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An open letter to Bill Cowher
Thanks for a great season.
I know you're not happy with what happened on a cold Sunday night at Heinz Field. Neither am I, nor are the rest of the Steelers Nation.
Regardless, there can't be any argument that the better team won the AFC Championship Game.
The Patriots looked like the Super Steelers of the '70s with their 41-27 victory.
As expected, the real difference was at quarterback where New England's Tom Brady is being mentioned in the same breath with Joe Montana.
A sixth round draft pick in 2000, Brady is at his best in the big games. He's 8-0 in the post-season and will make it 9-0 when the Patriots drop Philadelphia in Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville in 13 more days.
Meanwhile, your Ben Roethlisberger -- who enjoyed the best rookie season in NFL history by quarterbacking the Steelers to 15 straight wins -- still has a way to go to reach Hall of Fame status.
In the playoffs when it counts the most, Ben was inconsistent and looked like a first-year player.
Five interceptions including two being returned for touchdowns don't look good on Ben's resume.
Thanks to New York kicker Doug Brien missing two field goals in the last two minutes of regulation time, the Steelers were fortunate to get past the Jets in overtime.
Everyone knew the Patriots weren't the Jets. That's why New England came to town as a three-point favorite instead of a nine-point underdog like the Jets the previous week,
But getting back to last night. Like your Halloween victory over the Pats, this one was decided early.
With the contest not even 18 minutes old, New England had a 17-3 lead and the handwriting was on the wall. The finishing touch was Rodney Harrison picking off a Roethlisberger pass at the Pats' 13 and bringing it back all the way.
Instead of you guys possibly being down only 17-10 at halftime, the score was 24-3 and the rest is history.
With two third quarter touchdowns, your guys made things interesting but the Steelers needed a perfect second half to pull off a comeback win.
Two plays took care of that.
One was Aaron Smith's holding penalty midway in the third quarter on a pass play on a third and 17 at the New England 37 for a first down. It wasn't too much later that Corey Dillon ran in from 25 yards out.
The other was Plaxico Burress failing to hold on to a third down pass in the New England end zone with the score 31-17.
Instead of trailing 31-24 with 13 minutes remaining, you went for three points from the four-yard line with Jeff Reed kicking a 20-yard field goal to trim the margin to 11.
Five minutes later, the Pats got the three points back when Adam Vinatieri kicked a 31-yard field goal.
Now the chances of your team playing for another AFC title next year don't look too promising when you hear that Plaxico probably won't be back and neither will Jerome Bettis.
If there was any consolation with last night's loss, it was that it didn't come on a Vinatieri field goal in the closing seconds.
Thanks again Bill for doing your best coaching job here. Who in their right mind thought your team would go 15-1 during the season after last year's 6-10 showing?
