If the game played Sunday night would have been played against Indianapolis, we would have lost. I think that sums up the National Football Conference. I donӴ knock the NFC, but the conference is weak by comparison. Enough said. The Steelers came through one hell of a season. It almost felt like two. The road to Detroit was bumpy as hell. Benӳ injury and Tommyӳ shell shock dented us, and I still think Charlie Batch would have played with more responsibility against The Jags, but that is behind us now.

The drives we saw against the Colts and Denver, respectively, gave us reason to believe in the Black and Gold. The self-assuredness of Ben Roethlisberger took the game up a big notch. By opening up the passing offense option, they threw off opponents who knew us for smash mouth-style play. By expecting Cowherӳ supposed and much-commented-upon stubbornness, they effectively shot themselves in the foot.

Denver was essentially a practice game for Detroit, to boost our confidence and courage. That game was so incredibly well played on all sides of the ball that it stands as my favorite this season. Everybody did his job. Unfortunately, small plays sometimes get pushed aside in lieu of the big plays. While Ben certainly deserved the respect of post-game analysts, I was most impressed with Chris Gardocki, Jeff Reed, and Chidi Iwuoma. Special teams get overlooked because itӳ not often they make comparatively big plays to those of offense or secondary. In Denver, they took full advantage of their environment: thin, clear mountain air. Reed kicked for 89 yards, the first attempt from 47 out. Gardocki punted high floaters, twice giving Iwuoma time to reach Denverӳ goal line ֠the first pinned the Broncos in the single digits. (The second was ruled out-of-bounds, which constituted a touchback.)

I think the weeks before Detroit nearly killed me. I canӴ imagine what it was like for the players: congratulatory pats on the back, microphones, stupid questions asked by reporters that donӴ know about the game, but that are sent out on assignment anyway to find anything that resembles a facsimile. Local media threw out any shred of journalistic integrity and became cheerleaders for those two weeks. I didnӴ know what the hell would keep me busy. Finally came XL Eve, and dreams filled with Lambert knocking hell out of sugar plum faeries, Lombardi eating gelato and Bettis runs for 7,000 yards. Itӳ a good thing Sunday finally came.

Why the Steelers won or how the Seahawks lost?