Green Bay Wins Super Bowl

The Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 in Super Bowl XLV.  The game can be summed up using three words.

Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.  The Steelers turned the ball over three times.  The Packers scored 21 points off of those takeaways.  Everything else in Super Bowl XLV is a footnote to the turnover differential.

There is a popular thought that the Packers forced the Steelers to turn the football over instead of Pittsburgh simply shooting itself in the foot.  There is some truth to that.  It's not totally accurate though.

Big Ben Roethlisberger's first interception was influenced by a good pass rush by Howard Green.  The other two turnovers were Pittsburgh's fault.

Big Ben threw an interception just before halftime.  He threw into double coverage.  Jarrett Bush made a nice play on the ball and changed his assignment, but Big Ben simply can't throw a ball into double coverage.

Rashard Mendenhall fumbled the ball on the first play of the 4th quarter.  The Steelers had the momentum and only trailed 21-17.  Yes, Clay Matthews hit Mendenhall, but it wasn't a bone-crushing hit.  This is football.  A hit like that cannot cause a fumble.  Ever.

Plus, Big Ben was inaccurate far too often.  He had Mike Wallace wide open on a corner route and simply missed the throw.  The Steelers were disorganized at the end of the game as well.

There were plenty of examples of Pittsburgh simply not executing on their own.  You have to give Green Bay credit for playing a good game.  Just don't give the Packers too much credit by suggesting that they had everything to do with the Steelers' missed opportunities.