Pittsburgh 21 – Seattle 10
This game will not go down as one of the greatest super bowls of all time, but it was still a classic in its own way. Bill Cowher got that monkey off his back, Jerome Bettis got his fairy tale ending and most importantly Dan Rooney got to hoist the Super Bowl Trophy for the the first time in 26 years. The first half was very slow with the Steelers heading into the half with a 7-3 lead after a controversial Ben Roethlisberger 3 yard touchdown run.
The second half was a different story. Fast Willie went off on a super bowl record 75 yard touchdown run that put the Steelers up 14-3. That is what Parker brings to the table. He may have 5 carrys for 11 yards then all of a sudden he’ll hit you for a 75 yard run. Then the game looked to be in the hands of the Steelers and then on a 3rd and goal Ben Roethlisberger throws a errant pass into the hands of Kelly Herdon and returns it to the Steelers 20. Matt Hassleback then hit Jeremy Stevens for a 16 yard touchdown pass. The interception could have been the turning point of the game but the Steelers countered back with a Ike Taylor interception to preserve the four point leave. Championship teams come up with big plays when they have to and that’s exactly what the Steelers did last nite. After the interception on a 3rd and 2 on Seattle’s 45 Ben Roethlisberger ran a bootleg for 5 yards then the next play the Steelers struck again. Roethlisberger pitched to Parker then handed off to Randle El who ran to the right and threw a perfect pass to Hines Ward for a 43 yard touchdown pass with 8:56 left in the game. It was the final blow to the Seahawks who had terrible clock management at the end of the game that did them in. How fitting was it see the heart and soul of the team Hines Ward be named M.V.P. Hines Ward was fairly quiet statisticly during the Pittsburgh’s playoff run but he showed up when this team needed him most. Im sure nobody is complaining about that 18 million dollar signing bonus the Rooney’s gave him last offseason anymore
The Steelers didn’t play their best game but they didn’t have to. They won the Championship by upending the Colts and Broncos. Those were the games when we saw how good this team really was and that is when they needed to be that good. It was obvious Seattle was a inferior team and Pittsburgh big time players like Roethlisberger,Porter Polamalu didn’t have their “A” game but other players stepped up and made big plays. Plain and simple that was the biggest difference in the game.
Despite Seattle winning the turnover battle and outgaining the Steelers, they just didn’t make enough big plays so im tired of national writers like Skip Bayless come out and say that Seattle outplayed the Steelers and the biggest difference of the game was the 12th man for the Steelers being the refs. Other than that i will remember this game for the rest of my life, and it surely was “one for the ages “.
