PS3 Superbowl Shuffle

Bloomington is a town divided. Even at Assembly Hall, as Hoosiers unite in a common goal of winning a basketball game, the war of words between the navy and orange and the blue and white gets ugly. With a fortnight between the Colts and Bears clinching their spots in the Superbowl and the playing out of the epic game, we're getting antsy for some action. We turned to Madden and a four-man PS3 battle for supremacy. Chris Freiberg and I "beared down" with sexy Rexy and the Bears while Chris Wisner and Michael Mellini tried to prove Peyton could win the big one.\nThe early advantage seemed to go to Mellini, who owned the system and game. I started the game by kicking the ball out of bounds, being unfamiliar with the kicking meter. Wisner took over for the Colts and had a quiet first quarter as he tried to learn the controls. He ended the quarter with a 55-yard touchdown pass to Brandon "I've been injured most of the year and am not playing in the Super Bowl" Stokley to go up 7-0. \nThomas Jones owned the second quarter. Under the leadership of Freiberg, Da Bears take over as Grossman scrambled for an improbable first down and threw a bomb to Mushin Muhammad to the 1. Jones rumbled in on the next play to tie the game. On the ensuing drive, Manning was embarrassed by a punishing Urlacher sack and deflection on consecutive plays. Da Bears got the ball back and made the Colts feel like it's the regular season as they ran all over them until Jones took it 40 yards up the gut to the house. \nThe Colts got the ball back at the two-minute warning and looked poised to complete a drive. It was then that Mellini, a super fan in disguise, revealed he's a Chicago fan and immediately throw a pick to Charles Tillman. Da Bears got down to first and goal, but the Colts held them at the one and forced a field goal to end the half 17-7.\nThomas Jones, controlled by me, gave Da Bears control of the game by turning the corner and taking off for a 61-yard romp to pay-dirt to put the Bears up 24-7. Feeling the heat, Wisner abandoned the run and tried to win the game in the air. Sadly, he doesn't know how to pass and got sacked on four consecutive plays, including going for it on an ill-advised fourth and forever on his own territory. \nI marched the Bears down the field and finished with a touchdown pass to Desmond Clark that Wisner still thinks wasn't a touchdown. \n"The replay showed lies," he lamented two days later, still stinging from the big score.\nDown 31-7, Wisner started getting worried angry Colts fans will get on him for screwing up the simulated Super Bowl. He quickly learned how to pass and threw two long touchdown passes to Stokley to cut the lead to 31-21. Feeling inspired from the comeback against the Patriots, the suddenly hopeful editor exclaimed, without a hint of Rob Schneider in "Waterboy," "We can do it!"\nUp 10 as the game rolled into the fourth quarter, Da Bears tried to milk the clock by running, but the Colts stepped up and force a fourth down deep in Bears territory. Each team had a drive stalled before the Colts made a final push. The greatest passer-receiver combination in history teamed up for a rare playoff score as Manning found Harrison for six with one minute left. Chris "the great strategist" Wisner decided to go for two to try to cut the lead to two, but missed and left his beloved Colts down four with less than a minute to play. The zen master then forgot to call an onside kick and wasted a timeout. The onside kick failed and everyone did the shuffle. \nFinal Stats: SCORE 31-27\nMVP: Thomas Jones 167 YDS. 3 TD.\nGuy who didn't ruin everything: Rex Grossman:170 YDS 1 TD 0 INT\nRushing Yards: Bears 190 Colts 22\nNumber of times Wisner got sacked \nin a row: 4