Jason wins, Dre loses pick. Jason wins season by 10 points!
Well, I needed that one, and the Pack didn't let me down. Before I break down the game, I'll break down how the four rounds of the playoffs played out for me and Dre, and how similar it was to the actual Super Bowl. I'll play the part of the Packers, while Dre can be the Steelers.
First Quarter: Wild Card Round - I jumped all over Dre, just as the Packers did the Steelers, with a 4-0 effort worth 8 points. Dre won one pick for 2 points. Things looked GREAT for me.
Second Quarter: Divisional Round - I extended my lead, but couldn't put Dre away, just to the sheer magnitude of points left on the table in the final two rounds. I went into the halfway point of the playoffs with a very large, but not safe, 9 point lead after Dre wen't o-for-the-round and I squeaked out one win.
Third Quarter: Conference Championships - Dre played for the tie, and I got cute. Much like the Super Bowl, Dre (Steelers) owned the 3rd quarter, but his decision to play for the tie ultimately cost him nothing, as all the pressure was on me in the 4th quarter to produce a win.
Fourth Quarter: Super Bowl XLV - Much like the game itself, I never trailed the entire postseason, but Dre made me sweat it out all the way to the end. What a way to end our first season blogging our picks. We'll move on to offseason mode now, with some football related news and other sports/off-topic discussions. But for now, I'll savor my season win, and I don't even get a championship belt. To quote El Gigante: "I wannnnnnnt theeeeee belllllltttttt...the beeeeellllltttttt!" There's like six people on earth that probably get that reference.
On to the game itself. I'll break down some keys.
- Aaron Rodgers - Football is a mans game, and on this night, Aaron Rodgers was a man. The group of people I was with, and various social networking friends, were debating through the finale of the game who the MVP should be. Few of them were mentioniong the clear-cut, obvious choice in Rodgers. On a night when his receivers were treating the ball like a live hand grenade, Rodgers never lost faith and kept throwing lazer beam after lazer beam. The pass he made late on a 3rd and 10 to Greg Jennings, inches past the arms of an outstreched defender and hitting Jennings in stride, was MVP-esque right there all in one play. Rodgers acted like he'd been there many times before, while his counterpart was harrassed and off target enough to throw a pick six and another pick that resulted in a TD drive. This was a scary good performance from "A-Rod," mostly due to the fact that he just made it look SO EASY.
- The Gameplan - Most notably, Mike McCarthy's gameplan. The Packers did what I hoped they would, and passed up on chances to "establish the run" and instead went 3 and 4 wide pretty much the whole game. James Starks had a couple decent runs, but the plan seemed to be to ride Rodgers to victory. I said if the Packers could get to 30 that they'd be Champs, and they did just that.
- Ghosts - That would be Troy Polamalu and James Harrison. The Pittsburgh D was noticably absent on this night, and Aaron Rodgers shredded the Steeler dime defense. Polamalu missed on several tackles, and was the biggest big name non-factor in a Super Bowl since Brian Urlacher against the Colts. Harrison did manage a sack, but otherwise the magic that the Steeler D needed never arrived, but someone elses magic did.....
- Clay Matthews - The Steelers, even though they completely dominated the third quarter, could still only muster a touchdown and a Kris Brown-esque FG shank to keep the Packers ahead by 4 going into the last quarter. The first play of the 4th was a Rashard Mendenhall run to the right that was looking like a negative play, until it turned into a REALLY negative play. Matthews came off the edge and blow'd Mendenhall up, thrusting a shoulder just under where the ball was being carried, and the ball popped up in the air, promping a "OOH BALL!" from me as a shout out to Tom Thayer of the Bears radio team. Desmond Bishop appeared pretty much out of nowhere for the scoop and the Packers, in one play, recaptured all the momentum they had lost in the third quarter. The next drive ended with the Packers third touchdown drive off a Pittsburgh turnover, once again proving all the B.S. about playoff experience means nothing if your team just plays better. Polamalu and Matthews were pretty much labelled the top two candidates for Defensive Player of the Year, and Polamalu won for his big play making ability. On this night, karma was a bitch.
- Resilience - Alot was made about the Packers ability to replace injured players, as they dealt with the loss of starter after starter all season, eventually putting 16 players on injured reserve. Maybe that was bit of foreshadowing, as the Pack lost both their offensive and defensive spiritual leaders. Charles Woodson and Donald Driver, in the biggest game of their lives, both had to watch the second half from the sideline. The Packers looked lost for a while, but when it came to crunch time, the replacements stepped up. Jared Bush came off the edge to harrass Roethlisberger, and Jordy Nelson and James Jones, when not providing crippling drops, stepped up big when all the chips were down. A lesser team would have gone in the tank (I'm looking at you Baltimore) when the Steeler rally began, but the Pack weathered the storm and prevailed.
- The "Talent" - Christina Aguilera botched the national anthem, right in the middle of my fiancee saying how funny it would be if someone did just that, so I missed it initially. Nice timing. Then, the halftime show. Oh, the horror. I have nothing against the Black Eye Peas, and was a bit refreshed that the NFL didn't trot out another geriatric "superstar" to play in front of paid fans that have no idea Who is on stage. But the Peas just outright sucked, whether the sound was off, or the auto tune was used a bit too much.....but the ultimate disaster was watching Fergie trying to channel her inner Axl Rose. That was painful. Anyone else here think the Steelers weren't able to adjust at halftime because Mike Tomlin is secretly Will.i.am?
- The Refs - I was VERY impressed with the officiating in this game. I thought there were two bad calls overall for the game, one going each way. Bonus points if you can name them. Other than that, the refs were a non factor, even deciding not to call what at first glance looked like interference on the Steelers last gasp play, but the replay showed that Tramon "The X-Factor" Williams did nothing more than undercut Mike Wallace and make a great play on the ball. This is still no consolation for Seahawk fans, is it?
- The Game Call - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, you still suck.
- Brett Who? - Favre's name was noticably absent from the game call, and even the little Championship montages of both teams. You can't write Packer history without Favre, so I thought purposely leaving out that aspect of the story was a lost opportunity. Rodgers is partly where he is right now because of all the Favre drama, and even though we're all tired of him, 4 still needs to be in the narrative.
On to the offseason now, and all the labor strife. Thank god pitchers and catchers report in a couple weeks.
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