Pre-game:
- Dallas Cowboys stadium is packed with both Steelers and Packers fans. Both teams have a strong nationwide following and tend to travel well in road games, so no surprise that fans of each team are strongly represented. There may be slightly more Steelers fans. Or maybe they are just louder.
- Glee's Lea Michele starts the festivities by singing God Bless America. Apparently Fox thought they didn't spend enough time advertising their own shows so they had to find another way to sneak another one. A shameless plug by the network? Perhaps, but the girl does have a fantastic voice.
- Christina Aguilera does the National Anthem. I'm pretty sure you could have won some money in Vegas for betting the over on how long it would take for her to finish the song, as well as how long she would hold the last note. She also messed up one of the lines.
- Why bother doing a flyover with the Air Force jets when the roof to the stadium is closed so nobody can see it?
- Green Bay wins the coin toss and elects to defer. Half of the people foolish enough to bet on a coin toss are already disappointed with how this game is going.
- The Packers defense comes out fired up. Clay Matthews wants to prove the Packers have the tougher D. Or maybe he just wants to prove he has better hair than Troy Polamalu.
- The Packers force a quick 3 and out on the first drive of the game. Then they muff the punt, which almost resulted in a quick game changing play that could have put the Packers in an early hole, but they managed to recover the loose ball. Crisis averted.
- The Steelers have no luck moving the ball all quarter. The Packers do a bit better. Aaron Rodgers connects with Jordy Nelson for a 29 yard TD on a route down the right sideline for the game's first points.
- I'm in a playoff fantasy league with $100 going to the winner. I'm tied for first and only one other person in the league has a realistic chance of beating me. That guy has Nelson. Not a good start for me.
- Big Ben responds by throwing a TD pass of his own on the first play of the following drive. Unfortunately, the pass is to the other team. Nick Collins returns the Interception for a TD. Packers up 14-0 in the first quarter.
- The quarter begins with the Steelers in the middle of a drive. For the first time all game they are finally moving the ball, slowly but surely. Hey, it's a start! They stall in the endzone and have to settle for a field goal. At least they are finally on the board: 14-3.
- Steelers force a quick 3 and out. Donald Driver is injured during the drive and retreats to the locker room. Not a good sign for the Cheese-heads.
- A promising Steelers drive is stopped when Roethisberger throws his second Interception of the game. A pass intended for Wallace is picked off by Jarrett Bush, who saw that one coming the whole way and was in great position to jump in front of the pass.
- This leads to several jokes about bush getting Roethlisberger into trouble again.
- Packers take over near mid-field and only need 4 plays to get in the endzone. Greg Jennings has finally joined the party, scoring on a 21 yard strike from Rodgers. Packers up 21-3.
- Say what you will about the flaws with Roethlisberger's personal life, but you can't argue against the fact that he's still one of the best QBs in the league under pressure with the clock winding down. With just over 2 minutes to go in the half he leads the Steelers to their first TD of the game. The drive started out with a 37 yard catch from Antawn Randle El (who knew he still played a role other than special teams?) and ended with a short TD catch by Hines Ward.
- Packers take a 21-10 lead in the half, but Steelers end on a good note and finally have some momentum.
- The halftime show features the Black Eyed Peas, who start the show by being lowered down to the stage from somewhere up near the ceiling. I think they were hiding in that giant TV during the first half. They are wearing some funky futuristic outfits.
- Never seen the Peas perform live before, but they put on a decent show. The problem though... they can't sing! They sounded nothing like the version you hear on the radio, which must have digitally altered their voices because hearing them live it's clear they don't have great voices. They aren't popular due to their singing voices though, they are more about the beat and rhymes. You don't need to sing well to repeat Boom, Boom Pow over and over again. They had plenty of stage effects and some people in funny fluorescent costumes dancing around to distract from the singing, so it was pretty entertaining anyway.
- Fergie is wearing a pretty short skirt, so it seems unlikely that she'll pee herself on stage, as she's apparently been known to due during concerts. So there's a bonus.
- Slash from Guns N' Roses makes a surprise appearance. He plays guitar while Fergie does an awful Axl Rose impression, singing Sweet Child of Mine.
- Usher also makes a surprise appearance. I'm worried he may have a wardrobe malfunction, since in most of his music videos he never wears a shirt. We don't really need to see that....
- Overall the halftime show wasn't too bad, but it went on too long and I'm pretty sure the Black Eyed Peas did at least one of their songs more than once. Or maybe they just sound the same.
- Finally back to the game! Packers are forced to punt on their first possession. A facemask penalty adds on to the play after the kick, giving the Steelers the ball at mid-field. Seemed pretty weak for a face mask penalty, he barely touched the facemask, and if he grabbed anything it was the jersey just below the chin. That's not a penalty!
- Steelers capitalize on the gift field position to get back into the game. Rashard Mendanhall plows his way into the endzone. Packers lead down to 21-17.
- Packers offense is really struggling now. Steelers have all the momentum going.
- Well, maybe not enough momentum. It must have taken a little wind out of their sails when they missed a 52 yard field goal. It's indoors, so you can justify trying a kick at that distance. It was far enough, but waaaaaaaay off target. It missed wide left by about 30 yards. That might have missed from 25 yards out.
- Neither offense can get anything going. Packers don't score for the entire quarter. Lucky for them, the Steelers can't add on anymore either. Dumb penalties aren't helping either team. Dropped passes are killing Green Bay. They've had at least 6 dropped passes in this game. I think Aaron Rodgers gave Jordy Nelson the "Kobe" glare.
- Fumble! Rashard Mendanhall coughs up the ball on the first play of the quarter. Someone at the party I'm at was just saying how players don't know how to tackle anymore. They are too afraid of getting fined by the league that they won't use their helmet to try to knock the ball loose. Actually, maybe that's a good thing, that doesn't found safe. Anyway, it happened here. A good legal hit by Clay Matthews that caused a fumble, recovered by Green Bay.
- Another big catch for Jordy freakin' Nelson. If I lose this playoff bet because of some white guy named Jordy... argh!
- Jennings catches his 2nd TD of the game to give the Packers a little more breathing room. They lead 28-17.
- Steelers respond with a TD of their own. Mike Wallace is finally getting more involved. He's one of the fastest players in the league and their most dangerous offensive weapon. He caught four catches on this drive, including a deep 25 yard TD pass where he absolutely burned his defender.
- Steelers run a trick play with Randel El running to the left to convert the 2 point conversion. Steelers back to within 3 points, down 28-25. Plenty of time left.
- Packers do a good job of moving the chains to eat up over 5 minutes of game clock before settling for a short field goal. Lead is up to 6, so the Steelers now need a TD and there are just over 2 minutes left.
- We already established Roethlisberger is great under pressure with the clock winding down. We saw it at the end of the first half. I'm a little worried here, knowing he's capable of putting together a last minute winning drive.
- Wow. Incredibly stupid penalty on Pittsburgh. Unnecessary Roughness after the kick off. That will back them up to their own 13 yard line. It's only the biggest game of the year and this is the last drive of the game that will determine the winner. So dumb penalties that push you into a bigger hole and make it that much harder to win... yea that's kind of a big deal.
- Where is the hurry up offense? Under two minutes to go and Roethlisberger doesn't seem to be in much of a rush. After two plays they've already run about a minute off the clock and only gained 20 yards.
- With time running out and only one time out remaining the Steelers essentially need a miracle at this point. Roethlisberger apparently thinks Mike Wallace's middle name is miracle. He chucks up three straight bombs to Wallace. The first one wasn't even close.
- The last play comes on 4th and 5. The ball, intended for Wallace again, is tipped and nearly Intercepted. I thought it was picked off at first, but the replay showed it did hit the ground. Didn't matter anyway. Steelers turn the ball over on downs.
- Two kneel downs later and the game is over. The Green Bay Packers have won Super Bowl XLV!!
- Aaron Rodgers is awarded the Super Bowl MVP. 304 passing yards, 3 TDs, 0 turnovers
- The Steelers defense was the league's best against the run, allowing an average of only 3 yards per carry during the regular season. The Packers used an effective gameplan of using almost all passing plays, knowing they could not run consistently against the Steelers. James Starks only got 11 carries in the game, despite that the Packers led the entire game and were attempting to run down the clock for most of the 4th quarter.
- Surprisingly, Starks was rather effective in small doses, averaging 4.7 yards per carry. He was the only Packers RB to carry the ball.
- Roethlisberger has a history of putting up some ugly numbers in the postseason, but he typically manages to come through when it counts and win the game anyway. Not the case this time. He put up bad numbers and lost.
- The Packers won the turnover battle 3-0. Given that, the Steelers are lucky the game was this close.
- In my Super Bowl preview I predicted the Packers would win 31-27. They ended up winning 31-25. So close!
- Despite a big game from Jordy Nelson, I still managed to win my playoff league thanks to Mike Wallace's late game catches and the Packers defense. So I won the only bet I had any money on for this game (or would have, if you know, gambling was legal).
- Speaking of gambling, Vegas allows you to bet on some of the strangest things for the Super Bowl. I would have been tempted to place a few bets if I had the chance, but likely would have lost most of the ones I considered, such as John Kuhn rushing for over 6 yards (he didn't have a carry in this game) or the Packers scoring more points the the combined total of points, rebounds and assists for Rajon Rondo in the Celtics game earlier in the day (Rondo scored 29 against the Magic, so he nearly beat the Packers score before factoring in rebounds or assists).
- With his replica WWE title belt hanging over his shoulder, Aaron Rodgers held the Lombardi trophy up high while celebrating the emotional victory. By earning his first Super Bowl title, Rodgers has now put himself in the category of elite QBs, along with Manning, Brady, and Brees. More importantly, this title helps him step out of the shadow of Bret Favre in the Green Bay area.
- So what's next for Rodgers and the Packers? "Let's go get another one," says Rodgers. Ok then. Sounds good if you're a cheese-head.
No comments:
Post a Comment