** Packers QB Aaron Rodgers capped off a super playoff run with a 308-yard, 3-TD performance against the Steelers. It’s easy to imagine he would have had another 100 yards and at least 1 TD had his teammates not dropped 4 perfectly thrown balls. Aaron Rodgers’ 2011 postseason performance will go down as one of the greatest of all time. In 4 playoff games, A-Rodg racked up 1,094 yards and 9 TDs, joining Kurt Warner as the only QBs to throw for 1,000+ yards and 9+ TDs in one postseason. And with his 111.5 QB rating in Sunday’s game, Rodgers’ career postseason passer rating now stands at 112.6 – the best all time among QBs with at least 150 attempts. The previous record-holder? Packer great… Bart Starr.
** Packers WR Jordy Nelson saved his best performance for the biggest stage. Forced into a bigger role due to Donald Driver’s ankle injury, Nelson set career-highs with 9 catches and 140 yards against the Steelers on Sunday. Sure – he dropped 3 balls, but no one will remember those in a month. Nelson is a name to track this offseason with Driver considering retirement and James Jones hitting free-agency.
** Throughout most of Super Bowl week, the mainstream media began speculating on whether a Steelers victory would mean (i) this version of the Steelers was a dynasty, and (ii) Ben Roethlisberger was a Hall of Fame QB. File those two musings as putting the cart before the horse. A quick look at Ben’s Super Bowl performances shows a not-ready-for-prime-time player. Against the Seahawks, his QB rating was a putrid 22.6. He rebounded with a 93.2 and game-winning drive vs. the Cardinals. And backslid against the Packers with a 77.4. In each of those Super Bowls, he was outperformed by his counterpart. Matt Hasselbeck pitched a 67.8; Kurt Warner posted a 112.3; and Aaron Rodgers had an MVP 111.5 QB rating.
** Gene Collier from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote this on Saturday: "Without the benefit of experience, for example, how would Ben Roethlisberger know to take his offensive line to a piano bar and, according to TMZ, ‘sing his face off’ until 1:45 a.m.? ‘I haven't been out carousing,’ Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said the morning after Steelers karaoke. ‘I am a homebody, so I've been spending a lot of time in my hotel room watching film.’ The Green Bay quarterback is the most productive player on either team right now, partly because his maturity has paralleled nicely with the Packers' peak performances." In his hotel room watching game film the week of the Super Bowl?! Not out sampling the local strip joints like Hines Ward and Ike Taylor?! Not being the Piano Man at the swankest dueling piano bar in Dallas? Huh. Who knew winning the Super Bowl could be so damned boring?
** The most disappointing Steelers performance goes to S and Defensive Player of the Year, Troy Polamalu. He finished with only 3 tackles all game. Part of it was the function of the Packers spread offense, and part was a player who always looked a step too slow in the playoffs this year.
** Major props to the Steelers O-line. I trashed them in the last LAP Dance, but they played a standout game in opening holes for Rashard Mendenhall, as well as pass protecting for Ben Roethlisberger. They also had a very strong game against the Jets in the AFC Championship Game.
** With 12 minutes left in the game, and down by 2 scores, it was hard to figure out why the Steelers offense seemed to be running out the clock. Didn’t they watch the Patriots pull the same blunder against the Jets 3 weeks ago?
** The new playoff overtime rules didn’t get tested at all this season. All that over-thinking for nothing.
** If you’re wondering what the consensus 2011 fantasy football rankings might look like, check out the free article on the Draftsharks site.
** Just another reminder that you can still take advantage of our Early Bird Special and get a 1 or 2-year subscription to Draft Sharks for the lowest price of the year. If you were a 2010 member, simply log-in and click the link for the Early Bird Special. If you weren’t a member last year, just click right here to join our exclusive community!
** So let’s say you dropped 5 grand on a couple Super Bowl tickets, another $1,000 on a round-trip flight to Dallas, and another grand on your hotel. Then you show up to the much-heralded Cowboys Stadium on game day only to find out that your seats aren’t available because they didn’t meet safety codes. How would you react? Here’s how a few of the 400 displaced fans decided to handle the situation.
** Best Super Bowl commercial of 2011 – and perhaps of all-time – was the Faith Hill’s Teleflora commercial. Who woulda thought sending flowers could be such a tender moment?
** Worst commercial was Joan Rivers as a GoDaddy girl. It brought up a little chili I had eaten 20 minutes prior. Honorable mention goes to M&M who pimped Brisk iced tea and Chrysler cars. That whole perpetual white, whining, angry kid from the inner-city act doesn’t mix with corporate America.
** Suggestion for future Super Bowls. Bag the halftime entertainment. The performers are typically marquee names way beyond their prime – or current stars who bomb. Speaking of which, why is it so bloody difficult to remember the words to the national anthem? I understand it takes talent to hit all the notes. But to memorize just 8 lines when you have weeks to prepare... How hard is that? From now on, just have a military honor guard walk out with a wounded veteran. And ask anyone who can blow a horn well to perform the honors of the national anthem.
** How’s this for a confident head coach… Less than 24 hours before the biggest game of their lives, Packers HC Mike McCarthy had his players fitted for Super Bowl rings. "It was just something to show that he had a lot of confidence in us," CB Sam Shields said. "Getting fitted for the ring showed he had confidence in us." Gotta like that. McCarthy had my vote for Coach of the Year even before yesterday’s Super Bowl win.
** The Packers might have been a 6 seed, but remember that all of their 6 losses this year were by a combined total of 20 points. And 6 of their Week 1 starters were on IR by the end of the season. They should see a few more Super Bowls before Aaron Rodgers retires.
** In a season filled with all sorts of injuries, it was fitting that the Packers were able to pull out another victory on Sunday despite another handful of guys leaving early. WR Donald Driver, CB Charles Woodson, and CB Sam Shields all missed a large portion of the game with various ailments. "When somebody goes down, you know you still have to play football," Woodson said. "It doesn't matter who it is or at what point in the season it is. You still have to go out there and perform. That's the kind of example you try to show to your teammates and they follow. They followed all the way to the Super Bowl with a victory."
** And DC Dom Capers deserves all sorts of props. He’s been brilliant all season long, but he was at his best on Sunday. After Woodson and Shields went out, Capers went with a more conservative game plan, cutting back on his blitzes and going with more zone coverage. "We were scrambling there for a while because a big part of our game plan went out the window," Capers said. "We planned on playing a lot of man coverage and when those guys went out we had to become more of a zone team." And just when Capers had Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers lulled to sleep, he dialed up 3 straight blitzes on Pittsburgh’s final drive of the game. Capers deserves another head coaching job and should get one in the near future.
** The price just went up for Eagles QB Kevin Kolb. On Saturday, news leaked that Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald is campaigning for his team to go out and acquire Kolb. You can bet that will be brought up in any negotiations between the Eagles and Cardinals.
** A couple crazy internet rumors have been spreading since late last night. One is that the Eagles were getting ready to fire HC Andy Reid and replace him with Jon Gruden. The other: HC Sean Payton was leaving New Orleans for a position with the Cowboys. Both rumors have been shot down and were pretty ridiculous to begin with.
** In case you missed it from the Draft Sharks YouTube channel… check out the latest.
** Next on the DS agenda… The NFL Combine starts on February 23. We’ll be hitting the Draft information in the coming weeks, and beyond. And keep your eyes open for our 1st mock draft later this month.
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