The Indianapolis Colts made one glaring mistake in Super Bowl XLI and they wasted no time doing it.

Adam Vinatieri sent the opening kickoff to Chicago Bears returner Devin Hester, and Hester delivered a 92-yard touchdown return. The crowd at Dolphin Stadium in Miami was stunned, but filled with a majority of Bears fans, delighted.

The Colts were irritated, but not flustered.

“It was like, ‘Oh, OK, we're spotting them seven points,'” tight end Dallas Clark said afterward.

They spotted the Bears and trailed 14-6 in the second quarter. Then they shut down the Bears. Then they ran all over the Bears. The Colts won 29-17, outscoring the Bears 23-3 over the final 41 minutes.

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning finally got the monkey of no Super Bowl wins off his back, and he was named the game's Most Valuable Player after completing 25 of 38 passes for 247 yards and one touchdown. But that award seemed to be a coronation of his career greatness as much as a single-game performance.

The Colts' win was a thorough team effort:

♦The running back duo of Dominic Rhodes (113 yards rushing, one score) and rookie Joseph Addai (77 yards rushing; a Super Bowl running-back record of 10 pass receptions) helped eat up considerable amounts of the clock, as the Colts held the ball for nearly 16 more minutes of possession time.

♦The defense produced five turnovers, none more dramatic than Kelvin Hayden's final interception off Bears quarterback Rex Grossman that he returned 56 yards for the team's final score.

“Our offense did a great job eating the clock up,” Freeney said after the game. “After that, they had to throw the ball. No one's going to beat us doing that.”

Hester's return put the Bears up 7-0. Manning put the Colts back in the game with a 57-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Reggie Wayne. A bobbled snap on the extra point left the Colts down 7-6. A couple of fumbles later, the Bears were up 14-6 on a Grossman pass to Muhsin Muhammad.

Vinatieri cut it to 14-9 on a field goal. Manning went to the air three times on the Colts' next possession - 22 yards to Marvin Harrison, 17 yards and 5 yards to Clark - before Rhodes powered it in to put the Colts up 16-14 with 6:09 left in the half.

A 14-play drive, and another Vinatieri field goal to make it 19-14, opened the second half. From then on, the Colts controlled the ball and the clock. Vinatieri added another field goal in the third quarter to push the score to 22-14. The Colts held the ball for almost 11 minutes in the third quarter.

Then came Hayden's final big play.

Grossman's pass was a deep one intended for Muhammad. Hayden, filling in for an injured Nick Harper, stepped in front of it and took it to the house.

Colts coach Tony Dungy became the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl in a game that featured the first two African-American coaches in Dungy and the Bears' Lovie Smith.

“When I went and took the job with (owner) Jim Irsay, I said that our goal was to win the Super Bowl,” Dungy said. “But if all we did was win one, it would only be half-fulfilling. We needed to win it with community-oriented guys. ... You can win professionally and you can win with class. And that's where I'm most proud of our guys.”