Steelers Lose Super Bowl 31-25

We’re sitting here, about 20 hours after the loss heard round the world and we’re unsure which way this blog is going to go. It could be a complete bashing of all the mistakes the team made last night in the biggest game of the year. It could be a positive outlook on the great season the team had and how they overachieved this year or it could be a combination of both. Honestly, we aren’t sure. So, we’re just going to let the proverbial pen flow and see where it takes us. 

The boys came out completely flat. In big games, Big Ben is usually the man but he tossed two first half interceptions, one returned for a TD. They second one was a hell of a play by the Packers D but still an ill advised throw.  Despite those two picks, the Steelers still had a shot in the 4th quarter but Mendenhall pissed the game away with an untimely fumble.  That would pretty much prove to be the play of the game and the Steelers eventually lost 31-25, as you all know. The thing that gets us is how they came out flat, they made 6 costly penalties, specifically down 6 with 2 minutes to go when Keyron Fox absorbed a personal foul that brought the team back to their own 13.  Fox is the special teams captain and a play like that is completely unacceptable. The Steelers actually outplayed the Packers in just about every phase of the game…except the damn score and the mistake areas..turnovers!  The Steelers had more total yards, more rushing yards, less penalties (believe it or not), more first downs and had the ball longer than the Packers. How’d they lose? Oh, they turned it over 3 times, had bad play calls, gave up critical 3rd downs on defense and committed 3 turnovers while not gaining one. You’ll lose every time when you do that.  We have been saying all year long that one day these dumb personal fouls would catch up to them, we just hoped it wouldn’t be in a game of this magnitude. If it were up to us, Keyron Fox would be finding his own transportation home after that moronic foul at the end. We’d also tell William Gay to take the bus because he flat out sucks. How many weeks have we bitched about the awful play by Gay. He is so bad and he can’t cover anyone. Good news though, he’s a free agent this off season and you would HAVE to think that the Steelers front office would tell him to hit the pavement because he’s not welcome back.  Speaking of free agents, Ike Taylor and LaMar Woodley are two other free agents they have this off season. They MUST sign Woodley and it would  be a good idea to keep Taylor as well. Woodley is a top notch Linebacker and they need to pay him.  Taylor is the best corner they have in a weak secondary though we think he may be headed elswhere.  Only time will tell.  Bottom line, this team fell short of winning their 3rd super bowl in six years and now they may have to re load or at least re boot.

That all said, it was a pretty good year. They did accomplish a good bit considering the injuries they had to Smith, Keisel, Polamalu, Colon and Pouncey. They also had to overcome the susepnsion of Big Ben and the media distractions that went along with it.  They weren’t supposed to win 12 games, win the division, get a home game or go to the Super Bowl. They did all of that. They exceeded our expectations and then some but it hurts when you fall short, which they did.  They have a really young offense and some key players to build around on both sides of the ball including Ben, Wallace, Pouncey, Mendenhall, Woodley and Timmons. They will need to re load and they do have the front office to do it. So let’s be happy with what we go this year and look at it as a stepping stone forward rather than a step back.

Here we go Steelers, Here we go!