Peyton Manning needed this.

The Indianapolis Colts quarterback didn’t need to win Super Bowl XLI last night to establish his place in football history — as a twotime winner of the regular season Most Valuable Player award whose name appears several times in the league record book, Manning had already proved his greatness. But Manning needed to win for himself. For all the pressure others have put on Manning, he has always faced more internal pressure.

Although the Mannings are the first family of football, with father Archie a two-time Pro Bowler and younger brother Eli quarterbacking the Giants, Peyton has always stood out. Family home videos show Peyton treating backyard games like matters of life and death while the rest of the family just wanted to have a good time. When he was asked this week about the most pressure he had ever felt, Manning joked that it was before a junior high school dance performance, but anyone who has ever watched Manning knew the truth, that no stage could make him feel more pressure than the Super Bowl.

Early in the game, Manning’s jitters were obvious. His first pass was nearly intercepted by Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher. His second was nearly intercepted by cornerback Nathan Vasher. His fourth was intercepted by safety Chris Harris. And then he calmed down. And even the great Chicago defense couldn’t stop him. By halftime he had 193 passing yards. In the second half the Bears’ defense did all it could to stop the pass, and Manning repeatedly called running plays to bleed the clock down the stretch.

Manning was the brightest star on Super Bowl Sunday, but he wasn’t the only one. Running backs Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes were a great 1-2 punch. Early in the game, Addai was both the focal point of the Colts’ running attack and Manning ‘s favorite receiver. The second half was Rhodes’s turn to march the Colts down the field. Eleven months ago, when the Colts decided not to re-sign free-agent running back Edgerrin James, many analysts thought it would hinder their offense, but drafting Addai and having him split the workload with Rhodes turned out to be a masterstroke by the Colts.

Indianapolis coach Tony Dungy was calm and understated throughout the two weeks of Super Bowl hype, and it wasn’t until he was doused in Gatorade at the end of the game that he finally seemed to fully embrace his team’s tremendous accomplishment. Like Manning, Dungy has often been accused of choking in the playoffs. No one can say that again.

The typical Super Bowl pageantry — national anthem by Billy Joel, halftime show by Prince — couldn’t live up to the game on the field. Even though the Colts looked like the better team for almost the entire night, the game was competitive into the fourth quarter. Chicago’s Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, and that and other Indianapolis special teams mistakes kept things interesting. At halftime the Colts had 162 more yards and 11 more first downs than the Bears but led just 16–14.

The rain that fell in Miami, which made yesterday’s game the first Super Bowl played in inclement weather, served as an equalizer. At one point in the first quarter, players dropped the wet ball on three straight plays: Colts holder Hunter Smith bobbled the snap on an extra point attempt, Chicago’s Gabe Reid fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Manning and Addai failed to connect on a handoff.

As great a season as the Bears had, they’ll have to think long and hard during the off-season about whether they can ever win a Super Bowl with Rex Grossman as their quarterback. The Bears’ coaches did everything in their power to protect Grossman yesterday, calling running plays or short, easy passes almost exclusively. At halftime he had completed 6-of-8 passes for 32 yards. But once the Bears fell behind late in the game and they needed Grossman to bring them back, he wasn’t up to the task. His two fourth-quarter interceptions sealed the win for the Colts.

Grossman’s mistakes aside, the game was everything the NFL could have asked for. It had big plays, it lacked the officiating mistakes that marred last year’s Super Bowl, and it ended with the league’s biggest star, Manning, achieving the signature moment of his career. At age 30, Manning most likely has many more years of football in him, but even if he never reaches the same heights again, he has delivered when he needed it most.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.