Addai's quiet effectiveness key to Colts' Super win

	With Joseph Addai in the backfield, Peyton Manning not only put the Colts on the scoreboard, but kept the Bears' defense on the field Sunday in the Super Bowl. Jim Rogash/WireImage.com
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They gave Peyton Manning the MVP award for taking what the defense gave him. Let this be a lesson to all you high school quarterbacks. Listen to what coaches tells you. Go short. Hit your checkdown receivers. Throw underneath the coverage. Don't try to make spectacular plays. And someday you, too, might be standing on football's biggest podium.

It's a mandate for corporate football, and yes, I have made fun of this approach through the years ... you know, playing not to lose. But when you know what you're doing and you're one of the best in the game at reading what the defense is up to, maybe one of the best that's ever played the game, and it's a rainy, miserable, windy day, and things are going against you at the start, well, why not do what you do best? Provided, of course, your defense is stout and you're not in a track meet. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The offensive unit the Colts brought back this season was basically the same as last year's, with one notable exception. Running back Edgerrin James, the glue that held the operation together, a spectacular performer and checkdown receiver who had averaged better than 1,300 yards rushing and 50 passes caught for each of his seven seasons, was gone. The only holdover was Dominic Rhodes, a journeyman. Obviously, something had to be done.

Three running backs, Reggie Bush, Laurence Maroney and DeAngelo Williams, were picked by the time the Colts drafted at No. 30. The backs had gone pretty much as predicted, and what was left for Indy was the player generally conceded to be their favorite at this spot, Joseph Addai, an unspectacular, workmanlike back well versed in all phases of the game.

Throughout the season he was an effective change of pace from Rhodes, the starter, but the roles were reversed for the playoffs. The slashing, pass-catching Addai would lead off, and then Rhodes, who brings a much heavier load than his 203 pounds, would come in to pound a defense that was tiring.

It worked well in the postseason. The Colts ran off 80 or more plays in three of their four games, ending with an 81 to 48 advantage against Chicago. Defenses would get rubber-legged in the fourth quarter. The Ravens were pounded into submission by what was supposed to be a finesse offense, but was anything but. New England's defense was exhausted at the end.

Chicago didn't show weariness in the later going in the Super Bowl. "The Bears hung in real well," Indy's left tackle, Tarik Glenn, said. "They never broke. I really respect them. But we seemed to be catching them just right in their line stunts, or throwing underneath their coverage."

By halftime Indy had run off 46 plays to Chicago's 19. Early in the fourth quarter the overload had grown to 69-28. Chicago didn't look tired, except when they tried to tackle Addai. They were missing, more than they had shown in any game this year. He plagued them.