Super Bowl Wrap Up

So I know I’m definitely behind on my reaction the Super Bowl, but in my defense, I’m a fan in grieving. Before I go into depth, I’d like to make it clear: It’s always good to be a Steelers fan. Always. Especially when they win, but you know what? Even when they lose too.

I wish we had a Super Bowl do-over. Before you knew it, we were in the hole against a great team (like most of our playoff games.) While I never gave up hope that we’d be ok and that Ben could pull out another two-minute drill for the ages, time expired and it just didn’t happen this time. Simply put–we played poorly. Yes, Ben threw costly picks but he also was having trouble hitting people when they were wide open. As much talent as Mike Wallace has–he proved he’s not a big time receiver yet ( paging Santonio.)  What’s perhaps the most telling for me,–the defense was mute. With the exception of Lamar Woodley in the first half, you didn’t hear a peep from Harrison, Farrior, Clark or Polamalu. As we all know, you put yourself in a difficult position to win any game if you cough up the  ball three times which results in 21 points.

What’s encouraging is that, despite the above–we still had a good chance to win the game. Seriously. It came down to the last drive. A drive that Ben makes nine out of ten times. A drive that legends are made of. He’s done it before, there’s no reason he shouldn’t have been able to do it again. It just wasn’t in the cards this time. Playing from behind–which the Steelers did the entire game–never allowed Ben or the offense to settle down and take control  the way they wanted. The Packers did what they had to do to win the game-which is nothing spectacular–they took care of the ball and didn’t make any stupid plays (they DID allow 25 points though).  In this situation they deserved to win the game.

All of that being said, I couldn’t be prouder of the Steelers, a team which most people, outside of fans, had written off this year with Ben out the first four games. We listened to how people predicted the Ravens and Bengals (REALLY?) as their AFC North pick. After the Steelers went (an unsurprising) 3-1 without Ben, we still listened to how we weren’t a good team–even with the number one defense in the league. We were supposed to lose to the Ravens and the Jets at home. We weren’t supposed to make a game out of it down 11 points at half time. We just couldn’t pull it out in the end and while I’m not happy about it, I’m ok with it.

I’ll tell you what though. There’s still no other QB I’d rather take than Ben Roethlisberger. For all of his mistakes and poor play, he STILL had us in a position to win that game (I say if it was Holmes and not Wallace we’d have our seventh ring). He doesn’t panic, he doesn’t freak out and he shoulders the appropriate amount of the blame for the loss. I do not expect perfection from Ben (and everyone reading this would say–DUH). I’m optimistic about how our offensive line played–for all the hoopla surrounding the loss of Maurkice Pouncey–Legursky stepped in fine and the offensive line played GREAT only allowing one sack (in which Ben didn’t actually end up on the turf). I’ll take an O-line that plays like that ANY day.

More importantly, I’m proud of the way the Steelers acted as a team this year. Always banding together, rising to the challenge and silencing their critics. While I’m sad, I have NO doubt that we will be back to the Super Bowl (and soon!) and that Pittsburgh will get a seventh ring in the near future. It’s been a fun season and it’s just further proof why it’s always good to be a Pittsburgh fan. Chins up Steelers, your town and your fans love you and we can’t wait for the next journey to begin in September.