Pittsburgh Steels the Deal

Pittsburgh 21 - Seattle 10.

All right, so Big Ben didn't get the MVP award . . . But Super Bowl XL still went down pretty much as predicted here on the website and on the Sports Rush radio program. Too much defense, too many big plays on offense late in the year for a Steelers team that came on like gangbusters down the stretch.

Don't forget, these guys had to win their last four of the regular season just to get in the post-season dance. They won their last eight in a row overall, and essentially dominated every team they played to get the Lombardi Trophy.

Which is not to say that the game last night proved to be an extremely exciting Super Bowl. On the contrary, it was a sloppily played contest in which both clubs showed signs of being more than a little bit antsy headed in. The game itself never had a real good flow to it, but at least, at three hours and twenty minutes, it was shorter than your average Super Bowl of the last decade which has tended to run in the four plus hour range.

And yet the bulk of pregame and halftime festivities did have their moments on the telecast yesterday. A celebration featuring most of the previous 39 Super Bowl MVPs caught my attention before the game. (Noticeably absent: Super Bowl MVPs Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw, who insisted on more than the offered appearance money.)

I also enjoyed the Stevie Wonder led musical tribute before kickoff. John Legend, Joss Stone and a host of dancers and backup singers cooing the soul tunes of yesterday alongside the Hall of Fame musical legend. Wonder sounded strong and played well in an enjoyable reverie of old school tunes.

The halftime show was a decent one as well. The Rolling Stones came on to a host of cheers from the packed crowd (many of whom had not even been born when they first started doing their thing in the mid-60s) and moved through "Start Me Up", "Rough Justice" and "Satisfaction" before wrapping it up---the whole halftime break taking an extra long 31 minutes.

But I digress. Let's return to the Big Game itself, the XL matchup . . . and a huge win for the team from southwestern Pennsylvania.

An 11 point triumph for a team that hadn't won it all in almost three decades. Finally a connection to the championship clubs of Knoll and Bradshaw and Harris and Swann and the great big Iron Curtain of the 1970s behemoths.

Finally a championship for Jerome Bettis, the fifth leading rusher in NFL history. Just 14 carries for 43 yards in the ballgame, but no matter.

The Bus, having officially announced his retirement, will be able to roll into Canton in 2010 wearing a ring on his finger.

A lot of thanks on his front to Hines Ward, who won the game's MVP award with 5 catches for 123 yards, directly contributing to two Steelers' touchdowns, catching one of them.

And how about Bill Cowher.

The guy is an old school diehard. He's persevered for 14 years in a field where you can't even count on having the next day's meal money. And now, with the ring, and two Super Bowl trips overall, he's entered the elite upper echelon of all-time NFL coaches, end of story.

Another trip to the Elite, as we'll just call it from here on in, was completed by Big Ben Roethlisberger. The Miami of Ohio quarterback has come on the pro scene in his first two years to show you the best winning percentage (at almost 90% of all regular and post-season starts) of any quarterback in such a career-starting span since Dan Marino. (And Dolphin Dan, while a phenomenal QB, never got the Big One.)

Ben was good enough again last night despite some shaky moments throughout XL. He missed or underthrow open receivers in every quarter, and lofted two terrible, wobbly passes for interceptions that cost his team points both times. But his throw shortly before the end of the first half on a third and 28 was a thing of beauty---a nifty dance along the ever so close line of scrimmage at the forty yard line, then a textbook planting of the feet to get set, and a line drive rocket that game MVP Hines Ward snared away from a couple of Seahawks' cover men at the two yard line. It would lead to a Pittsburgh touchdown from the one yard line on a third-down bootleg dive by Ben late in the first half. A touchdown that was reviewed and not overturned after a lenghty delay.

It probably was a touchdown. Mike Holmgren went crazy about it at the half, but in all honesty, it was close enough even on the up-close replay that half the people in the room I was in swore it was a TD, while the other half swore it wasn't (I was, however, among the latter half).

Still, the overall weight of four or five huge calls seemed to go overwhelmingly in Pittsburgh's favor. That includes a huge call in the fourth with Seattle driving for the go ahead score. Another apparent holding penalty called on the Seahawks up front, wiping out a pass completion at the two that would have set up a first and goal. And while you can't say that necessarily decided the outcome of the game, it certainly didn't help matters much for Seattle, which never could get the key defensive stand, especially late in the game when it absolutely had to get one.

The reverse touchdown pass from Randle El to Ward was a thing of beauty, the kind of play the Steelers have executed almost routinely throughout their run down the stetch. And the Willie Parker Super Bowl record-setting 75 yard scamper off the right side was a perfect display of pull-blocking against an off-balance (why?) Seattle defense early in the third quarter.

Usually, you get higher point totals then the 31 we saw the Steelers and Seahawks combine for the other night. Usually you get more than the three or four really good commercials I saw (favorite one being the Magic Revolving Refrigerator), but usually you don't get a number six seed going out and winning three straight road games to make the Big Game, let alone win it.

In the end, a year that started with simultaneous tragedies finishes with a classic franchise winning its first title in 28 years and its fifth in all. The pre-season death of 49ers lineman Thomas Herrion (he collapsed from exhaustion and a blocked heart in an August workout) and the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina (and its direct effect on the vagabond New Orleans Saints) both started the year on down notes.

But as always does happen in the world of athletics, the year ends with the up note of the crowning of a champion.

And this year it's the deserving Pittsburgh gang.

Enjoy it, oh ye black and gold faithful.


-JAB