The Super Bowl XLV Thread

It's almost time! Steelers! Packers! Roethlisberger! Rodgers! Harrison! Mathews! What a matchup.

Green Bay's still a 2.5 point favorite, and that line has hardly moved at all. It was only 1 or 2, speculatively, while the AFC Championship was going on, but when the Steelers let New York back into the game in the second half it went up around 3 in some places, before settling back down. It hasn't really moved appreciably since. I think the line's fair, mainly because of Pittsburgh's offensive line problems. It's a pretty evenly matched game.

But man, as a Steeler fan, it's just great to be playing for it again. This is three Super Bowl appearances in six years, which is pretty insane. This era has a real chance to be just as fondly remembered as the Steel Curtain days of the 70s, and it could end up being more impressive given the league's increased parity since then.

So...predictions? Rooting interests? Meticulously crafted voodoo dolls? Gameday plans and/or food arrangements? Let's hear 'em.

Oh, and as I alluded to in the playoffs thread, we've got a friendly little wager setup: our two resident diehard Packer fans (rauldc14 and WBadger) have agreed to wager with Austruck and myself (both huh-ooge Steeler fans) to "wear" avatars of the other duo's choosing for a week depending on what team wins. I'll repeat the stipulation I used for a similar wager on the 2004 Presidential election: nothing objectionable, pornography, or Canadian allowed. Other than that, anything goes.

Also, Dex, per your inquiry, 7thson is willing to be the third Steeler fan to get in on this if you want to, as well. But I'm guessing we'll have to be creative with your avatar, should the Steelers win, since you wouldn't be embarrassed to wear black and gold (or something anti-Packer) the way raul and Badger would, yeah?

I hate to disappoint everyone... but my crystal ball shows the Packers winning.



But it'll be a close game. The Steelers will almost win it.

I also see a bizarre Pizza Hut commercial with Betty White as a small cheese pizza and Kirstie Alley as an extra large supreme.

Can't wait for the game. I'm flipping out thinking about it.

Nice analysis of each team's offensive line matchups by Ben Muth; it focuses on Pittsburgh, whose line he's been writing about for around half the season. The short version: yeah, their line is pretty bad, but it matches up pretty well with the rushing style of Green Bay's defensive line, and Green Bay's offensive line a) isn't much better and b) is up against the NFL's top defense.

The analysis makes me fairly hopeful. I think, at gunpoint, I'd probably take the Steelers based on this, which is not something I think I've have said four or five days ago.

Next Super Bowl MVP after Green Bay puts Pits through the ringer.

lol @ Canadian allowed.

I accept the Avatar wager with Dionne. I also pledge not to choose this as the Avatar he must use :

because...hey some things gotta be sacred.

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"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo.

Hot!

My friend's Fios DVR is saying that the Pittsburgh Steelers won this year's Superbowl. I'm not sure exactly how -- in the description of the show, maybe?

So, either it's a goof, or football is fixed and someone typed something they shouldn't have really early, or it's a supernatural, psychic DVR.

Heh. Seen that a few times (also: a few times too many), always with something different written there.

By the by, the over-under's currently 44.5. I like the under.

Oh man, I am so pumped.

And for some reason I feel more confident about this game than I did any of the other playoff games. Even though I know this won't be an easy game for either team obviously.

This is going to be an insane game. It seems like its been months since the NFC Championship game. Really to start this!!

Yeah, it feels like forever over here, too. Can't wait! Just hoping for a good, hard-fought game. A Steelers win would be great, but a game which is as close as most people seem to think this one should be would still be pretty satisfying. I honestly didn't think we'd get this far this year.

Anyway, the local Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an interesting article about the point spread. I've never bet on a football game in my life, but I've been pretty fascinated by betting lines and the like for a few years now, so I thought some of the rest of you might find it similarly interesting.

By most accounts this one's a coin flip, but the line has to reflect what most of the public is putting down on the game, hence 2.5 points in Green Bay's favor.

Look, all of the other psychics are saying the Packers will win: Psychics Pick Packers

I'm quite mad that they didn't mention me.

It's in the air, guys. The vibes are there. Packers will win this. We see it happening. And everyone's saying it'll be a close game, too.

But why didn't they mention me? Oh, well, I'm sure I was counted.

Good to see Isaac found his/her powers again. Maybe it's time to re-visit the Ask Isaac thread? I have some questions about a burning sensation when I pee...

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Here's a homer prediction, but a prediction nonetheless.....

Packers 28 Pitt 20

MVP: Greg Jennings

Oh, you remember that incident. Yes. Well, all's well, I've found my powers. They were behind the liquor cabinet. Somehow the damn stuff had drooled out of my mouth one night while I was asleep and because psychic power drool is so powerful it flew around my house for months, very sneakily, until I finally caught it in the dark corner behind my liquor cabinet, next to some stinkbugs. Yes, I was in a drunken Mel Gibson rage one night - my battered obese psychic girlfriend was laid out on the ground - I was trying to find more tequila so I punched through the back of the liquor cabinet, and there it was, dried psychic drool. It tried to fly away, but it was stuck so I ripped it off the wall, put it on a triple cheeseburger and ate it while drinking the only alcoholic beverage I had left, my big bottle of Vanilla Extract.

It took about four days to fully reabsorb into my big system, but all's better and I'm no longer psychically impaired.

Fire away.

Heh. So the Pastor comes up to start his sermon this morning, and tells us there's a Parish meeting at 7:00 PM for all who care to attend. Carried a Terrible Towel down the aisle at the very end of the service, too, and wore a big Steelers scarf-ish thing, too.

Behold...Yodamalu!

HAHA nice

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton