PRETTY GOOD GAME, ANTHEM, HALFTIME & STADIUM NOT SO HOT
All season long the Green Bay Packers have had to overcome injuries, they set an NFL record for 16 guys on injured reserve, 5 of them starters. In Super Bowl XLV, they lost three important starters, CB Charles Woodson, CB Sam Shields & WR Donald Driver, all in the first half. Just like the rest of the 2010 season, there was no panic, guys filled in & they finished strong winning Super Bowl XLV 31-25.
The game broke a big trend, the team that rushed the most times had won all 10 post season games in 2010. Not tonight, the Steelers rushed 26 times for 126-yards while Green Bay managed only 50-yards on just 13 carries. But other trends were rock solid, no team that had thrown an interception that was returned for a touchdown has ever won the Super Bowl. That trend was 10-0 before tonight, now it's 11-0. The winners of the previous 44 Super Bowls were +90 in turnover ratio, make that +93 after two Ben Roethlisberger interceptions & a Reshard Mendenhall fumble. Running the ball & turnovers are the two most quoted reasons for a team's success in this game. One went one way & one went the other. This game also marked the 1st time any team had a pick-six in 3 consecutive postseason games.
Pittsburgh just couldn't overcome the 21-points Green Bay made out of the 3 turnovers. They shut down the Packer running game, they sacked Aaron Rodgers 3 times & hit him another 8 times, but handing your opponent 21-points is too much. Pittsburgh lost WR Emmanuel Sanders early on to a foot injury but it wasn't as big a blow as Green Bay suffered losing Woodson, Shields & Driver.
The Steelers blew a huge chance to score first after Tramon Williams fumbled a punt at his 20-yard line. After a mad scramble, Green Bay recovered. Three penalties on good kickoff returns by Antonio Brown also cost Pittsburgh big yardage.
The Packers, especially Aaron Rodgers, just kept fighting despite all the injuries & the dropped passes. They stayed with their gameplan, which was brilliant. They negated Steeler safety Troy Polamalu on numerous plays by forcing him to show his intention thereby allowing Rodgers to go elsewhere with the ball. Polamalu, the 2010 NFL Defensive Player of the Year looked absolutely mortal at times. James Harrison, the 2008 NFL Defensive POY was held to only 1 tackle & 1 sack. When the Packers chose to run, they ran away from Harrison. Chad Clifton did a good job keeping Harrison off Rodgers until he'd released his pass.
Despite all the bad things Pittsburgh did, with 1:59 left in the game, Pittsburgh had the ball with a chance to win the game. Unfortunately Keyaron Fox committed a stupid personal foul on the kickoff bringing the ball back to the Steeler twelve after the kickoff. A 13-yard pass to TE Heath Miller got them rolling but that was to be the end of it, they gave up the ball on downs.
Aaron Rodgers was a most deserving MVP & all the bad memories of Brett Favre's departure from Green Bay began fading as soon as the confetti cannons began blasting. Ben Roethlisberger took most of the blame for the loss. One of his picks was caused by his arm being hit as he released the pass, but the other picked by Jarrett Bush, was all on Ben. He missed a wide open Mike Wallace three times & TE Heath Miller twice. I'll give Roethlisberger credit for shouldering the blame, much of it was on him, but the 3rd quarter fumble by Mendenhall was a killer. The Steelers had held Green Bay to four consecutive 3 & outs, they'd closed the margin to 21-17 & had great field position at the Packer 45 when Clay Matthews jarred the ball loose. It was huge.
So the team I picked way back the first week of September, the Green Bay Packers, won the Super Bowl. I should have stuck with them in yesterday's preview.
I have to give Packer coach Mike McCarthy big props for their gameplan & another nugget that surfaced in the post game locker room. Seems the coach had a jeweler come to Lambeau Field last Saturday to measure the players for their Super Bowl rings. Had that tidbit come out before the game it would have blown up big time for being so presumptuous. But it remained a secret, McCarthy said he thought it would cause the players to focus even more, he might have pushed just the right button on the ring deal.
The rest of the game was more fizzle than sizzle. It began with 4 of the stadium gates were closed because of concerns for falling ice. This jammed more people into the remaining gates & it took as long as 90-minutes to enter the stadium. Instead of increasing security at the open gates to expedite the surge, they sent the unused personnel home.
Then the bombshell hit. The Cowboys had taken two large areas used for standing room during Cowboy games & put seats in them. Unfortunately the seats weren't secured & the Arlington Fire Department declared the seats unsafe. We're talking 1,250 seats at $800 each. The people holding these seats had no idea of what had happened to their Super Bowl experience until they arrived at the Jones Mahal. They were segregated into a holding pen outside the stadium without being told what had happened according to many of those affected. The league holds 700-800 seats in reserve just in case of emergency, it wasn't enough. Just over 400 people were left without a seat & were told so just 20-minutes before kickoff. They were offered standing room or The Cowboy Bar. That consisted of watching the game on several 42" LCD TV's while standing at a pub table, not really what fans expected when they shelled out big money for tickets. "If I was going to watch the game on TV, I could have done that at home, plus I'd have a place to sit" was a common complaint heard from angry fans of both teams. "First thing in the morning I'm on the phone with my lawyer" said Steeler fan Jim Reinhardt. He had paid $5,000 for a pair of tickets in section 430A only to be told he could wander the concourse but he'd have no seat. The league offered the 400+ angry fans a refund of triple the ticket's face. What about their travel, lodging & food expenses? I know if I knew I didn't have a seat, I certainly wouldn't make the trip to the game, simple as that. I smell a class action lawsuit on behalf of these fans & tho I really can't blame them. I've read over 25 of these accounts in the Dallas, Milwaukee & Pittsburgh papers, each as bad as the next.
One of the two "unsafe" seat sections at Cowboy Stadium
If I'm one of these folks displaced by the unsafe seat mess, I'd be even angrier seeing all the celebrities given primo seats for free. Just not right.
So the game is near kickoff & they trot out Lea Michele of Glee to sing "America the Beautiful" backed by an Air Force choir. It was nice, but then we were forced to listen as Christine Aguilera butchered the National Anthem. She forgot some of the words, so she just repeated a line. I know this woman can sing, I've seen her belt out some great vocals but sadly this wasn't her day. The runs she did were all over the place & it was simply awful. How about the Air Force flyover people in a domed stadium were unable to see? My buddy Mike lives just outside Big D & he told me this came with a $100,000 tab.
The halftime entertainment was The Black Eyed Peas. I like some of their music but thought the show was long on theatrics & short on musicality, I think my age is showing.
Even the commercials were disappointing. There were a few funny ones, but overall it was really a down year for the advertisers. I ranked my favorites as follows:
1. VW Passat-Young Darth Vader
2. Pepsi Max-wife who monitors everything her husband consumes.
3. Snickers-Richard Lewis & Roseanne(loved when she got drilled by the tree trunk)
4. Doritos-Pants licker
5. Teleflora-Guys asks Faith Hill for help writing a valentine
6. Chrysler-ad for Detroit by Eminem
7. Bud Light-Movie props
8. Best Buy-Ozzie Osborne & Justin Beiber
9. Budweiser-Tiny Dancer western
10.NFL Brand-all the old TV shows showing people preparing to watch football.
The GoDaddy.com ad(my bandwidth provider) with Joan Rivers was frightening.
The game broke a big trend, the team that rushed the most times had won all 10 post season games in 2010. Not tonight, the Steelers rushed 26 times for 126-yards while Green Bay managed only 50-yards on just 13 carries. But other trends were rock solid, no team that had thrown an interception that was returned for a touchdown has ever won the Super Bowl. That trend was 10-0 before tonight, now it's 11-0. The winners of the previous 44 Super Bowls were +90 in turnover ratio, make that +93 after two Ben Roethlisberger interceptions & a Reshard Mendenhall fumble. Running the ball & turnovers are the two most quoted reasons for a team's success in this game. One went one way & one went the other. This game also marked the 1st time any team had a pick-six in 3 consecutive postseason games.
Pittsburgh just couldn't overcome the 21-points Green Bay made out of the 3 turnovers. They shut down the Packer running game, they sacked Aaron Rodgers 3 times & hit him another 8 times, but handing your opponent 21-points is too much. Pittsburgh lost WR Emmanuel Sanders early on to a foot injury but it wasn't as big a blow as Green Bay suffered losing Woodson, Shields & Driver.
The Steelers blew a huge chance to score first after Tramon Williams fumbled a punt at his 20-yard line. After a mad scramble, Green Bay recovered. Three penalties on good kickoff returns by Antonio Brown also cost Pittsburgh big yardage.
The Packers, especially Aaron Rodgers, just kept fighting despite all the injuries & the dropped passes. They stayed with their gameplan, which was brilliant. They negated Steeler safety Troy Polamalu on numerous plays by forcing him to show his intention thereby allowing Rodgers to go elsewhere with the ball. Polamalu, the 2010 NFL Defensive Player of the Year looked absolutely mortal at times. James Harrison, the 2008 NFL Defensive POY was held to only 1 tackle & 1 sack. When the Packers chose to run, they ran away from Harrison. Chad Clifton did a good job keeping Harrison off Rodgers until he'd released his pass.
Despite all the bad things Pittsburgh did, with 1:59 left in the game, Pittsburgh had the ball with a chance to win the game. Unfortunately Keyaron Fox committed a stupid personal foul on the kickoff bringing the ball back to the Steeler twelve after the kickoff. A 13-yard pass to TE Heath Miller got them rolling but that was to be the end of it, they gave up the ball on downs.
Aaron Rodgers was a most deserving MVP & all the bad memories of Brett Favre's departure from Green Bay began fading as soon as the confetti cannons began blasting. Ben Roethlisberger took most of the blame for the loss. One of his picks was caused by his arm being hit as he released the pass, but the other picked by Jarrett Bush, was all on Ben. He missed a wide open Mike Wallace three times & TE Heath Miller twice. I'll give Roethlisberger credit for shouldering the blame, much of it was on him, but the 3rd quarter fumble by Mendenhall was a killer. The Steelers had held Green Bay to four consecutive 3 & outs, they'd closed the margin to 21-17 & had great field position at the Packer 45 when Clay Matthews jarred the ball loose. It was huge.
So the team I picked way back the first week of September, the Green Bay Packers, won the Super Bowl. I should have stuck with them in yesterday's preview.
I have to give Packer coach Mike McCarthy big props for their gameplan & another nugget that surfaced in the post game locker room. Seems the coach had a jeweler come to Lambeau Field last Saturday to measure the players for their Super Bowl rings. Had that tidbit come out before the game it would have blown up big time for being so presumptuous. But it remained a secret, McCarthy said he thought it would cause the players to focus even more, he might have pushed just the right button on the ring deal.
The rest of the game was more fizzle than sizzle. It began with 4 of the stadium gates were closed because of concerns for falling ice. This jammed more people into the remaining gates & it took as long as 90-minutes to enter the stadium. Instead of increasing security at the open gates to expedite the surge, they sent the unused personnel home.
Then the bombshell hit. The Cowboys had taken two large areas used for standing room during Cowboy games & put seats in them. Unfortunately the seats weren't secured & the Arlington Fire Department declared the seats unsafe. We're talking 1,250 seats at $800 each. The people holding these seats had no idea of what had happened to their Super Bowl experience until they arrived at the Jones Mahal. They were segregated into a holding pen outside the stadium without being told what had happened according to many of those affected. The league holds 700-800 seats in reserve just in case of emergency, it wasn't enough. Just over 400 people were left without a seat & were told so just 20-minutes before kickoff. They were offered standing room or The Cowboy Bar. That consisted of watching the game on several 42" LCD TV's while standing at a pub table, not really what fans expected when they shelled out big money for tickets. "If I was going to watch the game on TV, I could have done that at home, plus I'd have a place to sit" was a common complaint heard from angry fans of both teams. "First thing in the morning I'm on the phone with my lawyer" said Steeler fan Jim Reinhardt. He had paid $5,000 for a pair of tickets in section 430A only to be told he could wander the concourse but he'd have no seat. The league offered the 400+ angry fans a refund of triple the ticket's face. What about their travel, lodging & food expenses? I know if I knew I didn't have a seat, I certainly wouldn't make the trip to the game, simple as that. I smell a class action lawsuit on behalf of these fans & tho I really can't blame them. I've read over 25 of these accounts in the Dallas, Milwaukee & Pittsburgh papers, each as bad as the next.
One of the two "unsafe" seat sections at Cowboy Stadium
If I'm one of these folks displaced by the unsafe seat mess, I'd be even angrier seeing all the celebrities given primo seats for free. Just not right.
So the game is near kickoff & they trot out Lea Michele of Glee to sing "America the Beautiful" backed by an Air Force choir. It was nice, but then we were forced to listen as Christine Aguilera butchered the National Anthem. She forgot some of the words, so she just repeated a line. I know this woman can sing, I've seen her belt out some great vocals but sadly this wasn't her day. The runs she did were all over the place & it was simply awful. How about the Air Force flyover people in a domed stadium were unable to see? My buddy Mike lives just outside Big D & he told me this came with a $100,000 tab.
The halftime entertainment was The Black Eyed Peas. I like some of their music but thought the show was long on theatrics & short on musicality, I think my age is showing.
Even the commercials were disappointing. There were a few funny ones, but overall it was really a down year for the advertisers. I ranked my favorites as follows:
1. VW Passat-Young Darth Vader
2. Pepsi Max-wife who monitors everything her husband consumes.
3. Snickers-Richard Lewis & Roseanne(loved when she got drilled by the tree trunk)
4. Doritos-Pants licker
5. Teleflora-Guys asks Faith Hill for help writing a valentine
6. Chrysler-ad for Detroit by Eminem
7. Bud Light-Movie props
8. Best Buy-Ozzie Osborne & Justin Beiber
9. Budweiser-Tiny Dancer western
10.NFL Brand-all the old TV shows showing people preparing to watch football.
The GoDaddy.com ad(my bandwidth provider) with Joan Rivers was frightening.
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