Honestly, I'm cool with that. If you had told me at the beginning of the year that the Steelers would win the division and make the playoffs, I would have taken it hands down. I might have been skeptical, given everything we went through in the offseason, but I would have taken it.
To make it all the way to the Super Bowl was a testament to this team. It's a great day to be a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Yes, we lost the game. But in the bigger picture, there were fans in 30 other cities in America tonight that were jealous of us. We got to play on the biggest stage in football, and we proved that we deserved to be there.
Three turnovers and 21 points off those turnovers is hard for any team on any day to overcome. The three turnovers were the difference in the game. We had our chances, but just didn't capitalize. At the end of the day, Green Bay did what they needed to do to win the game. They were a hell of a team.
Does this loss hurt? Absolutely. But it's not the end of the world.
The Green Bay Packers were a great team with a great fanbase. Congratulations to them, it was well earned. They deserved to win it. No hard feelings towards Green Bay, they out-played us in many aspects of the game.
If you had told me when we were down 14-0 that Ben would have the ball in his hands with 2 minutes to play and a touchdown would win the game, I would have taken that. So we didn't convert this time. That's okay. We'll go back to the drawing board and make another run at it next year.
At the end of the day, the Steelers still have more Lombardi Trophies than any other team in the league, and that is something to be proud of. We're still Sixburgh. No one can take that away from us. We had a hell of a season. As Steelers fans, we've been blessed to see them hoist the Lombardi twice in the last decade. This loss just serves as a reminder to how hard it actually is to win the Lombardi, that you can't take anything for granted in this league.
I'm still proud to be a Steelers fan, and you should be too. Tonight, this team showed that even in the face of turning the ball over 3 times (and allowing 21 points off those turnovers) that they still had the drive to stay in the game and do everything they could to win. They came up short. Sometimes that happens in life. It's not ideal, but that doesn't diminish the accomplishments of this team. We won the AFC North. We got to see two home playoff games. We were AFC Champions. In one game, on one day, we came up just short against a great opponent. I firmly believe these two teams could play ten times and each one would win five. That's just how it goes. Green Bay won tonight, and they deserved to win.
In conclusion, I'd like to thank everyone who has been with us for the ride this year, it's certainly been great. From my twitter followers to facebook friends and everyone in between. Thanks for all the tweets, e-mails, comments, and everything else. It's been a great year, and it's been awesome to share it with all of you.
Whatever happens over the next few months with the NFL labor situation, keep your faith in the Rooney's and the Steelers franchise. They know what they're doing.
Thanks for a great season everyone!
GO STEELERS!!
1 comment:
Tough to swallow getting that close and falling short, but as you said, an overachievement from many pre-season expectations. Don't often have a chance to win in the last two minutes when you're minus three on the turnover differential.
Not a soul crushing loss, but still can't help randomly cursing when i think about it.
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