Tom E. Curran • E-mail

It wasn’t that long ago that everyone was clinking glasses, toasting the Bears and the Colts.

Super Bowl week in South Florida. Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy — two good friends and (by all accounts) good guys — were the first black head coaches to lead their teams to the NFL’s ultimate game. They had the best teams in their respective conferences.

Dungy’s Colts — dismissed as playoff gaggers — had broken through in 2006 and shown a resiliency they’d failed to in the past.

Smith’s Bears were a pack of defensive jaw-busters with an efficient if unspectacular offense and excellent special teams. They looked poised to be good for a while — the way those meat-and-potatoes teams can be.

Now, 582 days later the glasses have been cleared, cleaned and put away. The fortunes of the two teams are not even close.

The Colts — so good for so long — remain among the NFL elite and a reasonable choice to be back in Florida this coming February, playing for another title. Metronomic excellence will be the hallmark of this period in their history.

The only way the Bears are getting into the Super Bowl XLIII is with a ticket. It feels now like the Bears were built on a foundation of sand.

The two teams meet Sunday night on NBC for the first time since the Colts beat the Bears 29-17 in Miami.

And the overarching question that begs answering is — What happened to the Bears?

Last season, the Bears plunged from a 13-3 record to 7-9. They allowed 93 more points and scored 93 less than they did in 2006. Injuries were cited as the main cause but it went beyond that, according to an NFC executive and others close to the team..

“When they traded Thomas Jones that was a big deal,” he explained. “The offensive line got older and the quarterback situation never really got solved.”

Those decisions land at the feet of general manager Jerry Angelo. Jones, a good running back, was traded away to the New York Jets in the offseason and the Bears made Cedric Benson their feature back. Benson, taken fourth overall in the 2005 draft and a disappointment before Jones was traded away, gained 696 yards in 11 games last year. Trouble with the law last offseason led to the Bears releasing him.

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Meanwhile, the play and decision-making of quarterback Rex Grossman — a Jekyll and Hyde player — went downhill fast. The Bears offensive line, which went unaddressed too often in the draft and free agency in prior years, was subpar.

The Bears, who didn’t draft an offensive lineman before the third round between 2003 and 2007, looked old up front.