Thoughts From a Sad Steeler Fan

So am I disappointed, yeah sure, am I devastated, not at all.  What got me thinking this morning was if the NFL owners want to extend the regular season to 18 games, I guarantee the Superbowl will be one of the worst games of the season.  First off the injuries:  So I am sure we all agree that the regular season is played at 90% because guys are trying not to kill themselves for 60 minutes for 16 games.  And we can agree that the playoffs are at 100%.  But looking at the guys playing in the Superbowl last night it looked like they were the last survivors of the season.  We can agree that there were guys who didn’t play hardly at all this season:  Ryan Grant, Aaron Smith, Max Starks…I probably could keep going..that would have been great to see in the game.  Secondly you have guys like Maurkise Pouncey who was hurt in the AFC championship game which is just unlucky.  Then you have guys who where hurt during the game: Donald Driver, Charles Woodson, Emmanuel Sanders.  And then you have James Starks, he played two months of football this year and ends up being a solid running back during the playoff run.  I mean he was cleared to play in December so he should be healthy and ready to go.  My question is if Ryan Grant plays a whole season does he hurt, help, or have no affect on the playoff run?  If anyone thinks an 18 game regular season is a good idea I would love to hear it.  If they do end up switching the schedule, I would create a rotation of guys in positions and give them 2 to 3 games off just to keep them fresh for the end of the season.  It happens in baseball and could happen in football.

As far as the game, I thought it was a mediocre game that ended up being slightly competitive because the Steelers had a chance to win at the end.  But if Ben did pull off a victory he should not have been MVP, because Aaron Rodgers was the best player on the field…period.  If I graded Ben, I would give him a C- just because he had a chance to win and that was probably because of the defense.  He basically spotted them 14 points in the first half and someday he has to figure out there is no degree of difficulty in football.  I would say both interceptions are his fault and both happened to be when he locked on to Mike Wallace.  The first you could say was unlucky, but the guy jumped the route because Ben was completely eyeballing Mike Wallace.  The second was terrible, he pump faked at Wallace and then threw at him.  If there is one guy you don’t need to help with a pump fake it is freaking Mike Wallace.  And he also missed an open shot at him during the missed field goal drive, which also was a terrible decision.  We can all agree there was no way Shaun Suisham was making that kick.  Where was the patented draw up the middle on third down?

On the other side of the ball Aaron Rodgers was a stud, I don’t think the Steeler defense touched him in the first quarter (when he had his regular receiving corp).  He made Jordy Nelson look like an All-pro despite the fact Jordy Nelson dropped 6 balls!!!! He was 9 for 140 yards and a TD on 15 targets…are you kidding me.  He goes over 200 yards if he squeezed his hands on the balls he dropped because they hit his hands.  Just unreal, and that effort was mainly due to Greg Jennings being double covered but still coming up with 2 TD’s and gigantic plays in the fourth quarter.  The Steeler defense was average but did play well enough to put the Steelers in position for a win despite Big Ben giving points away in exchange for Hotel Receptionist/Hostess’s phone numbers.  Jordy Fing Nelson.

Finally, I think Mendenhall’s fumble was bad and definitely ended the comeback killing all the momentum.  If the Packers would have run the ball more than 10 times the Steelers might have caused one as well.  The Packers made the most out of the best shot they had at Mendenhall all day and let’s face it came up with big turnovers when needed.  Did their defense play an unbelievable game…no, they didn’t dominate and shut it down, but they gave their QB a chance to win just like the Steelers did for Ben only the Steeler defense needed to score or cause a turnover to make a up for Ben’s mistakes.  It worked against the Ravens and Jets, just not against Aaron Rodgers.  If that is the last Superbowl for Hines Ward, I am glad he scored, and let’s face it he has two rings so it isn’t the end of the world.