Super Bowl XL: Peyton Must Be Shaking His Head

Super Bowl XL should have been Peyton Manning’s coming out party.  Instead, he was watching like the rest of us.  The Steelers were on a mission. Super Bowl XL was hyped as a boring match up between two teams with a combined 4 players that the casual observer could recognize. Somehow the game managed to be worse than predicted.

It has been well documented since Sunday that both teams played flat and Seattle probably lost it more than the Steelers won it. Pittsburgh could have been down as much as 17-0 in the first half, and if one were walking in a dark alley that required he or she to catch footballs in order to survive, it would be a bad idea to bring Jerramy Stevens (or Joey Porter for that matter, probably the lamest trash talk ever for a Super Bowl). But as bad as the Seahawks played, the Steelers were worse.

Ben Roethlisberger produced the lowest passer rating ever by a winning Super Bowl quarterback, but Hines Ward bailed him out over and over. Even Antwaan Randle El had to make the big play that Roethlisberger could not. Willie Parker was not any better. Take away the big 75-yard play and he was a terrible 9 rushes for 18 yards. But he made that play, and it was huge, which is more than can be said for Big Ben.

I wonder what Tom Brady and Peyton Manning were thinking while watching that nonsense? Both guys must watch mistake-filled football and cringe. Tom Brady gets a pass because he had to watch his team self-destruct around him all season, but poor Peyton Manning.

Manning must be a wreck. He must wake up from a nightmare every night and scream things like “WE HAD PROTECTION PROBLEMS!!!!” This year was easily his best chance and the Colts would have steamrolled the inept Seattle Seahawks. The Pats were gone and all Indy had to do was beat Pittsburgh and Denver. PITTSBURGH AND DENVER!!!!!! But they couldn’t. Peyton and company blew it and came out flat and timid against the Steelers, which was just one of the many inexplicable things that happened to destiny’s 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Colts just peaked too early and got nervous. It was evident during that meaningless home game against San Diego. Indy had already clinched home field throughout the playoffs, but coach Tony Dungy insisted the team would play as though it was a normal game. Everyone saw what happened. Indy looked like a team with nothing to play for, which is what they were. Indy played AWFUL. That was the same team that was 13-0 and 5-0 against teams that made the playoffs. To put that 5-0 into perspective, Pittsburgh and Seattle combined for only 4 wins against playoff teams all season (3 if you don’t count Seattle’s meaningless game against Indy in week 15).

The Colts came out against the Steelers just like they did against San Diego. Peyton was flat and out of rhythm. Running back Edgerrin James never got it going and finished with just 56 yards rushing. By the time the Colts got it together, it was too late.

Unfortunately, none of that matters. The Steelers are the champs. It’s interesting to wonder whether Peyton will get a better chance than he did this year. If he ends his career without a ring, he will always look at this year as the one that got away.

Interestingly, this brings up the debate about whether a coach should bench the starters once games lose playoff significance. It is clear that it is an advantage to play meaningful games during weeks 15, 16, and 17. Pittsburgh was on roll that took them all the way to Detroit. Indy spent a month waiting for a game to mean anything. And when it finally did, they were noticeably rusty. After week 14, when the Colts clinched, television personalities debated at great length about whether the rest would help or hurt Indy’s chances. Nobody said anything like, “The Colts will lose their first playoff game because they will be out of sync for the entire first half.” Instead the overall sentiment was that the rest was good. NFL.com writer Boomer Esiason wrote, “I fully expect…[Colts’ Coach Tony Dungy] to rest his stars at least in the final game of the season and maybe even the second half against Seattle.” This argument was settled during the Colts’ first playoff game. The game itself was the answer.

In spite of all of this, the Pittsburgh Steelers were a team of destiny. A 6th seed had never won the Super Bowl. There is a reason for that. It takes a lot of good things to happen to a 6th seed for them to become champions. So here it is. If the Steelers schedule hadn’t been a walk in the park down the stretch, it would have been impossible for them to make the run they did. Throw in the untimely injury to Carson Palmer, the Colts’ incompetence when it mattered, Big Ben’s tackle, Vanderjagt missing by a country mile, getting Denver instead of New England, Champ Bailey blowing a TD pick, Super Bowl refs, Super Bowl home-field advantage, and Seattle shooting themselves in the foot and you get a Pittsburgh championship. Go figure.