Super game prompts big Bears questions

There is nothing better in sports than winning the final game of the season.

And there is nothing more painful than losing on the last play of the last game.

For that team and those players, sleep will be mere rumor for weeks and maybe months.

It was difficult Sunday to watch a great team lose, to watch Tom Brady walk off the field and struggle with the possibility that it might be his last Super Bowl.

It was tough to see terrific players like Wes Welker, Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski blame themselves for a Super Bowl defeat.

It is natural to wonder, at moments like that, if it is really better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

But Brady never ponders that question.

“I'd love to keep coming back to this game and taking a shot,” Brady said postgame. “It's better than sitting at home and not playing in this game.”

Bears fans would probably agree, having witnessed only one Super Bowl in the last 26 years and having watched the Giants win four of them since the Bears captured their lone Super Bowl in 1986.

One constant through all that time has been Bears ownership, and with it the odd forms of front-office structure that lead to consistent inconsistency.

The instability lies within the complete stability of Bears hierarchy, where their version of housecleaning is mopping the garage port with a bucket of gutter runoff.

And so Bears fans watch other teams play in the big game, wondering how different their team is from those that grasp the trophy, or come within a fingertip of winning it all.

It takes great players and great plays to win a Super Bowl, and you could probably take just one moment from Sunday, boil it down and understand where the Bears are in the grand scheme of the NFL.

Yes, you could look at Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell and his in-game adjustments. You could envy their pass rush, their secondary or even the linebackers who cover all-world tight ends.

But if you want to make it easy, look at the play of the game — the brilliant pass from future Hall of Famer Eli Manning to Mario Manningham — and wonder if the Bears could make any part of it.

On first down from his own 12 and the game on the line with only 3:46 remaining, Manning checked to his receivers on the right — something Jay Cutler hasn't been allowed to do — but once he dropped back, he didn't like what he saw.

He moved up in the pocket — because his offensive line gave him time — stepped left and without thinking of the situation or the consequences he noticed Patriots safety Patrick Chung a single step too far inside.

Manning threw a spectacular ball deep down the sideline and his third-best receiver got hangnails on the ball, gathered it in and managed to keep both feet in bounds before Chung delivered a big hit.

There is no defense for a perfect throw, and that's the play that won the Super Bowl for New York.

While the Giants have three receivers who could have made that play, the Bears don't have one who you can honestly believe could have done the same.

Though the Giants' offensive line gave Manning the opportunity, Cutler would have been on his back.

And whether Cutler can make a throw like that, it's a question to which we don't have an answer because he hasn't been given the weapons, the chance or the confidence in all of the above to even try it.

“I wasn't worried about whether it would be an interception or a dangerous throw of the ball. I saw a window,” Manning said. “I felt confident about it.

“I didn't think much about it. I saw where Mario was. A lot of throws are muscle memory. You don't think about how far to throw it or what to do with it. You see your receiver, you step up and, hopefully, you put it in a good spot where he can catch it.”

Can you imagine the Bears talking like that after a regular-season game, let alone making that play in the Super Bowl?

Cutler has that ability, sure, but it takes years of playing with the same players and in a comfortable system to complete such a pass without fear under reasonable circumstances, much less the game-winning drive in the Super Bowl.

Even after, Manning had the presence of mind to get his offense sprinting up the field to snap the ball immediately, not knowing if it was a catch and understanding the importance of the field position he just gained.

He didn't want to give Bill Belichick time to see a replay and challenge, a desperation the Bears never seem to understand on offense.

So not only was the catch good, but forcing the Pats to red flag it under duress also cost them a crucial timeout, and changed New England's defensive strategy inside the 10-yard line and on offense in their final possession.

Great players, great plays, great composure and great confidence.

Another Super Bowl for Bears fans to watch from afar and a reminder of what it takes to win it all.

And, as always, questions about how many of those things the Bears really possess and what they will do about it in the future.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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