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Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL. I like it. I’m very excited about it. You have a ‘Cinderella’ team in the Steelers going against a team that’s been disrespected all season in the Seahawks. The NFL probably won’t like it since Seattle is tucked up all the way in the Pacific Northwest, and thus have not received any hype or media attention all season, but this is the team that deserved to go. They had an 11 game win streak, snapped only because they rested their players against the Packers in the season finale and lost, otherwise they’d be on a 14 game win streak heading into the Super Bowl. Now we just have to manage to wait for 2 weeks until kickoff. You can feel the excitement in the air. Well, I can anyway. But first, here’s a look back at what happened in the Conference Championship games.

Steelers at Broncos
The Broncos have been underrated and underappreciated all season. Maybe this was for a reason as they got soundly beaten by the Steelers. Congratulations must go out to the Steelers, the number 6 seed that went on the road to beat the number 3, 1 and now 2 seeds in the AFC respectively. Now they get to face the NFC number 1 seed in the Super Bowl. This is a great feat, but remember that this Steelers team is a lot like last year’s great team, only Ben Roethlisberger has more experience (and my how it’s shown). The only reason they were a 6th seed was because of the injury to Ben that caused them to lose a few games dropping them down in the standings. Now, with Ben healthy, it seems like they can’t be stopped. The Broncos had an unremarkable season, and it ended in an unremarkable way. Plummer made the mistakes he always makes even though many thought he had turned the corner. The big issue was that the Steelers got ahead early, and forced the Broncos out of their bread and butter, the running game. Troy Polamalu had a great game flying to the ball. It should be nice to see what Jerome Bettis can do in his home town of Detroit for the Super Bowl. 

Panthers at Seahawks
Not many people gave the Seahawks a chance even though they were the number 1 seed in the NFC. I guess they proved that they earned that spot with the thrashing they gave the Panthers. On offense, they basically couldn’t be stopped using a balanced attack of running and passing. On defense, that’s where the play really stepped up by the whole unit. They completely shut down Steve Smith, the only weapon the Panthers have and thus controlled the Panthers offense. For the second straight playoff week, the Seahawks defense was great. Last week it was against a sagging Redskins offense, but this week it was against a Panthers offense that many thought would dismantle the Seahawks. The whole unit played great as a team and didn’t give the Panthers anything until they let up and played prevent defense in the 4th quarter. The comparison about both these games was that the Steelers and Seahawks both called a great game. The coaching staffs on both teams should be given a lot of credit for the way they dictated this game, and the players should be proud about how they executed the game plans. Will this game finally bring the Seahawks the respect they deserve? I doubt it. Some writers will mention that they weren’t given much respect all season, but at the same time the majority will continue to give them no respect. And that’s just the way they’ll like it.

No Huddle
Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo Bills may be senile. I don’t think he even knows what he’s doing with the team now. I respect him tremendously for what he’s done in the past, but the Marv Levy hiring was a huge mistake.

I’m really curious to see what a certain writer for a certain sports magazine website whose name may or may not rhyme with Deter Ring will write concerning the Seahawks. This supposed ‘journalist’ (and I use the term very loosely) has not given the Seahawks any respect all year and now should face the music. I don’t think he will, but I hope he apologizes to Seattle. Perhaps leading off his MMQB with a letter of apology addressed to the entire city of Seattle? He should, but I don’t think he’ll admit his biggest folly of the season. 

I thought Steve Smith was different than all the other Prima Donna WRs. I was wrong. As it turns out, the only reason he hasn’t whined all season like the TOs and Chad Johnsons of the world is because he WAS getting the damn ball all the time. As soon as Seattle started shutting him down, he threw a tantrum on the sidelines. I guess the search must go on for a great classy WR.

Ben Roethlisberger is great. The way he’s improved from last year’s playoffs is astounding. He is also fortunate that he landed with the Steelers. They’ve slowly groomed him with his minimal passing last year into a real threat and probably the most important part of the team, as was shown when he went down with injury mid season and they struggled mightily as a result.

Mail Bag
Hey football engineer(s), I was disturbed by some of your comments last
week, like the one about the Palumalu interception, the league admitted
it was a bad call, are you trying to sound smarter than everyone else by
saying it was the right call? cause it makes you sound pretty dumb, it
was a right call and the steelers rightfully won that game and are now
in the superbowl.  The other thing is, when you complained about Dick
Stockton saying how important the field goal was at the end of the game,
you didn't realize that it was really important for us betters who bet
against Seattle covering the spread of 9.5 and that field goal would've
made us money you jackass!  One more thing, you failed to mention the
sensational work of the hawaiians last week, not just Troy Palumulu, but
Lofa Tatupu, not only are their names really fun to pronounce, but they
were both all over the place and made the difference for their
respective teams.  Also, what's up with Old Blue, is he the awesomest
columnist on your website or what? I really like his/her style, and I'm
sure he/she is also ridiculously good looking, have you met him? can I
meet him? and is he really that old?

Old Blue's biggest fan

Hi Old Blue's biggest fan.  Here are the answers to your questions:

About the Polamalu interception, I still understand the call the ref made. He basically was taking his judgment out of the call and made the call as if he were a computer, which in that case he made the right call. I think of course it was a catch and fumble, it was obvious, but all I’m saying is that I understand the call. I also agree and never said otherwise that the Steelers deserved to win that game (by a bigger margin) and are rightfully in the Super Bowl. 

Dick Stockton was talking about the game, and not about the spread. As a sportscaster, he shouldn’t be talking about the spread and he never mentioned or cared about that. You’re hypothesizing there and you sound dumb by doing so. 

I agree, Tatupu also played great. Thanks for reminding me to give them their due. 

I have in fact met Old Blue.  He/she is not that old. In fact he/she only recently lost control of his/her bladder only last week! Whereas really old people have no bladder control for years. Many times you outright mention that Old Blue is a ‘he’, do you know something we here at fbeng.net don’t know? You can in fact meet Old Blue, just provide your phone number and I’ll pass that info along to him/her. I should warn you though; he/she looks a lot like Freakshow from the movie Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.  You’ve been warned. 

Offensive Player of the Week: Ben Roethlisberger had a great game (along with a great post season) for the Steelers. The entire Seahawks offense played great, so for a single performance, it has to go to Ben.

Defensive Player of the Week: Troy Polamalu was all over the field for the Steelers. As he was last week as well. Again, the entire Seahawks defense played great, so Polamalu gets this for his personal performance.

Special Teams Player of the Week: Seahawks punter Tom Rouen pinned the Panthers deep inside their 20 a few times, along with a beauty that was guarded to the sidelines by a member of the coverage team. 

The Anti-Joe Theismann Award: For a change, I’m going to depart from the Theismann award and actually give this to excellence in commentating because of something Troy Aikman had to say. Early on, when the Seahawks were doubling Steve Smith and frustrating him, he mentioned how he thought the Bears defense was arrogant last week thinking they could cover him normally. How right he is on that statement. No one could have said it better and with that much honesty. Although I don’t like Joe Buck that much, Troy Aikman is a great analyst and has made the switch from player to booth look easy.

Pet Peeve of the Week: Why can’t we see all the replays that matter? So many times on an iffy call, we don’t see a replay. Instead we see a close up shot of someone on the sidelines for no reason. Football is great because of the many replays we can see over to analyze what happened more closely. Please show more of them. Please.

Top Two:
1. Seattle Seahawks: The # 1 seed in the NFC going to the Super Bowl as they should.
2. Pittsburgh Steelers: The #6 seed but playing like a #1 seed.