And yet the Patriots lost to the Browns. The Steelers lost only to playoff teams: The Ravens, the Saints, the Patriots, and the Jets. The Steelers already avenged two of those losses, and the other two were avenged for them, one by the team to whom's loss they just avenged.
Roethlisberger is indeed sneakily athletic for his size. He worked during his suspension on his footwork as well, in addition to shortening his release. The offense should only improve next year with the return of injured veteran linemen (and most likely a new lineman through the draft in the first two rounds, ideally a RG), the development of their three very young wide receivers, and Roethlisberger going through a full season without pause.
The defense, on the other hand, is not getting younger. I believe that Ziggy Hood may have cemented his status as the starting left defensive end, with Aaron Smith playing as a reserve for another year or two, and Brett Keisel looks to have at least another 2 years at full capacity (considering it was years before he became a starter). On the other hand, the replacement for Casey Hampton would be a nice find in the next 2 drafts. He is under contract for another two years, and then he'll most likely retire. Depth on the line is an issue, however, as their quality depth is very aged, with Chris Hoke being 35 I believe and Nick Eason being no young pup either. At linebacker, the only real issue for the next few years will be James Farrior. He's already 36. There's no way he's starting 3 years from now, and that's being very generous. He had a superb, bounce-back year and played at a consistently high level, but, like Ray Lewis, it's damn near time to call it a day. There is no true replacement for him. It looks like their plan is to slide Lawrence Timmons over to Farrior's spot and put Larry Foote back in his old role that Timmons now possesses. Harrison is under contract for several more years, and both Timmons and Woodley are just entering the prime of their respective careers. Meanwhile, they have the aforementioned Foot and Keyaron Fox as reserves in the ILB spot, with two very promising young rookies at OLB in Jason Worilds and Stevenson Sylvester. In the secondary, Polamalu is just turning 30. For how many more years can he compete at an All-Pro level? Ryan Clark just signed a new contract, which I believe is 3 years, but he is already on his 3rd contract, which for most starters usually means is their last. Will they retain Ike Taylor, the closest thing they have to a shutdown corner, who is entering free agency? I believe they have no choice, because behind him is Bryant McFadden, William Gay, Anthony Madison, and Crezdon Butler. McFadden is a sufficient zone second corner, although obviously LeBeau doesn't trust him enough to play at the line. William Gay is a very serviceable nickel back, but he should never be more than that. What they have in the rookie Butler remains to be seen, although he flashed his potential in training camp and the preseason.
But before that is relevant, there's the matter of the Super Bowl, of course...which most frequenters of this thread have little vested interest in. With the Steelers being early underdogs in the betting lines, this is nothing but billboard fodder in the locker room. And what's more than that, the Steelers embrace and thrive in the underdog role. The best thing the media can do for the Steelers is to doubt them, because there is no team better than they are at capitalizing on the us-versus-them mentality due to the closeness of their locker room. On a personal level, however, I think that the point spread is absurd and believe it is the result of a combination of short-term memory and drinking the Kool Aid. Let's just get this out there: Aaron Rodgers is not as good of a football player as Ben Roethlisberger. There is a rolodex of excuses that Roethlisberger's detractors always seem to have at the ready that they use to eliminate him from the discussion of being among the top 5 quarterbacks in the league (let alone the top 3). I personally rank them 3 and 4 behind Manning and Brady, with Brees behind them. A lot of people subscribe wholeheartedly to the notion that the best quarterbacks are the ones that play in the quarterback driven systems, and that is really misguided for obvious reasons. Just because a quarterback has a solid running game and a strong defense doesn't mean that a quarterback without a running game or a strong defense is better, it simply means that he is more relied upon. That is an organizational issue, and good teams have balance. Good teams don't put 90% of the responsibility of winning on their quarterback.
And neither team in this Super Bowl can be accused of being that, as the two best defenses in the league are going to meet head on. There is still a ton of time between now and the game to comment on it though, so I'll leave it at that for now.
