Sylvania Reflections

Larry's Opinions and Items Of Interest From Penn's Woods

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Pittsburgh Steelers and Super Bowl XL

Pittsburgh set many records in the Superbowl XL.
..First sixth seeded team to make it to the Super Bowl. And win.
..Youngest quarterback to win the Super Bowl (way to go Ben).
..Longest run from scrimmage (way to go Willy).
..Lowest quarterback rating by a winning quarterback.

And as far as I'm concerned, the most significant first:
..First team that I've been following to make it to and win the Super Bowl.
I've been following football for 40 some years.
Quite closely for the last 25 years.
But I lived in Cleveland from 1961 to 1999.
And followed the Browns until 1995.
I now live 50 miles north of Pittsburgh.


Roethlisberger
Everybody says that Roethlisberger had a flat day.
I say that was caused by both Super Bowl nerves and the Seahawks defense.
I also say it didn't have much effect on the outcome.

Cowher rarely wins football games by more than 14 points because of the way he runs the game. When he gets up by more than 10 points, he starts running the ball and burning the clock. And that certainly seems to work. Remember that often quoted stat that when he gets up by 11 or more points, his record is 105-1-1 or some such amazing ratio.

Therefore, even if the offense had been better, the margin of victory wouldn't have been much more than the 11 points it was.