The Indianapolis Colts have defeated the Chicago Bears, 29-17 to win the National Football League's Super Bowl in Miami, Florida. As VOA'S David Byrd reports, the Colts captured the title for the first time since 1971, when the franchise was in Baltimore.
The game did not look good for Indianapolis when Devin Hester ran back the opening kickoff for a touchdown. However, Indianapolis was able to score when quarterback Peyton Manning threw a touchdown to Reggie Wayne. The Colts missed the extra point.
The Bears took a 14-6 lead when quarterback Rex Grossman connected with Muhsin Muhammad from four yards out. Adam Vinatieri kicked a 14-yard field goal in the second quarter to make it 14-9. Indianapolis took a 16-14 lead in the second quarter when Dominic Rhodes scored on a two-yard touchdown run.
The Colts added two more field goals while Chicago added a field goal of its own to make the score 22-17. But Chicago's hopes were shattered when quarterback Rex Grossman threw an interception that the Colts ran back for a touchdown.
Colts' Coach Tony Dungy says his team was able to prove that it could play defense against the Bears.
"It was really just confidence. And we talked about it last night, that everyone was going to talk about their defense and our offense," said Dungy. "We felt like defensively and special teams wise we could win the game."
Chicago Bears' coach Lovie Smith, who worked with Dungy at Tampa Bay before coming to Chicago, said that turnovers were costly, especially late in the game.
"You know it's hard to win when you have as many takeaways - as many turnovers as we had today," he said. "That was hard to overcome. We made a little run there at the end, but again, the turnover really kind of did us in."
Colts' quarterback Peyton Manning was voted the MVP (Most Valuable Player). He says that his teammates did not panic when Chicago took the early lead.
"No panic whatsoever. Everybody stayed calm, really tried to go out - everybody did their job," he said. "Once we got the lead we felt good. We just had to keep chipping away and to get some points and it was nice to have those turnovers there at the end."
With the win, Tony Dungy becomes the first African American coach to win a Super Bowl title. This is the first title for the Colts since 1971.
