A tough day...

Okay, no excuses, I was flat-out wrong on the Denver-Pittsburgh game, exacerbated by the fact I published my Denver selection, and went on countless radio shows touting the pick! And the Carolina selection is not looking too much better, but remember we are still getting some points with the Panthers.

Bad 24 hours overall at TGS, as Mort's widow, Sylvia, passed away last night after a long battle with cancer. Not unexpected, she had been touch-and-go for the last 10 days. We will run a little tribute to her in this week's TGS, as well as the first half of the Super Bowl story. Paul, I moved mention of your name to an earlier part of the story, right before I start to rate the games, which I'll do in reverse order in the Sheet over the next 2 weeks.

As for the AFC title game, Big Ben was simply superb, and the Steeler play-calling was A+, as they came out throwing (as they did at Indy), got that important lead, and simply kept the Bronco pass rush off of Big Ben, which was the key in the game. During the season, the Broncos didn't generate much of a pass rush, except when they blitzed, and today, Lynch and the others were pretty much neutralized. Foxworth was also really exploited in the 2ndary, and Bailey didn't make the big plays I expected. In fact, I was somewhat shocked at Denver's poor pass coverage.

The whole game was inside-out from what I expected. The Steelers jumped out quickly and dictated the tempo, and rendered Denver's offensive balance somewhat useless in the process. I expected just the opposite to happen.

Should have known it wasn't Denver's day when Champ, looking at 6 the other way, botched that pick in the 1st Q, and it ended up a ricochet Steeler completion for a 1st down instead.

Sports losses still wash away easily, however, and I will hardly dwell on this one, as Pittsburgh was simply better today. Denver's AFC title game mark thus falls to 6-2. This one does not hurt as much as that other loss, 10-7 vs. the Bills in the '91 AFC title, when the Broncos could have won. And they had yet to win a Super Bowl at that time, when I was beginning to wonder if I would ever live to see it. Besides, I could be my good friend Greg Pappas, head basketball coach at Hope International, an NAIA school in Fullerton. His Royals fell to 0-17 last night with a 90-65 loss at nearby Vanguard University, and a winless season (ouch!) appears in the offing for Paps.

I can still pop in my DVDs on 1997 & 1998 any time I want to relive a Broncos Super Bowl. Those are still recent enough in the memory banks to keep me satisfied for a long time.

Congratulations to the Men of Steel. They didn't even need Lynn Swann today.

By the way, was that Dan Rooney, or Dan Gray's papa, my favorite horse trainer and Notre Dame alum, Mr. Mike McGee, congratulating Bill Cowher at the end of the game?