Super Bowl XL

6-4 in the postseason, then I am without football until early June. Sad state of affairs. And arena football just won't do, I can't stomach that crap.

PIT #16 total offence vs. SEA #17 total defence
PIT #4 total defence vs. SEA #2 total offence

PIT #9 scoring offence vs. SEA #7 scoring defence
PIT #3 scoring defence vs. SEA #1 scoring offence

PIT #5 rushing offence vs. SEA #5 rushing defence
PIT #3 rushing defence vs. SEA #3 rushing offence

PIT #24 passing offence vs. SEA #25 passing defence
PIT #16 passing defence vs. SEA #13 passing offence

PIT #11 takeaways vs. SEA #2 giveaways
PIT #7 giveaways vs. SEA #18 takeaways

PIT #3 punt returns vs. SEA #18 punt coverage
PIT #23 punt coverage vs. SEA #30 punt returns

PIT #20 kickoff returns vs.SEA #19 kickoff coverage
PIT #17 kickoff coverage vs. SEA #18 kickoff returns

Wow. Never before have I put together a head-to-head comparison that was so closely matched. Usually, there's one stat that's kind of one-sided for a particular team and that helps me to decide the outcome. The Steelers did just make short work of Denver's #29 pass defence, but Seattle's pass defence chewed up Jake Delhomme and spit him out. The Steelers were also able to hold Denver's running game to 97 yards, a pretty good accomplishment considering Denver's running game, en route to being the first visiting team to ever win the AFC Championship at Mile High Stadium. I also believe that Seattle's pass defence did so well against the Panties because they didn't have to respect the run. I think the Panties were down to their 4th string RB. But the key to the game is the Steelers run defence. I heard on TSN this morning that the Steelers haven't allowed an RB to rush for 100+ yards in a game in over thirty games. I also had to look at the Dallas-Seattle game of this season, since Dallas runs a 3-4 defence quite similar to Seattle's. Alexander was held to 61 yards on 20 carries. If the Steelers are able to duplicate that, then they'll win it. If the Seahawks successfully establish their running game, there's no limit to what they'll be able to do on offence, and they'll win it.

My intangible for this game is that the Steelers come from a dirty city, so they have the advantage going into dirty Detroit. Seattle is a beautiful city so the Seahawks aren't going to be used to it. The Steelers also have the whole Jerome Bettis retiring on top in his home city thing going for them, and I think Joey Porter can back up his trash talk better than Jerramy Stevens. However, as far as intangibles go, I noticed a very disturbing thing about the Steelers. They were the 6th seed in the conference and they defeated the #3 team in the first round, followed by the #1 team, followed by the #2 team, and now they face the #1 team in the other conference. There was another team that did the exact same thing, and that was the 2003-2004 Calgary Flames. So if history is doomed to repeat itself, the Steelers will lose this game by the closest of margins, just because sooner or later, luck runs out. And the Steelers certainly have been lucky. It took tearing up Carson Palmer's knee and that awful Vanderjagt field goal try for them to get this far. The win over the Broncos was legit, I'll give them that much.

It took me forever to decide this game, but when you look at the stats, the answer is pretty obvious. So will Big Ben be drinking like a champion surrounded by broads this Sunday? I think so. Steelers 24, Seahawks 17.