"It's surreal right now," Cowher said. "It is a rewarding feeling to give that trophy to Mr. Rooney. That's what he brought me here to do. It really does complete a void that's been there. I couldn't be happier for him and the city of Pittsburgh."

 Big Play Team

By The Wise Guy
At the beginning of this season, I picked the Pittsburgh Steelers to go 9-7.   I thought their playoff failure last year to New England in the AFC championship game had exposed some fundamental problems with the team—a mediocre secondary and a creaky old running game.  Then they lost the right half of their offensive line and their second-best receiver to free agency.   When they hit their low water mark at 7-5, after yet another humbling home field loss, this time to the Cincinnati Bengals, I thought, damn, maybe for once in my life I called it right.

How’s Your Stomach?

By The Wise Guy I’ve listened to the yahoos rant on sports talk shows in Florida, Pittsburgh and Boston.  I’ve read the commentary and analysis ad nausea on ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated.com, NFL.com, blahblah.com, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and The Tribune Review.  I know Meghan Cowher’s season scoring average for Princeton’s basketball team.  I’ve faithfully followed Brett Keisel’s journal (nice job, but it’s not to be confused, at least on a literary level, with Memoirs of A Geisha.)

Seattle versus The ‘Burg The Wise Guy As the big 4-0 game rapidly approaches, our sources tell us that the mayors of Pittsburgh and Seattle have made the traditional friendly wager on the outcome of this year’s Superbowl. MORE

Shoenfeld, You Missed The Bus By The Wise Guy If you check out the ESPN website and go to their “Page 2” section, you will see a fairly lengthy article by writer and lead editor Dave Shoenfeld entitled “The Bus isn’t one of the Best,” in which he sums up Jerome Bettis thusly:  “He’s Don Sutton or Harold Baines, a good running back who played a long time to compile some impressive career statistics.”  Harold Baines, my petooty. MORE

Predictable? Not for long!

By Magoo
Over the course of the past two seasons the Pittsburgh Steelers, including the playoffs are 30-7. They have played a total of 6 games without Ben Roethlisberger. In those contests they have a record of 3-3. With Roethlisberger as a starter they are 27-4. Make no mistake about it they are quite a different team with Roethlisberger at the helm. MORE

This one is for the thumb

To the Steeler Nation:

By Magoo
Congratulations on Sunday's 34-17 victory over the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship game. This victory, because it has taken so many years in coming, is to say the least --sweet. The Steelers, the Rooney family, and their coaching staff deserved this win. They earned it! Praise can be given to the entire group, as each in their own way, contributed to the success of this year’s team. MORE

Denver Dilemma By The Wise Guy The problem with this week’s game is that it’s really hard to dislike the Denver Broncos.   Last week, it was so simple to despise the Indianapolis Colts.  First of all, they’d beaten us, no, make that embarrassed us on national television during the regular season on Monday Night Football, no less.  Odds-makers from Vegas to North Versailles (my cousin Buster) had made us a huge underdog, and it seemed as if the whole country had hitched their wagons to the Colts for an easy gallop to the Superbowl.  The Pittsburgh Steelers were supposed to be nothing but the warm-up act for the Peyton Manning Show.  Even their players pretended they weren’t looking past Pittsburgh.  Yeah, right.  If you were one of them, wouldn’t you have been? MORE!

The tale of two playoff teams… same thing only different By Magoo Who are the Denver Broncos, and what do they bring to the AFC title game this Sunday? On either side of the ball they are a very good football team. This season at Invesco Field they are unbeaten with an 8-0 record. With their win over the New England Patriots last Saturday, make it 9-0. In many ways they are much like the Pittsburgh Steelers. Their offense is powered by 2 running backs. Their defense gave up the exact same number of points, 258, as did the Black and Gold. Like the Steelers they are quite good at stopping the running game. In fact, they like to force their opponents into relying on their passing game.   MORE!

Validation

By The Wise Guy
Even if the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t win next Sunday in the AFC Championship game against the Denver Broncos (and at this point, would you bet against them?), yesterday’s stunning victory over the Indianapolis Colts validates this year’s Steelers team as a winner.

Plenty of reasons to believe

By Magoo
All the money is on the Indianapolis Colts, it must be, otherwise the Las Vegas line wouldn’t be situated at 9 1/2 points in favor of them moving on to the AFC championship game next weekend. Everywhere you look experts are picking the Colts. 

Quit While You're Ahead

Dear Peyton,

First of all, I just wanted to say I love your commercials for MasterCard.  "Cut that meat!  Cut that meat!"�  That is classic, the way you say it.  And I like how you go "De-Caf!   De-Caf!"� to that waitress.   It's like a parody of when the fans go "De-Fense!  De-Fense"�, right?

On the road again… I just can’t wait to get on the road again By Magoo The media has been tripping all over themselves to point out that there has never been a team to win three consecutive playoff games on the road, and then go on to win the Super Bowl.  MORE

Cincinnati:  A Great Way To See Kentucky By The Wise Guy For all the Pittsburgh Steelers fans heading to Cincinnati this weekend for the Steelers-Bengals playoff game, Pittsburgh Sports News is proud to offer as a public service Things to Do in Cincinnati When You Are Desperate.  Or Drunk. MORE

Lucky Break                                                       By the Wise Guy Ask yourself:  Were you happy to see Carson Palmer carted off the field after two plays in yesterday's playoff win against the Cincinnati Bengals?  Or do you feel his injury makes the Steelers win a bit tainted?  Yes, injuries are part of the game, but still, it was a whole different ballgame once Carson went down. MORE

Quit While You're Ahead By The Wise Guy Dear Peyton, First of all, I just wanted to say I love your commercials for MasterCard.  "Cut that meat!  Cut that meat!"�  That is classic, the way you say it.  And I like how you go "De-Caf!   De-Caf!"� to that waitress.   It's like a parody of when the fans go "De-Fense!  De-Fense"�, right? MORE

Play your own game

By Magoo
The Cincinnati Bengals have the dubious distinction of having given up nearly 22 points per game this season --the worst of any playoff team this year. Their defense is ranked 28th in total defense (yards allowed), once again, the worst of any team in the playoffs. These kinds of statistics might make one wonder, how a team that has given up so many points and so much yardage, how did they ever make it into the playoffs? It also makes one assume that the Bengals offset that by having a super potent offense. True, the Bengals are among the league leaders in both points scored and total offense (total yards), but the real reason, believe it or not, --is their defense. MORE

It's official The Pittsburgh Steelers will travel to Cincinnati to play the Bengals in the opening round of the playoffs. On Sunday the Steelers won their 4th game in a row while defeated the Detroit Lions by a 35-21 score. The Kansas City Chiefs on the other hand leveled the Bengals 37-3. For the Bengals it was the Bengals second straight setback that lost last week 37-27 to the Buffalo Bills.

Playing for a torch By Magoo With the exception of the Denver Broncos the Pittsburgh Steelers have faced every AFC playoff bound team at least once this season. The one team they played twice, the Cincinnati Bengals, will be their opponent next Sunday when the Steelers make their 4th post-season appearance in the past 5 years. The Bengals will be making their first playoff appearance in 15 years.