45 things about this game:
1) This article is intended to have 45 comments, but if I don’t get there by 3:15pm PST, then I will release what you see here.
2) I also released this article on the game earlier today: “Super Bowl XLV: No Patriots but ‘What If’, the 1SKILLZ Gameplan”.
3) I’m about to hook up a bit of a Super Bowl party up in Boyle Heights, so I need to take a quick moment to order some pizza and wings.
4) Just ordered three pizzas and the equivalent of fifty wings, in addition to the Doritos and juice bought the night before. People better come through, but at the very least, leftovers will go a long way into the week!
5) Officially, this game is in “North Texas”, not Dallas. So it features the “Western Pennsylvania” Steelers and the “Barely There Wisconsin” Packers.
6) I missed picking on last year’s Super Bowl between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints, but I had correctly predicted the previous four.
7) I said the Steelers would lose to the Dallas Cowboys in this Super Bowl. The Cowboys made me look as bad as the Steelers made me look good.
8 ) Steelers fans don’t bother me as much as they did while I was going to California University of Pennsylvania. I also couldn’t stand the Green Bay Packers when I first started getting into football (I moved to Philadelphia in 1997, 4th grade, and the Packers had just won the Super Bowl). But I think it’s because even at an early age, I didn’t like everyone talking about Brett Favre. 14 years later, I’m pretty sure it was always Brett Favre I disliked more than the Packers.
9) Pittsburgh might be the “City of Champions”, and the Steelers may have six Super Bowl wins, but Green Bay is “TitleTown”, and the Packers have three Super Bowl wins (including the first two, before the AFL-NFL merger in 1970) and nine additional championships. So even if the Steelers get to the “Stairway to Seven”, the Packers will still have more total NFL championships with 12.
10) The Packers have a much better defense than the 2005 Seattle Seahawks and the 2008 Arizona Cardinals, especially in the secondary.
11) The Packers’ run to the Super Bowl this season as the sixth seed has mirrored the Steelers’ run to the Super Bowl as a sixth seed in 2005. The Steelers won at Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Denver, while the Packers won at Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Chicago.
12) The Steelers lost to four teams this season: the Ravens, Saints, Patriots, Jets. The Steelers repaid the Ravens (twice) and Jets in the postseason. They lost to Super Bowl winning QBs Drew Brees and Tom Brady. The Patriots blew their meeting with the Steelers by losing to the Jets. The Saints lost to the 7-9 Seahawks, who lost to the Bears, who lost to the Packers… full circle?
13) Now for some random stuff (because I’m already out of time): There are about three small animals hibernating in Steelers DE Brett Kiesel’s beard.
14) The Packers lost six games this season, all of them by four points or less.
15) The Steelers actually beat the Packers 37-36 last season. Roethlisberger passed for an insane 503 yards and the game winning TD pass to Mike Wallace.
16) James Harrison vs. Obama vs. Charles Woodson.
17) Mike McCarthy (Packers coach) is from Pittsburgh.
18 ) Wouldn’t it be fitting for the Eagles’ Michael Vick to win Comeback Player of the Year and Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger to win the Super Bowl MVP in the same season?! And ten years ago, Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl XXXV MVP after being arrested for murder the offseason prior.
19) The only Packers to experience a Super Bowl (and they both lost) were CB Charles Woodson (Raiders) and DE Ryan Pickett (Rams). But the Packers have several coaches who were part of Super Bowl teams as coaches or players, such as Edgar Bennett, Dom Capers (former Steelers defensive coordinator), Kevin Greene (former Steeler), and Darren Perry (former Steeler).
20) I want to see the Packers win this game. Sixth seed out of the NFC, small town market, NO BRETT FAVRE. Plus, you already know what it’s like for THESE Steelers and Slim Roethlisberger to win a Super Bowl. It’s like the Saints and Colts last year. And McCarthy was the Saints offensive coordinator from 2000-2004.
21) That being said, the Steelers have been here before, and there might be too much riding on Rodgers to win this game.
22) Steelers 27, Packers 23.
-1SKILLZ