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Aside from the blow to my ego, having picked the Steelers to beat the Packers, everything else about the game was great, assuming, of course, you didn’t watch the halftime show.  But the good guys got a commanding lead, the bad guys came back and the good guys held on.

Why are the Packers good guys?  Listen to Aaron Rodgers talk, or Clay Matthews, or Greg Jennings or Charles Woodson.  They’re all gentlemen.  They don’t brag, they don’t say stupid things, they don’t play dirty and heck, they even covered the spread 31-25.

The Steelers aren’t really bad guys either.  But their persona is at least somewhat bad, with Roethlisberger’s indiscretions (to say the least), Harrison’s illegal hits to the head and his stolid defense of them, and Hines Ward’s chippy blocks.  But those things don’t really make them bad.  It just makes them what they are, a really tough football team.

But they weren’t so tough yesterday.  And that’s why they lost.

They didn’t play like the Steelers at all.  I’d characterize their performance as uncharacteristic except for the fact that good teams can make you look bad.  That’s what good teams do and that’s what the Packers were yesterday, a really good team.

Yeah, yeah, I know, the turnovers lost it for the black and gold.  But it’s not as if they weren’t forced.  You could also say the breaks and even the early officiating, went against the Steelers, but, in a way, the Packers forced those things too.

From the very start of the game, the Pack won the toss and elected to receive, thus throwing down the gauntlet right away, much as the Jets did against the Steelers, albeit with a very different result.  The Jets proceeded to get run over by the Steelers running game and Rashard Mendenhall after they issued their challenge.    

I recall thinking that the election to kick was brilliant but only if the Pack could shut the Steelers down on that first drive.  This time the Steelers went 3 and out.   The Packers were saying, “We’re not the Jets”.  And the Steelers had to accept it after their offense sputtered.

The two teams slugged it out in the early stages, like two heavyweight fighters feeling each other out.  But the Packers landed a couple of lefts and a couple of rights, some Starks runs and a few Rodgers completions, and the Pack hit the board first, taking full advantage of the weakness in the Steelers secondary and making Jordy Nelson look like Randy Moss in his heyday.

At this point, a really good team comes back immediately.  Roethlisberger certainly tried, maybe a little too hard.  On first and ten, deep in his own territory, he threw a floater and Green Bay’s Nick Collins not only picked it off but then made a nifty runback for the touchdown.  To use a boxing analogy again, that was like scoring a knockdown…7-0 became 14-0.

Only then did the Steelers start to turn things the other way, driving the ball for 6 minutes or so, mixing the run and the pass, and getting on the board with a field goal to make it 14-3.  They had a good round but were still trailing. Then they had another good round by forcing a 3 and out of their own.

The Steelers were on the move again, or should have been.  But after about a 4-minute promising drive, Big Ben got picked again when free safety Jarrod Bush out-wrestled a Steeler for the ball and killed another drive.  The Pack had scored a big counterpunch.

Right around then, all the hard play going on got reflected in injuries.  The Steelers lost WR Sanders.  The Pack lost Donald Driver, an even more fearsome receiver.  Then Pack All-World corner (and more) Charles Woodson broke his collarbone stretching out for the INT but hitting the ground hard instead.

But the Pack wasn’t comfortable yet at just 14-3.  Rodgers hit Greg Jennings over the middle for the third Packers touchdown of the day.  It was a nice catch between defenders and Jennings held on tight after he got hit.  Now it was 21-3 and at this point a lesser team than the Steelers would have been feeling a little groggy.

But the Steelers aren’t chopped liver either.  In less than a minute, Roethlisberger found Antawn Randle El for a nice long one and Hines Ward a few times, the last one for a TD making it 21-10 just before the second half.  The Black and Gold were serving notice they’d be showing up for the second half.

And show up they did.  They dominated the third quarter.  After forcing a Packers punt, they ran and passed their way back into the game, punctuated by a tough, hard (redundant) Rashard Mendenhall run, making it 21-17. After forcing still another Pack 3 and out, they drove down the field again but the Packers held on.

At this point, a coaching decision once again had a big impact.  After the Steelers drive stalled, they elected to try the 52-yard field goal. But the move made no sense, risking the kicking of Shawn Suisham rather than the Steelers defense pinning the Pack down deep in their own end.

Coach Mike Tomlin gave the Pack a reprieve.  The Steelers’ momentum stalled. 

The Pack had managed to keep their head in front throughout, like Affirmed holding off Alydar down the stretch.  Then, when things started to look their bleakest, the Pack’s Clay Matthews forced the Mendenhall fumble.

The fumble ignited the Pack.  Rodgers hit a few passes and it was soon 28-17.  The Steelers came back once again to make it 28-25 (after a 2-point conversion was good) but the Pack held on once more,  driving  for a field goal, forcing the Steelers to have to drive the length of the field for the TD to win.

After having gallantly held on, the good guys could have still lost this thing.  But they didn’t.  They held on.