and looking to the middle of the field for passes. Look for them to start off slow in the first half as both teams are feeling each other out. Expect the same for the Bears as well.

Speaking of Chicago, we have an interesting piece of their defensive puzzle: Brian Urlacher. He hasn't had a sack all season, but the 4-3 defensive front, his position, and his leadership role on the team all factor into this. While I expect him to fade back into coverage a lot, I think he might blitz more this time around and get a sack. The defense as a whole will need to use their speed to get to the ball quickly as they have been doing all season.

The Bears defense gets a boost from the weather when it comes to the turnover game. It is expected to be cool, rainy, and windy and this plays right into Chicago's hands, and no team is better at creating turnovers.

Much has been said of Manning but a lot of talk and analysis has focused on Rex Grossman as well. Can he be the consistent signal caller or will he be the unfocused quarterback like back in the regular season finale? I think he will do fine, the pressure isn't on him, and it is on Peyton.

The big question is how the Bears two-headed running attack will do versus a much -improved Colts run defense. I don't think they are that good though. The Patriots abandoned their rushing attack in the second half of the game two weeks ago. The Baltimore game was more about penalties then defense. The only true stoppage was against Larry Johnson in the wild card round. I believe Benson and Jones are going to have some good numbers and make this part of the game a key for Chicago.

The whole Bears team should be pretty relaxed too, well as much as you can be before the Superbowl. Both Dungy and Manning have that 'can't win the big one' stigma, while Chicago seems to be having fun and just enjoying the ride. I think this factors into the game as well.

When it's all said and done, I think the Colts lose the turnover battle, the Bears have a great second half and rush their way to the Vince Lombardi trophy.

Da Bears win in a close one and CBS shows continual replays of what looks like a monkey clinging to the back of Manning's jersey.