SBXL
Feb/04/2006 05:05 PM Filed in: HSOs from a
Bitter P1
The game
tomorrow is not my game. The teams tomorrow are not
my teams. And yet, riding my high from wise and
prescient pick in the college national championship
game, I feel led to put my .02 cents in here too.
(translation: I don't know how to quit while I'm
ahead...)
So, here goes...
First off, I want to assure the reader that I can be non-biased about this. Really. Even though one of the teams is the Pittsburgh Steelers, and even though there is almost no more hated mortal enemy for a lifetime Cowboys fan. But, let me go on record now. And, Cowboys fans, grab your oxygen tanks, and nitroglycerin tablets...because I like these Pittsburgh Steelers. I really like them.
These are not the Steelers of the Seventies. There's no Terry Bradshaw here (cocky, turncoat Texarkansan...). There's no Lynn Swan (Good luck in the election, btw...). These just aren't the same guys. Those guys always felt like they didn't really belong to Pittsburgh. Sure, they played there. Sure, they made us all some great, er, painful memories along the way. But they just didn't seem like Pittsburgh-kind-of-guys.
Bill Cowher? He's a Pittsburgh kind of guy.
Jerome Bettis? What's more Pittsburgh than this gritty, tried-and-true veteran?
Roethlisberger? What a cool kid. (And I mean cool under pressure...)
What's not to like about these guys? (Even for a die-hard Cowboys fan...) They play hard. They show up each week. They have a kind of gritty, "we're going to find a way to beat you" attitude.
And their defense? Tough. Very, very tough. I love watching Troy Polamahu. That guy flies over the field. You just want to see guys like that win. He makes watching Pro Football fun again.
You see, that's my main problem in watching many pro games...even the Super Bowl. And it's why I LOVE the college game. Pro players, to me, often seem too polished...too perfect...too good. They're like robots, they're so good.
Give me the emotion, the passion, the energy, of the college game over the pros any day. Polamahu plays with that energy. So do the rest of the Steelers. And they're just plain good. Their defense is tough.
The Seahawks? Well, they're not playing at home, so they don't have their "Twelfth Man" mojo to lean on. (They'll be a ton of Steeler fans there...). Mike Holmgren is a master coach. Hasselbeck is a great QB. But, over all, they're small. I mean, literally small. They're just not as physical large a team as the Steelers. It would not surprise me to see them leverage that speed for an early lead. But it will also not surprise me if the Steelers adjust. And, by the end of the night, size, strength and heart will beat out finess and speed....at least in this game. The Steelers will do what they always do...they'll pound it out. And they'll simply wear the Seahawks down.
Here's my ONE caveat to all this....if Hasselbeck can get in a rythym...if he's able to thow without being, ahem, hasseled(sorry), then the Seahawks might pull this out. The Steelers are built to stop a running team, and the Seahawks know how to throw and win. So, if Hasselbeck gets in a sync, then the Seahawks might win, and I'll eat my words.
But, otherwise, I break it down this way:
Speed: Edge Seahawks
Offense: Surprisingly even
Defense: HUGE edge to Steelers
Special Teams: Wash
Intangibles, like "heart," passion, and being on a roll: Steelers.
Prediction:
Pittsburgh: 27
Seattle: 17
Promise not to come back and re-edit this later.
So, here goes...
First off, I want to assure the reader that I can be non-biased about this. Really. Even though one of the teams is the Pittsburgh Steelers, and even though there is almost no more hated mortal enemy for a lifetime Cowboys fan. But, let me go on record now. And, Cowboys fans, grab your oxygen tanks, and nitroglycerin tablets...because I like these Pittsburgh Steelers. I really like them.
These are not the Steelers of the Seventies. There's no Terry Bradshaw here (cocky, turncoat Texarkansan...). There's no Lynn Swan (Good luck in the election, btw...). These just aren't the same guys. Those guys always felt like they didn't really belong to Pittsburgh. Sure, they played there. Sure, they made us all some great, er, painful memories along the way. But they just didn't seem like Pittsburgh-kind-of-guys.
Bill Cowher? He's a Pittsburgh kind of guy.
Jerome Bettis? What's more Pittsburgh than this gritty, tried-and-true veteran?
Roethlisberger? What a cool kid. (And I mean cool under pressure...)
What's not to like about these guys? (Even for a die-hard Cowboys fan...) They play hard. They show up each week. They have a kind of gritty, "we're going to find a way to beat you" attitude.
And their defense? Tough. Very, very tough. I love watching Troy Polamahu. That guy flies over the field. You just want to see guys like that win. He makes watching Pro Football fun again.
You see, that's my main problem in watching many pro games...even the Super Bowl. And it's why I LOVE the college game. Pro players, to me, often seem too polished...too perfect...too good. They're like robots, they're so good.
Give me the emotion, the passion, the energy, of the college game over the pros any day. Polamahu plays with that energy. So do the rest of the Steelers. And they're just plain good. Their defense is tough.
The Seahawks? Well, they're not playing at home, so they don't have their "Twelfth Man" mojo to lean on. (They'll be a ton of Steeler fans there...). Mike Holmgren is a master coach. Hasselbeck is a great QB. But, over all, they're small. I mean, literally small. They're just not as physical large a team as the Steelers. It would not surprise me to see them leverage that speed for an early lead. But it will also not surprise me if the Steelers adjust. And, by the end of the night, size, strength and heart will beat out finess and speed....at least in this game. The Steelers will do what they always do...they'll pound it out. And they'll simply wear the Seahawks down.
Here's my ONE caveat to all this....if Hasselbeck can get in a rythym...if he's able to thow without being, ahem, hasseled(sorry), then the Seahawks might pull this out. The Steelers are built to stop a running team, and the Seahawks know how to throw and win. So, if Hasselbeck gets in a sync, then the Seahawks might win, and I'll eat my words.
But, otherwise, I break it down this way:
Speed: Edge Seahawks
Offense: Surprisingly even
Defense: HUGE edge to Steelers
Special Teams: Wash
Intangibles, like "heart," passion, and being on a roll: Steelers.
Prediction:
Pittsburgh: 27
Seattle: 17
Promise not to come back and re-edit this later.
PS: As I write this, the word has come down that
Aikman and Rayfield Wright have made the Hall of
Fame. Congratulations to both of them...they really
do deserve it!
--30--