Super Bowl Sunday is nearly upon us. A day of greasy food, lounging about, commercialism and physical violence.; a true American holiday if I ever saw one.
Who will win? Well, I hope the Packers, but let’s look at how the teams stack up.
Offense
Overall, the Packers have a much more explosive offense and can score a lot more than Pittsburgh can. Ignore the last game as we generally play weirdly against the Bears. We can spread out the receivers and Rodgers can get them the ball.
This is not to say that Ben Roethlisberger isn’t a good quarterback, but he doesn’t have the weapons that Rodgers has. Don’t get me wrong, though, I do think that Rodgers is a more skilled quarterback, but Big Ben has won multiple Super Bowls and is one of the toughest quarterbacks in the league.
He is more than capable of taking a team down the field and scoring a touchdown as time ticks away.
The Steelers do have a better running game. Do I even need to point this out? The Packers have found a running game in the playoffs, thankfully, but the Steelers have a 1200+ yard back who isn’t a rookie. Plus, they have a better lineKudos to James Starks, but I’d rather have Mendenhall.
Defense
Statistically, these two teams were very close in the regular season. The Packers gave up 15 points a game to the Steelers 14.5. Green Bay had a better pass defense and the Steelers had a markedly better rush defense.
The Packers have given up four fewer points in the playoffs than the Steelers, but the Steelers gave up nearly 80 yards less than the Pack. They are closely matched defensively, but I like the Steelers
more here.
We do have a better pass defense, but in overall terms, Pittsburgh is slightly better.
If nothing else, I think they are more intimidating. We do have the frightening Clay Matthews with his watermelon arms, but as a unit the Steelers strike more fear in the hearts of their opponents. And Brett Kiesel’s beard is basically a 12th man.
Special Teams
Um, an offensive lineman almost scored a kick return touchdown against us. I would gain 10 yards returning against the Pack and I’m slow and out of shape.
We do have a great punter, but that is about it. Steelers take this.
The Verdict
The Packers have the better offense, but I think the Steelers take them in the other categories albeit barely in defense. The thing helping the Packers is that the Steelers don’t have a tremendous pass defense and we LOVE to throw.
I think we have to put up at least 14-17 points in the first half so we can have a cushion for the inevitable comeback from the Steelers.
We need to hit Roethlisberger a lot, but we have to be smart about it, since he can get himself out of trouble by scrambling in the pocket. Ultimately, I’m a big believer in using what got us to the Super Bowl, so I hope we don’t screw around with our system.
I don’t want to pick a score to protect against a jinx. That’s right, I’m too big of a coward for such things.
I am confident that this won’t be a blowout, though.
In the end, I’m very hopeful that we can win this game, but seriously, Kiesel’s beard is impossible, and Roethlisberger at the end of the game is scary. Plus, there’s the fact that we can’t find a way to win the really close games.
I guess we’ll find out Sunday, assuming the world south of Eau Claire isn’t completely consumed with snow.
