Mistakes Cost Steelers the Championship: Sometimes I Hate Being Right!

Congrats to the Green Bay Packers for their championship win last night. If the Steelers were going to lose, better to the Packers than some of the other NFC choices. That, though, is little consolation.

That it would be a close, hard-fought game was never in doubt. It wasn't one of those Super Bowls where the crowd lost interest by half time. It went down to the middle of the fourth quarter before the Steelers irrevocably sealed their own fate. It wasn't until the Packers scored their final field goal that I completely lost faith; however, I did announce to the crowd at the party I was attending that the Steelers probably would never overcome the 14 point lead the Packers racked up in the first quarter. That, unfortunately, proved all too profound.

I took no pleasure in being right about that or my two main pre-game predictions: If the Steelers held the Packers to 17, they would win; and that the defense that actually scored points would win the game. As those who know me can attest, I am no authority on sports. Of course there are those who might point out that if you put a monkey in front of a keyboard, eventually he will type a word. My prognostication about this game, however, was more than "monkey" luck. It was based on an appreciation for the defenses involved and the Steelers struggling offense.

This was always going to be a close game. It was a bit more high scoring than I anticipated, but close nonetheless. It was much closer than even the final six-point margin indicates. In fact, in terms of stats, the Steelers outplayed the Packers in nearly every category except passing yards (40-yd advantage Packers) and turnovers (Steelers, 3 and Packers, zip). Steelers controlled the ball for 33 minutes to the Packers 26 minutes. They gained more yards than the Packers, too: 387 to 338. The Packers suffered more penalty yards. Of course there was that 15-yd face-mask penalty against the Packers that was a bad call (about the only example of a lapse in officiating the entire game).

The Steelers stood up well; it was just those damn turnovers -- one of which the Packers defense ran in for a TD. Subtract that and the point after from the final equation and the Steelers win by 1. Alas, turnovers cost Pittsburgh the game. Would've, should've, could've....

The turnovers not withstanding, the Steelers played a pretty solid game on both sides of the ball. Offensively the Steelers had a couple of drives that were going somewhere, that didn't end in a turnover, that failed nonetheless. Lost opportunities. Almost flawless in his coaching decisions, Tomlin, I thought, made one gaffe when he had Suisham try for a 52-yd field goal rather than punting the ball away. Suisham has a reputation for not hitting the mark in big, important games. Hoping for him to hit a 52 yarder in the Super Bowl was pure fantasy. He missed it by a mile, providing Green Bay with excellent field position. Luckily, the mistake didn't cost the Steelers any points.

I'm sure you will find it hard to fathom, but I was wrong in two of my pregame predictions. I thought the Steelers offensive line (composed primarily of second and third stringers) wasn't going to be up to the task of moving the Packer defense out of the way. Boy was I wrong. They did a fine job of creating holes and run blocking. I also thought Big Ben would be sacked as many as six times. I think the final tally was two. A real testament to the tenacity and heart of the offensive core.

Once again, Polamalu wasn't much of a factor. I'm not sure if it was by design or if indeed he is still suffering from injuries; but he spent most of the game running around in the secondary to no real effect. Was his storied intuition dulled in some way? Was he tasked to some specific role in the secondary? Or did injury keep him from blitzing the quarterback and harassing receivers? This is a team that needs him to make big, game-changing defensive plays and that didn't happen throughout the playoffs.

Now it's on to the 2011 season!

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Making Miracles: Steelers Offensive Line Overcoming the Odds

I'm gearing up for today's big game. I'll don my long-sleeve, Steelers-winner-of-six-Super-Bowls T-shirt for my gym workout. It's part of my game-day superstition. Before game time, I will shower and change into my Steelers/Pittsburgh Football long-sleeve shirt that one of my nieces gave me for Christmas this year. I wore it for the final game of the season when the Steelers humiliated the Browns and for both playoff games. I will wear it for today's game as well. How could I not?

I have friends who are hosting a Super Bowl party. They are part of the Peddler Wednesday Night Irregulars who I hang out with. Although they aren't Steelers loyalists, they decided before the Steelers/Jets contest that if the Steelers won, they would host a Super Bowl bash. Having loaded up on Rolling Rock beer -- couldn't find any Iron City (thank, God) -- I am ready to hunker down and watch some football.

I saw a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story this morning lauding the superior effort of Sean Kugler, who has been the Steelers offensive line coach since the end of the 2009 season. Whatever the Rooneys are paying him, they should double it. Consider that only one of five offensive linemen expected to start this season is still in the lineup: Chris Kemoeatu. More games than not this season have seen a new face somewhere among this front five. If the Steelers can win today's game with this cobbled-together offensive line, Pittsburgh ought to erect a statue to Kugler.

The loss of Pro Bowl rookie center Maurkice Pouncey will be the toughest negative to overcome today. However, coach Mike Tomlin somehow instills such a wealth of pride in even the guys filling spots on the practice squad, that Doug Legursky, Pouncey's replacement, may just step in and get the job done.

My prediction is that the Steelers offense will need to score at least 14 points (and the Steelers D contribute another 7 points) for the Steelers to win today. That means the offensive line is going to have to create running lanes and stand tough in pass protection. I'd feel more confident if Willie Colon and Pouncey were in the mix; however, this is an offensive line that has somehow managed to get the job done more often than not this season. I have to believe that they will gather themselves up and deliver one more miracle today.

GO STEELERS!!!!

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Super Bowl Eve: It's the Steelers, Baby!

Now that the weekend is here, I am permitting myself to begin thinking about tomorrow's game. I have tried to forget about it as much as possible this week. After all, there is nothing I can do to affect the outcome, other than maybe pray. And despite some of the miraculous wins the Steelers have accumulated this season -- the championship game against the Jets and the second regular season game against the Ravens come to mind -- I think God has bigger fish to fry than which team wins the Super Bowl.

It has been difficult to put this game on the back burner. My Toledo-based Steeler buddy, who mines the Pittsburgh press for Steeler-related stories, has kept a steady flow of articles streaming into my e-mail box. Most of these, however, have been player profiles rather than hardcore game coverage. While they have reinforced my belief that the Steeler squad is composed of serious and passionate athletes, they didn't overcome my determination not to dwell on the game.

However, now it's Saturday and I'm shifting into rabid-fan mode.

I was disappointed to read in Friday's practice notes that neither Maurkice Pouncey nor Aaron Smith will start tomorrow. Either could make a big difference; having both in the starting lineup could be enough to decide the game. As Pouncey's replacement, Doug Legursky, however, has had two weeks of taking most of the snaps in practice. He is somewhat smaller than Pouncey, but can probably hold his own. No doubt Green Bay's defense will test him early in the game.

Although the last meeting of these two teams led to a huge quarterback shootout, I believe this game will be a battle of the defenses. I look for a low-scoring game. Moreover, I think whichever defense manages to put some points on the board will decide the game. The key for the Steelers D is to get to Rodgers early and shake him up mentally. They are going to have to put him on his ass a couple of times and make him hear foot steps coming even when there aren't any.

I fully expect the Packers D to sack Big Ben maybe as many as five or six times, but it won't have the same effect on Ben. He gets sacked almost more than any other NFL quarterback. He's use to it and being sacked just doesn't seem to bother him. As long as he doesn't get hurt and holds on to the ball, it won't matter.

Oh, and I think Polamalu is finally healthy again. He wasn't on the injured list this week as he has been for the past month or so. Although he played, I think it was evident he wasn't playing with his signature zeal. He wasn't running to the ball, and I can only remember him making one tackle against the Jets. If he is indeed healthy, he will be a factor.

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Nose Dive: Downtown Greenville Gets a New Eatery

There is yet another new joint in downtown Greenville. The six or seven blocks of Main Street constituting the heart of downtown is already crammed full of eateries and bars. I've lost count of the number of sushi joints that have opened on this avenue in the past two years. How much raw fish can people eat?

Greenville's Main Street is a quaint, tree-lined boulevard where traffic typically moves at a snail's pace and the side walks channel a tsunami of humanity. It is a downtown heartily supported by folks driving in from the "burbs." Parking on the street is free -- eat your hearts out my Delray Beach friends -- and several of the parking garages become free-parking zones after 6 PM. Engineered to succeed, downtown Greenville is the community's "in" place to be.

So it is in this atmosphere that Table 301, the group owning Soby's and a few other upscale downtown hasheries, is opening the Nose Dive where another of its restaurants slipped into oblivion a couple of years ago. O was a steak house attached to the Westin Hotel. A bit pricey and decorated in that chrome-meets-antiseptic style that makes one feel like he is chowing down in an operating room, O was doomed to fail. If you want to pay too much for food you eat in a sterile environment, High Cotton is three blocks down the street.

The official name of the new place is Nose Dive A Gastropub. I'm no expert in marketing, but I think it a bad idea anytime you include the word "gas" in the name of a restaurant. But evidently Europe is teeming with "gastropubs." I rest my case.

The gastropub moniker aside, I am more than impressed with the place. Currently going through what the Table 301 folks call a "soft opening," and I would term an invitation-only preopening, Nose Dive is getting its sea legs sans paying customers who might get angry if things don't go perfectly to plan. This will continue through Saturday. Sunday they will close to make whatever adjustments and improvements can be accomplished in a 24-hour period and open for real on Monday.

Having finagled a spot on the guest list last night, I spent a couple of hours sampling its menu. Despite the fact it bills itself as an upscale sports bar, its food and wine list are anything but sports bar-like. If you want traditional bar fare, you can head across the street to the Carolina Ale House that had been Main Street's newest restaurant addition.

Besides a couple of my friends manning the Nose Dive's bars, here is what I like about the place.

• The menu selections are good old southern comfort food, but with a dash of panache.
• The food menu and the wine list are grouped into one-price sections. All of the appetizers are one price, all the entrees one price and so forth. Likewise the wine list has wine groupings for $25, $35, $45 and so on. Richard Peck selects the wines and the list is as rich in its offerings as it is concise in its pricing.
• The upstairs area has its own bar, offering a lounge-like setting. There are a few high-top tables and a couple of booths, but basically this is an area to relax in a comfortable chair and enjoy.
• Live entertainment will add to the ambiance.

I had the French Onion Soup, the Butcher's Steak and the Nose Dive Dark Chocolate Candied Bacon Brownie for desert. Yes, there is bacon in the brownie and it's wonderful. As with the other main courses, the steak was a modest $14. It was big, juicy and grilled to perfection.

I was never in the place when it was O -- way to pretentious for my liking. I will revisit Nose Dive. The upstairs lounge is the ideal place to watch a game and throw back a couple. This thing could work.

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I Do Not Have a TV Problem

I just saw a list of canceled TV shows for 2011. I'm not addicted to television, but I watch a fair amount of it. Maybe that's like saying I'm not an alcoholic, but I'm drunk most of the time. I suppose it stretches the bounds of credulity.

Here's the thing, my life doesn't revolve around the box. I have no appointment TV in my life. Of course, I also have a DVR. I watch very little television in real time. I record and watch later, flashing over the commercials. Is the DVR a great invention or what?

Because I record nearly everything, I'm not a slave to network programming. I don't need to be home at a specific time on a particular night to watch something I really like. I'm not sure if there is anything on TV that I would actually schedule around; until this moment, I haven't given it any thought. But what my DVR does motivate me to do is to watch a few shows I probably wouldn't bother with otherwise. I put these in the just-something-to-do category. When I don't have anything better to do, I watch them. Such a show, The Gates, was on the updated canceled list. It was a show about a gated community of werewolves and vampires, and what happens when a new police chief and his family, who are not monsters, are thrown into the mix. Who doesn't like vampires, right? I wasn't crazy over the show, but I recorded it and watched in my down time.

One show I am a little disappointed to have found on the canceled list is The Good Guys. A show that never failed to make me laugh three or four times an episode, it involved a worn-out politically incorrect police detective teamed with a young buttoned-up detective blundering their way through crime in Dallas. I found it entertaining and I'm sorry to see it go.

Gone also are two more on my list of shows to watch only if time permitted: Medium and Undercovers. I'm sure I will find a couple of replacements that I am equally unenthused about.

Among shows with a recent debut that I am liking so far: Fairly Legal (Fox) and Harry's Law (NBC). Do you notice a pattern here? My guess is that I will stick with Fairly Legal. It's fun with some very likeable characters. I'm less sure about Harry's Law. It's a David E. Kelley show. I stopped watching his Boston Legal when it became nothing more than a soapbox for his far-left politics. Harry's Law has flirted with that a little already. I'll give it another episode or two before bailing if it gets too preachy.

Things in my life must be really slow if I have resorted to blogging about my TV habits.

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Punxsutawney Phil: Giving Hope to the Hopeless

Watching the weather reports out of Chicago, I am certainly glad my trip to the Windy City for the auto show is next Tuesday, rather than yesterday. More than likely had it been yesterday, my flight from Atlanta to Chicago would have been canceled anyway. Because this is one of the rare trips when I am flying out of Greenville-Spartanburg instead of driving to Atlanta and beginning my trip there; getting back home may well have turned into an all-day effort.

Sitting on a runway at O'Hare for 36 hours or camping out in its terminal isn't my idea of fun. I am not disappointed that fate of timing spared me that potential consequence. Any time you are forced to fly in winter, you take the chance of being stranded somewhere. I recall flying from South Florida to El Paso several years ago to spend Christmas with my sister in Las Cruces, NM. My connecting flight out of Dallas was evidently under the command of Don Knotts. As the snow began piling up, we boarded the plane, sat on the plane and then got off the plane. The pilot didn't want to take off in the snow. Meanwhile, we could hear other boarding calls for flights at other gates and watched through the terminal windows as other flights took off. Did I mention it was Christmas Eve? I thought the pilot was going to be lynched right there in Terminal E of DFW. It was an ugly mob surrounding him as he tried to justify his decision. Passengers shouted insults and a guy next to me was making "chicken" noises. Finally the captain relented, we reboarded and the plane took off without incident. I'm not a big fan of flying in winter.

One might jump to the conclusion that the abnormal amount of cold and snow this season might be some sort of evidence that the global-warming hysteria is unfounded. I was reassured when I read on Al Gore's Web site that no, as all scientists agree, abnormally cold and snowy winters are a byproduct of global warming. Of course they are. Paraphrasing a Bill Clinton quip from last year, "Al Gore thinks spring is further proof of global warming." Indeed.

As for Greenville, the temps turned colder earlier this winter, but not outrageously so. We've had a little more snow than normal so far. I didn't move here until February 15th three years ago. Between that date and spring, we had a 4-inch snowfall. Obviously we can get more this year.

I was buoyed, however, to learn that Punxsutawney Phil failed to see his shadow today. That, of course, means an early spring. Is next week too much to hope for?

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Renting Movies at Red Box: A Buck Doesn't Buy Much Anymore

I rented a couple of movies from Red Box last night. Neither was particularly riveting; but when you rent a movie for a buck, you rarely feel gypped. Such was the case with last night's entertainment.

The first was a Ben Affleck vehicle called Town. He wrote, directed and starred in it. I'm not sure if he was the star because, as the director, he couldn't find a "name" star; or if, because he was the star, no one else would direct it. It's a "chicken or the egg" sort of mystery. I can't decide whether I like Affleck as an actor or not. I don't find him annoying so much as just sort of flat. When I see his name attached to a movie, I don't think, oh man, I can't stand him. I usually just shrug my shoulders, yawn and watch. I thought he was a better Jack Ryan in Sum of All Fears than Harrison Ford had been in other Ryan movies, but not as good as Alec Baldwin in Hunt for Red October. I thought he was fine in Armageddon, too. But generally, I don't even notice him.

I only recognized a couple of other actors in the movie and his love interest wasn't one of them. A thin plot line and lackluster writing didn't provide the cast with a lot to do. It was, however, something for me to do for 90 minutes; and like I said, it only cost a buck.

The second epic snoozer was something called, Devil. I continue getting sucked into every movie that comes along with M. Night Shyamalan's name on it because I keep hoping against hope that it will be another Sixth Sense. And since Unbreakable, he hasn't come close to repeating the surprise nor the suspense of his debut film. For a measly dollar, though, I was willing to take another chance.

Devil concerns five people targeted, trapped in an elevator and systematically killed by the devil. No, it wasn't a comedy. There is the typical Shyamalan surprise twist at the end, but it hardly has the impact of the Sixth Sense. Again I recognized four or five of the eight or so key players, but none of them headliners.

I neither laughed nor cried, but I did kiss two bucks good-by. I need to find something better to do with my evenings.

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