Monday, January 24, 2011

And the AFC Champions are....

THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS!!!!  YES!!!  They did it!!!  The Steelers pulled it off and held on to defeat the game New York Jets by a score of 24-19 on the birthday of the late beloved Pittsburgh figure, Myron Cope.  I think perhaps he may have even had a hand in this victory.  After all it was 24-0 late in the first half before the Jets even go on the board to go into the half trailing 24-3.  Whoever would have thought that the Steelers would have scored their final point of the game then??? 

It wasn't as easy as it started out to be.  The Steelers dominated the first half.  They manhandled the Jets on both sides of the ball, but a football game is 60 minutes... not 30... and the Jets had other ideas for the second half.  The critical series of the game was pretty obvious (at least to me).  The Jets were down 24-10 with the ball on a long sustained drive that had started deep in their own territory.  The ran over 8 minutes off of the clock.  It was 1st and Goal from the Steelers' 2.  It wasn't looking good.  1st down got them inside the 1 yard line.  On 2nd down the pass from Sanchez was a little wide to the tight end in tight coverage and missed.  3rd down was nearly an interception as Lamar Woodley had both of his hands on the ball but just couldn't hang on.  That brings us to 4th down.  Surely they were going to score now... they hand it to LT... and he is met in the hole and stuffed behind the line of scrimmage!!!  Steelers ball!  On the very next play Big Ben and the backup center failed to connect, and Ben had to hurriedly fall on the ball, taking a safety (24-12).  The Jets continued to run the clock on their next possession and eventually scored a touchdown with about 3 minutes left in the game.  (24-19)

The offense was going to have to win this one.  The first step was the kickoff return... it was a good one... all the way to the 43 yard line after nearly being wrapped up at the 20.  The Steelers ran a play, and NY used a timeout.  Then it was Big Ben time!  Roethlisberger connected with Heath Miller on 2nd and 9 for a critical first down, forcing the Jets to burn their final timeouts.  It still wasn't over yet, though.  Without another first down the Jets would get one more chance to complete the comeback.  There were 2 more running plays... another 3rd and 6ish play coming up.  Ben scrambles... it looks like he might throw it away... for God's sake take the sack first!!!  Run that clock!!!  But wait... he finds the rookie Antonio Brown for another first down, and now it's time to celebrate!!!!  Ben kneels on the ball twice and the clock runs out!!!  The Pittsburgh Steelers are going back to the Super Bowl again!!!! 

It made it well worth waking up at 2:20 AM to watch the game.  2 cups of cinnamon orange tea kept me alive and kicking throughout the event!  So far I've survived the day rather well, most likely still on a pure adrenaline rush from the morning.  It was awesome!!!  Now... the Steelers will face the equally tough Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl 45... looking to be the first team to win 7 Super Bowls (2 others have 5... Dallas and San Francisco)... which would put Pittsburgh 2 ahead of the nearest other franchise.  This would certainly cement the Steelers even further as the NFL's greatest franchise of all time!  HERE WE GO STEELERS!!!  HERE WE GO!!!!   ONE... MORE... WIN!!!

Peace, Love, and Poker

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