| Fav | Spread | Dog | Dre | Jay |
| GB (13-6) | 3 | Pit (14-4) | Pit | GB |
Green Bay vs. Pittsburgh
It's a fantastic matchup for the Lombardi Trophy, and Jason will take the Cheeseheads to bring it home. He liked the Packers from the moment the matchup was made. He said that he liked the winner of the Packers-Falcons playoff game to win it all, unless New England had continued to run roughshod through the league. Jason admits that the Steelers are a scary team, but he feels that Green Bay will follow the Patriots Plan of how to play the Steelers and just spread the field and fling the rock all over the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex. Pittsburgh is a more balanced team on offense, but Jason thinks the Pack will overwhelm the D so bad that it won't matter. He sees it a 30-20 type of game, which is a rather big spread to predict. But the Pack only have to cover 4 points to give Jason the win. I have to say that I'm shocked that Pittsburgh is such an underdog. I never would have guessed the Steelers, who weathered the storm of missing their rapist QB for the 1st 4 games of the season en route to an impressive 12-4 record and beat 2 solid teams in the playoffs, to be a FG dog against the NFC 6th seed. With that said, I waffled as to who I liked for the game for the 1st few days after the conference title games. I can't remember being so indecisive about my Super Bowl pick. I usually make my selection as soon as the matchup is determined. But the one thing that pushed me towards the Steelers isn't football related. It's the flap over the Packers originally leaving out their IR players when they took the Super Bowl team picture, then relenting after some back-and-forth between their players. Before that flap was settled, QB Aaron Rodgers had accused some players of being less than perfect teammates due to not staying in Green Bay to rehab over the offseason, and the issue seemed from the outside to be way bigger than it needed to be. I basically decided at that point that Pittsburgh had to be my pick because I couldn't imagine a World champion behaving the way the Packers were behaving the week before the damn Super Bowl. The Steelers have the experience, they have Troy Polamalu healthy, they have the better balance on offense, as Jason cited earlier, and I think they have the edge. I also think that Packers coach Mike McCarthy may try to be too cute in his 1st Super Bowl and have the offense not doing what they do best. Green Bay needs to go 5-wide on damn near every play in order to keep the Steelers dime defense on the field, and I fear that they won't do that. They will try to establish a running game and place themselves in bad field position and 3rd-and-longs, allowing Pittsburgh to rush Rodgers and create pressure. It's the Steelers that will have successful trick plays up their sleeves, as we know from watching them execute in past Super Bowls. I just think that this game will belong to the clear-thinking, poised team that's used to such a big spotlight, and that's the Pittsburgh Steelers. My X-factor: Steelers LB James Harrison. He's been one of the more quoted players the last couple of weeks as he alternates between passive-aggressive and angry when talking about the amount of cash he's paid in fines this year. But he continues to play his style of football, which could be really bad news for Rodgers if he gets to the QB. Ask the Arizona Cardinals--Harrison knows how to make big plays on the big stage.
My Pick: Pittsburgh 29-22
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