1. The Steelers defense lost the game. On the fence: They certainly didn't stop the Packer offense many times and did NOT get any turnovers. Troy Polamalu was basically taken out of the past three games, either due to injury limitations, or brilliant offensive strategies. James Harrison needs to get the fine situation out of his head because he did not play the same at all after the Buffalo game. I really did not understand at all his finishing third in the Defensive Player of the Year Award.
2. They weren't really turnovers they were giveaways. AGREE: I would only count the second interception as a true turnover. The first interception was an extremely poor pass due to a heavy pass rush. The fumble by Rashard Mendenhall was a fluke; he didn't even get hit that hard. I guess he was just due to fumble in this game since he hadn't had a fumble for about 8 or 9 games to that point.
3. The Steelers season, without a SB win, was a disappointment. AGREE: In spite of the fact that Ben wasn't available the first four games when the Steelers went 3-1 over that period expectations went through the roof. At that point it was expected that the Steelers would easily make the playoffs and have as good a chance as anyone to return to the SB. So when they made it to Dallas I doubt anyone in Pittsburgh was surprised or ready to accept a season with a final defeat in Dallas as a success.
4. The Steelers have a better chance of returning to the SB than Green Bay. AGREE: Only ONE NFC team has returned to the Super Bowl since 2000 (Rams) and remember what happened to the invincible Saints this year. A embarrassing SB loss should be a significant motivator for the Steelers for next season. Assuming their defense does not go geriatric on them in the mean time. The running game (OLine) should be better, the receivers should be ore mature and better, hopefully Bruce Arians will be gone, and Ben should be more mature and have less weighing on his mind other than football. But we'll probably still have to deal with the officials... Mr. Goodell.
I guess I didn't realize how lucky I was prior to SB XLV as, early this morning, unable to sleep, I came across an article (by whom I now forget) laying out not 1, not 3, not 5 but ELEVEN reasons why the Packers WOULD, not could, beat the Steelers. Well, you'd probably say he now looks pretty smart but, a shaky six point win, in spite of winning the turnover "battle" 3-0, in no way merits taking those ELEVEN reasons seriously. One break the Steelers' way and Green Bay fans are writing this clod today doubting both his sanity and his heritage. Should the Steelers have recovered the initial fumbled punt it could easily have been them, not the Packers, taking an early lead. With the momentum turned at that point the entire game could have been different. Remember, Green Bay did not score on their first possession. Having already been scored upon who knows what the Green Bay defense would do on the Steelers next possession with the momentum blowing in the wrong direction.
And, again, despite greatly unbalanced performances (3 Steelers turnovers, wasted Steelers time outs, and a poor coaching decision to attempt a 50+ yard field goal giving Green Bay great field position), the game was at its closest, 28-25, with 7:34 left. Further, even after a gutsy Packers drive the Steelers were within a TD and extra point of victory, 31-25, with sufficient time remaining for a not-out-of-the-realm-of-possibility comeback based on Roethlisberger's history of such heroics; a total of 26 4th quarter or OT game-winning drives in his career, many in big games situations. So really, Mr. Football Writer, there were ELEVEN reasons the Packers WOULD defeat the Steelers? I think not. The sixth-seeded flavor-of-the-month team and their newly-anointed future HOF QB should feel quite fortunate to have escaped Jerry World with their asses intact and headed to Disney World.
Congrats, Packers, you mostly (except for dropped passes) did what you needed to do to win.
NFL fans that's probably the WORST performance you will ever see by a team in a 6-point Super Bowl loss.
ROSES to the Steelers' Doug "Bronco" Legursky. A very good performance for his first NFL start at center.
ROSES to the Steelers' running game. They did a good job for having played from behind the entire game.
ROSES to the Packers' offense just because they should probably get something.
ROSES to the Steelers' kickoff teams providing good field position except when flagged for penalties and preventing any significant returns by the Packers.
ROSES to Hines Ward.
PILES OF THORNS to Roger Goodell. Well, guy, you got what you wanted, a Steelers defeat in the SB. I'll say no more.
BUSHELS OF THORNS to Fox, the NFL Channel, ESPN, et. al., for basically two weeks of the same thing and specifically to Fox for the piece within the game about Roethlisberger's suspension after throwing the pick-six. Necessary?
THORNS to the Steelers. They played two absolutely terrible games this season, against New England in November at Heinz Field and last night. Both were hugely important games at the time and they embarrassed their fans in both of them. Three giveaways and no takeaways will get you beat every time (even in the regular season).
THORNS to Ben Roethlisberer. Right from the start he appeared to be in some other time dimension and was reason on offense why the Steelers lost.
THORNS to WIlliam Gay. Ditto from above. He was the obvious weak link who couldn't cover anyone all night and the Packers took full advantage. He was the reason on defense why the Steelers lost.
THORNS to the Steelers' time management which was terrible (use of time outs). The drive to bring the game to 25-22 should have been a situation for the no-huddle (about 7 minutes left). As a result it ate up at least a minute more than it should have which would have left more like 3 minutes for the final possession.
THORNS to the Steeler's offensive brain trust for again leaving Heath Miller out of the offense. Also, no throws to Antonio Brown.
THORNS to the Steelers' defense for coming up with exactly ZERO big plays.
THORNS to the Steeler's last drive. Third and five and they throw the ball 20 yards down field. Why? Fourth and 5 and they throw the ball 15 yards down field. Why?
THORNS to the stadium turf. At least five players slipped during the course of the game and three went out having simply fallen on it (two did not return).
THORNS to the Penguins for being shut out by the Caps earlier Sunday. I'm superstitious.
THORNS to me for talking trash for the past two weeks. But in my defense I had never done it before prior to a Steelers SB so I figured I deserved to be able to do so at least once in my life.
