Green Bay Packers Win Super Bowl XLV
The Green Bay Packers are this seasons champs! The Packers took advantage of Steeler turnovers and overcame their own dropped passes to win a close game that came down to the last drive. Next up for the Vikings and Packers is the draft, but will we have a next season?
Aaron Rodgers threw two touchdown passes and Nick Collins returned an interception 37 yards for a TD that staked the Green Bay Packers to a big lead in the Super Bowl, then Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers rallied to make things a lot more interesting going into the fourth quarter Sunday.
Green Bay led 21-17 after three quarters, but the Packers were without cornerbacks Charles Woodson and Sam Shields and receiver Donald Driver.
The Steelers had the momentum, the experience and the crowd -- tens of thousands of fans twirling "Terrible Towels" and making things tough for Rodgers to bark out signals at times.
But on the first play of the fourth quarter, with Pittsburgh possibly driving for a go-ahead touchdown, Rashard Mendenhall fumbled on a hit by Clay Matthews Jr. The Packers took over at their own 45.
Pittsburgh already had chopped an 18-point deficit down to four. The Steelers had a chance to make it a one-point game, but Shaun Suisham missed a 52-yard field goal.
Another exciting Super Bowl finished appeared ahead, as was expected by oddsmakers and most fans. After all, these were the two defenses that allowed the fewest points in the league this season, and everyone says defense wins championships.
The biggest deficit overcome in a Super Bowl was 10 points, done by the Saints last year and by the Redskins against the Broncos in 1988.
No Super Bowl has ever gone to overtime. If this one does, it would be the first use of new overtime rules that ensure both teams get the ball.
Christina Aguilera got the game off to a rocky start by flubbing a line in the national anthem. The Steelers didn't do much better at the outset.
Green Bay jumped ahead 14-0 with touchdowns on consecutive plays: a 29-yard touchdown catch by Jordy Nelson, then Collins' interception, which featured a weaving return, a dive into the end zone and hip-swiveling dance toward the Pittsburgh sideline by B.J. Raji, the Packers' jumbo-sized nose tackle.
Rodgers stretched the lead to 21-3 by drilling a 21-yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings. The ball whistled past safety Ryan Clark, with Jennings making a tough catch look easy just before getting popped by Steelers safety Troy Polamalu. That drive also was set up by an interception, a pickoff at midfield by Jarrett Bush.
Roethlisberger's miserable first half turned a little better at the end.
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