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Disagree, the only players without blame are Hester and Gould, imo. The defense gets off a bit for being on the field for 40 minutes, but the lines were awful, the coaching was awful, Benson and Reed had crucial turnovers, Grossman wasn't that great, Chris Harris blew the coverage on the Colts' first TD and the defense missed tackles all over the map. The defense also gets a bit of a break for generating a couple fumbles, and for shutting down Indy in the red zone for the bulk of the game. Thomas Jones didn't really do much to get a lot of blame either...when a running play was called, he was pretty effective overall. For the vast majority of the game, I disagree with you on that-Jones was not good other than 1 run before picking up most of the rest of his yards late. Part of that was due to his blocking on several runs though, so that big run might be enough to take any blame away from him.

Did the TV announcers get it wrong then? Every call I've heard has Harris blowing the coverage.

I guess Arizona gets to stay in the AP poll no matter what-I was hoping IU would stay in even with their loss to Iowa because of the huge Wisconsin win, but I guess not. The voters basically kept Indiana at the same spot in both polls. In the AP poll, Indiana went from 141 points and #26 to 117 and #27. In the Coaches Poll they went from 62 points and t-#25 to 74 and #24. And Arizona actually did drop out in the Coaches poll. That's true-I forgot that IU was only in the coaches poll last week-thanks for the clarification. Oh well-find a way to win on Saturday, and back in the top 25 they should go-it's not like basketball rankings mean anything anyway.

I guess Arizona gets to stay in the AP poll no matter what-I was hoping IU would stay in even with their loss to Iowa because of the huge Wisconsin win, but I guess not.

well at least you prove the committee wrong by losing home NIT games to Holy Cross!!! Oh, brother. When was the last time a team that got the shaft from the tourney won that joke of a "tournament"? ND played freshmen that game that hadn't played all season, shows you how important it was. To answer your question, Michigan from a couple of years ago.

Matt Giordano Yeah, it was Giordano. He was the guy who ran Ellis Hobbs down last week, and he was the guy who put the big hit on to make the Bears miss that 4th down conversion with about 5 minutes left. The thing that I don't understand is that if Hester was not going full speed why did he allow himself to be tackled even at the goal line? If it were me, I'd rather run a little faster and avoid getting hit at all-regardless if Hester was going full speed though, Giordano was absolutely flying-look how fast he was going compared to the other Colts defenders. I didn't realize till the last two weeks that Giordano had that kind of speed in him-he should be good as the first backup safety next year if Doss is not re-signed.

Garcia's the type of QB who needs weapons around him to make him really good. He has his limitations as a QB that can be exploited if there aren't the proper pieces-Cleveland and Detroit were not good fits for him, but a team like the Bears would be a much better fit.

Garcia was fine for half a season. Can he play a full season? If he goes to a bad team where he's going to get drilled often, my guess would be no. The Bears don't need him to do that though-they just need him to make the throws that move the chains to balance out their good run game. Garcia has a much better chance of staying healthy and effective in that type of scenario, especially with the pretty good weapons that he will have.

Wouldn't even consider it. His issues go beyond just injury "concerns". He makes Rex look like Favre in the stability department. He's always limping around, even when he does play. He might not be a high risk for disaster, but he doesn't have a ton of upside in my opinion. This would just be a grass is always greener move, taking on somebody else's headache. If I found somebody who stood a good chance of being a very good QB, I'd be fine to replace Rex. But I don't see it. A move like this has to be an obvious upgrade. To me, a guy like Leftwich is nothing more than a lateral move. It would be starting over with a guy who has at least as many questions as Rex. I was just looking through the list of potential tradesor free agents...Leftwich, Garcia and Huard are the "big names"... I'm admittedly frustrated with the QB situation, and looking for quick remedies. If you truly want to replace Rex, signing Garcia and then drafting a QB will give you a great chance to win the SB next year while at the same time preparing for the future.

I know that's going to be the official accepted story, but I refuse to believe that to be true. A 70+ completion percentage, a 68.3 rating. That's not taking a dump. That's not disaster Rex. That's better than what Roethlisberger did while winning last year's Super Bowl and he doesn't face anywhere near the scrutiny Grossman does. Rex did not have a good game, but he did not crap the bed either. rex wasnt that bad. he only made 1 bad pass really, the int to muhammad. the second INT came late in the 4th down by two TDs. Berrian was open but he underthrew him, but at that point he was just trying to make something happen to spark an unlikely comeback. He wasn't great, but he wasn't horrible. Unfortunately too many bears fans are blind to the fact that defense couldn't get off the field if their life depended on it as a main reason for losing. All year people blame rex and refuse to ever blame the D. Well the D was about as good/bad as rex in the super bowl. I mean the criticism of rex has really gotten out of hand. I hear people saying he threw so many bad balls....well he only threw 8 incompletions, a couple of which were drops. If you are going to criticize him at least do it for something that he actually did wrong (bad exchanges with kreutz, ints) I'm watching the Sportscenter highlights right now, and I don't think Grossman's worst pass was even the INT for the TD. It was the pass where he scrambled around, got away from pressure, could have ran for a first down but instead lofted it straight unto a Colts guy's hands. The Colts guy dropped it, but it was still a horrible pass. With that said though, Grossman was not "the reason" that the Bears lost. He wasn't good, but neither was the running game to help him, so he shouldn't shoulder all of the blame for the mistakes.

The Bears are not a wet track team, never have been. Cold and a little snow is helpful, but a wet track is not good for a speed team. True, but that just makes it neutral, because the Colts are just as much of a speed team.

So, you forfeit a draft pick? I don't know that much about NFL free agency other then a restricted player's original team has so long to match a deal. I didn't realize that you had to give up draft picks though?!?! In Restricted Free Agency, you (usually) have to give up a draft pick. For the bigger names, it can cost up to 1st rounder. Very true. Atlanta has to decide what value of contract they want to give him. There are 3 levels: Top level: if another team signs him and Atlanta doesn't match, Atlanta receives 1st and 3rd round draft picks Second Level: Atlanta would receive 1st round draft pick Third Level: Atlanta receives pick equal to round Schaub was drafted in (in this case, a 3rd rounder). I bet Atlanta protects Schaub with one of the top 2 levels-I can't see the Bears getting him without giving up a 1st rounder unless they can work out some deal some other way with the Falcons.

LOL! Dwight Freeney is a FA as well. What a year to be a FA, after winning the SB. Freeney's not going anywhere-if they can't come to a long-term deal with him , they are franchising him. Bill Polian already said that there is 0 chance that Freeney hits free agency this year.

I think the offensive line of the Colts did a wonderful job and should have been the MVP. I would definitely agree that the offensive line was wonderful, which opened up both the running and passing game-I probably would have voted for them if they had allowed it.

Corrected He wasn't to me. I walked up to him randomly during the Final Four a couple years ago, and he was one of the nicest people I have ever met. He talked to me for 10-15 minutes in a hallway, and never seemed upset or irritated at all that I was using up his time-a real down to earth type of guy.

They're the best team in the world. No, they're the winner of the SB, not the best team in football, much less the best team in the world. If that game is played on grass, Bears win. That may sound like sour grapes, but it's true. How about we actually have the SB in football conditions instead of a vacation destination. Sorry-have to jump in here. That game was played on grass-the best grass anywhere found, but still that was a grass field, not a turf one. As for football conditions-was the rain through the whole game not enough? How do you suppose to make it better then the conditions of this game?

Addai He should be, but I can see them going with Manning to make it a good story. I wouldn't be unhappy with Manning, Addai, or Rhodes-they're about equal for this game IMO. Thank you for the congrats Bears fans-it is a tough game to gauge because of how the weather conditions affected both teams. You guys have a great squad, and it was a great battle-maybe we can meet again next year. I'm going to try not to post again in this thread, because I know how painful playoff losses can be-good luck, and may you have a productive offseason and successful season. I also hope you guys get some of the respect back that you deserve after the game that you didn't get before. Good game.

Somebody just asked me-do you think he caught that? Me (before the first replay): I've seen Marvin Harrison for 10 years-I'm completely sure that's a catch. He is just an amazing receiver on dragging his feet like that-I've never seen anyone better on those types of things.

I know they don't do this, but those calls should have been split-one of those 2 should have gone the Colts way.

It was a decent challenge by the Colts-they are almost never wrong on snapping it before the player gets off the field. Do the networks have no reverse angle? All they needed to do was show a camera from the other side that people could see if the guy was on the sidelines or not. I'd rather the Colts have gone for it on that play, but I'll take the FG.

There's the Colts run defense in a nutshell-give up a large run, and then stop the next two.

This is an ugly game with this rain-it's bad for both teams, but this is going to be an ugly game.

Just how did you determine that ? Well, their looks on their faces looked focused-obviously the Colts are way, way too tight right now.

That's better than punting it to Hester there. The Colts always look like this in the 1st quarter-it's awful.

Well, I guess I have to root for the same way that the OSU-Florida game went now.