Bears didn't have firepower

MIAMI — In the end, they were a haggard, beaten bunch.

The Bears were not stripped of their pride nor were they the authors of a performance that whitewashed all that had led to this moment in South Florida — nothing as severe as that.

But the defense, so long thought of as a snarling, impenetrable menace, was spent. And the quarterback, given the biggest stage possible to cram validation down the throats of his critics, made the biggest mistake of the game.

They once more had been afforded the skepticism of nearly every outside eye, only this time they were unable to convert the naysayers. There are no doubts now about the Bears, and for them that is the misery of it all.

The Indianapolis Colts won Super Bowl XLI, 29-17, on Sunday night, raising the Lombardi Trophy under a curtain of South Florida rain and leaving the Bears no argument about how much they deserved to achieve this season.

The Bears were done in by the Colts' offense, which thoroughly dominated with 430 yards and 24 first downs.

They were done in by a pair of runners that wore down the Bears in Dominic Rhodes (113 yards) and Joseph Addai (77 yards).

They were done in by Manning, who won his first Super Bowl title after connecting on 25 of 38 passes for 247 yards and a touchdown.

And in the equivalent of a cosmic kick in the shin, they were done in by a Chicago kid, with former Hubbard High School and Illinois standout Kelvin Hayden picking off Rex Grossman early in the fourth quarter and returning it 56 yards for a touchdown that gave the Colts their 29-17 lead.

Meanwhile, after Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown, it was as if the Bears forgot to pay their electric bill and all the power got shut down. The offense produced 265 yards, not nearly enough. Thomas Jones ran for 112 yards, but 52 came on one play, and Cedric Benson carried the ball twice and lost one fumble before leaving the game with an injury to his left knee.

And Grossman? He was neither horrendous nor transcendent, completing 20 of 28 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown. But undoubtedly, he will be remembered for being on the wrong end of Hayden's game-changing interception.

The Bears did not lead after the midway point of the second quarter, though the first half was positively pupil-dilating.

All in the first 30 minutes: