Super Bowl XLV
This was the beginning of the rise of Aaron Rodgers in the current Top 10 Quarterbacks in the NFL today and gave the Packers their long-awaited Super Bowl victory since the Brett Favre days in the late 90s. The Steelers at the time were climbing on the “Stairway to Seven” that season coming off their Super Bowl XLIII victory two years prior and missing the playoffs in the span between.
Along the way, we took care of business in our division before defeating the New York Jets that was going through a short-term renaissance of their own. Not a lot of changes were made within the two years except for Santonio Holmes being traded away due to his struggles off the field and in replacement was the duo of Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown (a much different person in his Rookie year than what he transformed to be) with Hines Ward still being a big factor in that Wide Receiver group.
Just like Super Bowl XXX, the Steelers never got a lead in the ballgame and were down by 18 points before going on a 10 point run by halftime and attempted another comeback. The Steelers relying on their Offense were showing promise by being down by 4 points around the 4th Quarter, but like every game, the Defense has to put the work in and let a few drives slip away to keep Green Bay from scoring into the endzones.
There were a couple of key turnovers (actually all of them as committed by Pittsburgh) that stopped any movement the Steelers had in the game to have any lead, and it has always been our kryptonite in big moments that have carried over into the new decade. Now the two losses are out of the way, here’s my Top 6 of the Steelers wins in The Big Game.