AFC Championship Recap

1/19/2009 | Posted by Scott Lunn


One of the nice things about writing is that every once in awhile the things you say come true and you have some sort of evidence as vindication. Now, I didn't really go on any limbs with my AFC preview exactly, but I did throw out a few fairly specific things I thought could happen, and as it turned out, I wasn't too far off.

Simply for bragging purposes, I'll point out a handful of things I wrote about last Monday:

"Both defenses are simply going to bring it and turnovers will likely play a huge role in this game as well. I would put money on the fact that there will be a defensive touchdown scored in this game at some point."

"Flacco is going to have to be kept away from Harrison as well as LaMarr Woodley to avoid making mistakes and if he can't, Polamalu is the type of player that always capitalizes."

"Ultimately, I think it comes down to Flacco being pressured or not. If the Steelers can't get to him for some reason, the Ravens will have their best shot at a victory. I just don't see that being the case though. The Steelers fans will be crazy as ever with Terrible Towels in hand and they'll pump up their defense to make big plays. I see this one coming down to a turnover forced in the 4th quarter leading to Pittsburgh getting the late game winning score yet again. Steelers 20-13."


I guess I could say that I saw the Polamalu interception coming ahead of time, and while I wasn't right on the score, I wasn't far off. Simply put, Pittsburgh's defense was the best in the league this season and Flacco's rookie magic was due to run out. Those things kind of went hand in hand of course, and when they both came together, you saw the end result.

Anyways, enough of my pompousness, let's take a quick look at the game itself. As expected, the defenses were the dominating storyline in this one. Neither offense looked all that impressive at all, but Ben Roethlisberger managed to cobble together one of those good games without huge numbers that he's become rather famous for. 16-33, 255 yards, and 1TD don't really jump out as you as stellar, but against the Baltimore defense, it's all he really needed. Especially when you consider Joe Flacco went 13-30 for 141 yards, and most importantly, through 3 interceptions. Baltimore had mild success on the ground against the Steelers for the 3rd time this season, but it wasn't enough to keep the Steelers blitz away from Flacco.

One of the big storylines heading into the game was about the star safeties on each team, Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu. Reed was virtually a non factor with just 2 tackles on the day, while Polamalu of course had the interception return for a touchdown that virtually sealed the win for the Steelers with 4:39 to go. Flacco dealt with a lot of pressure all day long, getting sacked 3 times, and forced to make bad throws several others.

The win marks the 7th time the Steelers have advanced to the Super Bowl, with a 5-1 record in previous appearances. The two week layoff will certainly do them some good as a few players were banged up in yesterday's extremely physical game. Most notable amongst them was Hines Ward, who appeared to injure his knee after a reception in the 2nd quarter. Pittsburgh will look to continue it's defensive dominance against a red hot Arizona Cardinals team lead by a Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald combination that has been on fire in the postseason.

Make sure you check back as we give you a full preview of Super Bowl XLIII next week, and don't forget to look for new stories from all throughout the sporting world in the meantime.
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