The Observer, January 28, 2005
Volume XXXVII, Issue 15
Steeler fans get no sympathy for the end to their fairy tale
It's an unfortunate thing, when a team that seems destined for greatness gets cut down before achieving its ultimate goal. Such is the case of this season's Pittsburgh Steelers. After losing in week two to the Baltimore Ravens, the black and gold hadn't lost a game as they rolled into last Sunday's AFC Championship Game. September 19 to January 23 – over four months of professional football without a loss. That's a pretty good stretch, and would warrant mentioning were it not for another streak that lasted over a year that was just snapped on Halloween – one put together by the New England Patriots and ended by the Pittsburgh Steelers. After the blip against Baltimore, our friends to the southeast rolled through the rest of the regular season, led by an old standby and a new young gun. This season had all the makings of a fairy tale.
Nevertheless, on Sunday that sweet story took an unexpected turn. (Unexpected if you were a Pittsburgh fan, expected if you were not, as evidenced by the Steelers' underdog status for the game.) All of a sudden, it was midnight and the steel carriage turned into a pumpkin. Bill Belichick stole all of Ben Roethlisberger's pixy dust, and Heinz Field was blown over by the big, bad New England Patriots.
It was the fifth time in Bill Cowher's twelve years as head coach that Pittsburgh had hosted the conference championship game, and it became the fourth time that the Steelers went home instead of to a sunny, Super destination. A 15-1 regular season meant little when matched against the most consistent, clutch franchise of the last decade if not in NFL history. I, too, am a bit sick of hearing and reading about the Patriot "dynasty," but really what else can we call it at this point? Belichick's New England teams have proven time and again that they are the cream of the crop, always rising to the occasion when it has mattered most. In Sunday's game, Roethlisberger finally looked like the rookie quarterback that he is, and the Steelers were unable to get their vaunted running game going, thanks mostly to the stifling New England defense, but partly as a result of their own usually solid defense giving up too many points. This Pittsburgh team was a team of destiny – they just had the misfortune of being destined to have a great season during the unstoppable run of the Patriots.
Perhaps New England used its last little bit of magic in slaying the Steelers – but I wouldn't bet on it. I fully expect the Patriots to systematically dismantle the Philadelphia Eagles just as they have done to the last eight teams they've met in the playoffs. Of course, if God really is working miracles on Terrell Owens' ankle as Owens claims, maybe He has something cooked up for Super Bowl Sunday. Divine intervention, after all, may be the Eagles' only hope.
As for the Steelers' fans out there – tough luck. You ran into a better team. Do I feel sorry for the throngs of Terrible Towel-waving fanatics that left Heinz Field disappointed once again? Not a chance. At least they made it that far. As a Browns fan, I root against Pittsburgh every chance I get, and would expect nothing less in return. I was in Pittsburgh just two years ago for the playoff game between the Browns and Steelers. Before the game Steelers fans flipped snowballs at me, and after the game they flipped me the bird. So no, I have no sympathy. It's just time to join the countdown 'til September with the rest of us and say, "Maybe next year."
