The same group that enjoyed the rout of the Packers over the Atlanta Falcons again assembled at our house, with hopes that the outcome and the margin of victory would be similar. It’s a trend I noted among other Packer faithful; same place + same people = same results.
We were indeed ready for football, and the first quarter would not disappoint.
A very cool intro narrated by Michael Douglas was a positive; Christina Aguilera’s stab (literally) at the national anthem, not so much.
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First quarter: We only had to wait until the Packer’s second possession to begin to really believe the Packers could be Super Bowl champions. Rodgers only showed determination in his connection to Jordy Nelson for the game’s first score.
Shortly thereafter, another Packer touchdown off an interception by Nick Collins brought us to near delirium, although a bizarre penalty for excessive celebration incited a chorus of “C’MON." Could it be this easy?
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Apparently not.
Second quarter: Both teams tightening up a bit on defense and the crowd assembled around the TV fell into a quiet tension. Despite another interception by Jarrett Bush that also ended up in another Packer TD, the Steelers answered in this quarter with 10 points of their own. If it wasn’t for the commercials for welcome comic relief (the Doritos commercial garnered the largest reaction), we might have needed to pass around trays of Tums. The departure of Donald Driver, Sam Shields and Charles Woodson for evaluation was no help only ratcheted up the feelings of possible impending doom.
Halftime brought the group en masse to eat, and the break from football was a welcome relief. Also a welcome relief were the Black Eyed Peas and Usher at half time, representing the first musical group not eligible for AARP cards to perform at halftime in recent memory.
Third quarter: The Steelers used halftime to calm down and it was sobering; the pacing and chatter of many in our group revealed the escalation of nerves. Charles Woodson was unable to return because of a broken collarbone, and the score edged to 21-17. We began to find everything that commentators Joe Buck and Troy Aikman said annoying and biased.
Fourth quarter: The final minutes of the game arrived and with it another Steeler turnover, just seven seconds in, and recovered by Desmond Bishop. This led to a TD by Greg Jennings with about 12 minutes left in the game. The breathing room was just what the doctor ordered, but the Steelers answered with a score and a two-point conversion to make the score 28-25 Packers.
With another Packer drive that netted just a field goal, the Steelers had two minutes to respond.
The clock watching began, and the distance between the fans and the TV got tighter, as if getting closer would literally will the Packers to prevail.
A 4th-and-5 play that resulted in another Packer interception with less than a minute to go elicited joy and disbelief in one loud roar. After three very tense quarters, we let off steam with hugs, high-fives and a lot of woooo-hoo’s.
Now that the win was ours, we got philosophical, musing how the game really played out as it should have. Since the Packers’ season had been a struggle, winning the Super Bowl should have been no different. My daughter explained that the G stands for greatness, which is up for debate for its accuracy, but today I was inclined to agree on many other levels.