Let’s play the game we always play the day after the Super Bowl:
Comparing almost everything to the Bears.
I’ve suggested before that such things are bad for your health, and they are, but sorry, it’s unavoidable. That’s the sad facts about the sad organization that continually demands attention with face-plants.
So, Bears fans lamenting the awful franchise they love can console themselves by knowing their team certainly compares favorably with one Super Bowl participant. I mean, we all believe the Bears are capable of choking a 25-point lead in the most important game of the season, right?
As for comparisons to the other Super Bowl participant, ahem, believing the Bears can beat Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in the last game of the season requires a big bong.
The Bears can envision themselves closer to doing only what the Falcons did than what the Patriots did — what the Patriots did for the fifth time since the Bears beat that franchise for their one and lonely Lombardi Trophy.
And while Brady showed why he’s the greatest Super Bowl quarterback of all-time and while the Patriots made the big plays all over the field to wipe out a 28-3 deficit, history still required a mistake by the Falcons, and man, did they ever make a Bears-like mistake managing the clock with inexplicable, inexcusable play-calling late in the fourth quarter.
The situation: Falcons ball, second-and-11 at the Patriots 23, 3:50 to go in the fourth quarter, Falcons lead 28-20.
The smart approach: A run play there, a run play after that, a field goal from the Pro Bowl place-kicker, and voila, a 10-point game and the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history probably doesn’t happen.
What’s more, the Falcons needed to run the ball to give their defense a break from all the plays the Patriots offense suddenly was piling up.
Instead, Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan called a pass and Matt Ryan took a 12-yard sack that he absolutely could not take, and you don’t have to be the NFL MVP to know what the simple, smart play was.
But no. Shanahan and Ryan channeled their inner Dowell Loggains and Jay Cutler and Falcons head coach Dan Quinn paid homage to John Fox’s clock management. Any Bears fan who survived this season would feel tortured watching that. It was like Gitmo with commercials.
Previously, comparisons of the Falcons’ epic choke to extend decades of championship futility would require use of the Cubs. But they ended that talk last year. So, yeah. I guess, the Bears are actually good for something.
Country music singer and songwriter Luke Bryan performs the national anthem, Lady Gaga performs during the halftime show of Super Bowl 51.
Was there a greater number of commercials featuring diversity this year or just a greater sensitivity to the need for them?
Mr. Clean is an aphrodisiac? Who knew?
The Falcons were able to target all-everything receiver Julio Jones just four times. That’s Belichick channeling his inner Belichick.
I’ve never heard of the product, but Christopher Walken reciting Justin Timberlake lyrics with Timberlake sitting on the same couch wins.
Shea McClellin, Super Bowl champion. I guess that’s what happens when you have a creative, savvy coach.
Martellus Bennett, Super Bowl champion. I guess that’s what happens when when you have a respected coach who can manage players with personalities.
Febreze spent $5 million to deal with the rankest of bathroom odors. Can’t say I’ve seen that an ad strategy before, but give the product credit for honesty.
Fox network was worried Lady Gaga would troll President Trump, but look at that: She trolled Gar Forman instead by showing what younger and more athletic looks like.
After David Tyree and Mario Manningham, the Patriots were owed a no-freakin’-way catch like Julian Edelman’s.
I liked the John Malkovich commercial, but what was the product?
Jeffery Tambor is such a talented actor that he quelled Terry Bradshaw’s usual propensity to sound like he wandered into a hog-calling contest.
I love the idea of a video-game tank obliterating housewives shows.
For three quarters, we saw what it would look like if Brady and Cutler changed teams. And then we saw why the Bears are hopeless. Which is where we came in here.
Steve Johnson’s Super Bowl Ads 2017
A look at some of Tribune columnist Steve Johnson’s best and worst 2017 Super Bowl ads.
A look at some of Tribune columnist Steve Johnson’s best and worst 2017 Super Bowl ads.
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