Pittsburg Steelers Hit Detroit

The Pittsburgh Steelers will arrive in Detroit today, a day later than the Seattle Seahawks. Bill Cowher wants to limit exposure to the 'distractions' that surface in any Super Bowl city.

Pittsburgh's closeness to Detroit is one of the advantages that the Steelers will enjoy for the big game. The fan ratio will be heavily tilted towards the Steelers.
Pittsburgh now has plenty of time to get acclimatised. The next big date for them is media day on Wednesday.

Pittsburgh To Play In White

On February the 5th in the Detroit Super Bowl XL - the Pittsburgh Steelers will play in their white away unforms. This despite being nominated as the 'home' team by the NFL, meaning that they are entitled to wear their more imposing traditional uniforms.

The Seahawks will be in their preferred metallic green/blue.

Interestingly enough, many teams favor a dark strip as it looks more imposing. The Oakland Raiders were once feared throughout the league and part of that aura was to do with the black strip. Overseas the one time invincible rugby side from New Zealand, appropriately named the "All Blacks" also opted for black.

It is probably the Steelers' success as a road team that has swayed the coach's decision to wear white for the fourth game in a row. They have won in successive weeks at Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Denver - all in white.

Super Bowl XL - Steelers Favored By 4.

So the final teams are established - The Pittsburgh Steelers will meet the the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL. It should be a good one.

On one side you have the Steelers, a dynasty and tradition under their belt - on the other, the Seahawks, the would be new kings of the NFL.

History is of course on Pittsburgh's side with four titles won between 1974-79 with the likes of Mean Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris. On the flip side Seattle hadn't won a playoff game in twenty years before last week and is going to the Super Bowl for the first time.

But you can look at things a lot of different ways - consider this:

It has all come together for the Seahawks this season. Seattle entered the playoffs as the NFC's top-seeded team, scored more points than any other team in the regular season, and have the MVP Shaun Alexander.

The Steelers, meanwhile, were the last seed in the AFC, the first sixth-seed to make it to the big game and only the second team ever to get there by winning three games on the road.

In terms of experience only one Steeler has been to the Bowl — cornerback Willie Williams, a starter on that 1996 team. Seattle has five who have been there - albeit with other teams; Wide receiver Joe Jurevicius, Robbie Tobeck, Chuck Darby, Grant Wistrom and Tom Rouen.

Still the Steelers are favored on their all round game - and our football betting odds makers give the Seahawks 4 points at the moment. No doubt this will spur on Seattle even more.

Pittsburgh Steelers Take Down Colts

Mike Vanderjagt missed a crucial 46-yard field goal with 17 seconds remaining to let Steelers win 21-18 over the Indianapolis Colts, in a roller coaster finish.

The Steelers (13-5) became the first sixth seed ever to reach the championship game, but they nearly threw it all away after a fumble by running back Jerome Bettis.

Holding a 21-18 lead, the Steelers looked like they had it in the bag after Peyton Manning was sacked on fourth-and-16, giving the Steelers the ball at the Colts two-yard line with just 1:20 left. But Bettis was drilled by linebacker Gary Brackett and Nick Harper picked up the fumble and looked like he would go all the way before Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger made a game-saving tackle.

After consecutive incompletions, Indy called up Vanderjagt to try to send the game into overtime - but he pushed his attempt way to the right, sending the Steelers through to the next game.

Carolina Panthers' Smith Undoes Bears.

The Chicago Bears had no answer to the Carolina Panthers' Steve Smith who finished tonight with twelve catches for 218 yards and two great touchdowns, to take the game 29-21. They had to Seattle next and are only the third No. 5 seed since 1990 to advance to the championship game.

Grossman, the Bears quarterback has missed most the season through injury did a good job overall and rallied his team in the second half - but late in the fourth quarter, trailing 29-21, he was intercepted by Ken Lucas with a little over two minutes to play.

There more or less ended the Bears first return to the play-offs in four years. Ironically their good run included a 13-3 victory over Carolina in November. This time around, the Panthers used Smith to great effect to kill off a Bears challenge that still needs some honing.

The Bears never really recovered from Smith's first score, where he left a couple of Bears players flailing, to give the Panthers 7-0 lead.

The game next week promises to be a fantastic game from a football betting and spectator standpoint.

Wild Card Weekend Results

Steelers 31 Bengals 17
Panthers 23 Giants 0
Jaguars 3 Patriots 28
Redskins 17 Buccaneers 10

Find some of the best odds on pro football betting

Carnell Williams Cruises To Award

Carnell "Cadillac" Williams of Tampa Bay Buccaneers ran away with The Associated Press NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award. He was a starter from the outset and despite missing a few games, rushed for 1,178 yards and six touchdowns.

Williams drew forty seven votes on Wednesday from a nationwide panel of fifty sports writers and broadcasters who cover the NFL. Ronnie Brown of Miami Dolphins received one vote, tight end Heath Miller of Pittsburgh and offensive lineman Logan Mankins of New England also received one each.

Williams had a team-record six one-hundred yard games. His season highs were 158 against the Packers, and 150 against the Falcons.

Williams put on the yards even thought a foot injury forced him to miss two games early in the season and part of a third. When he was better, Tampa blasted past Carolina and Atlanta to win the division title. The Buccaneers host Washington on Saturday in the wild-card game.

For sports betting enthusiasts, we have Tampa at -2.5 on the spread.

Super Bowl

A quick look at the Super Bowl contenders - warts and all:

Is Washington currently the best team in the NFC? Coach Joe Gibbs takes his Redskins to face Tampa Bay with the longest current winning streak of any playoff team. Can the master craft a memorable Super Bowl win?

Chicago's offense is no where near as effective as its own defense, the best in the league. If they can put it all together they could surely go all the way.

Can Seattle end their twenty year run without a playoff win? With players like ALexander this is the year to make up a lot of ground and banish the playoff demons of yester-year.

Does Carolina have a good enough rushing game? In Super Bowl XXXVIII two years ago, the Panthers had a great rusher in Stephen Davis. This time they have Steve Smith.

Giants stumbling? The NYG defense has been affected by a sudden crop of injuries at linebacker. You feel that Eli Manning needs to find some consistency if they are to progress.

Tampa Bay has allowed over forty sacks, which is more than any playoff squad. They will need some better QB protection for the playoff run.

Will the Steelers ride with Jerome Bettis (The Bus) to the bowl? Bettis may no longer be Pittsburgh's preferred runner but he still represents the power rushing game that is Steelers football.

Have Jacksonville been lucky with their schedule and season's opponents? If Byron Leftwich returns after missing five games with a fractured ankle, he'll have to be sharp.

Can the Patriots overcome the loss of Harrison and others? Belichick is still the best coach in the NFL. Tom Brady has passed for an NFL-high 4,110 yards but going against them is the fact that no playoff team has allowed more touchdown passes (twenty-five) than New England.

Will the RCA Dome help the Colts get to the Bowl? Having dispelled their Patriots demons - the Colts should fear noone. If they end up playing New England again, it will be in an AFC title game...indoors.

Have the Bengals had their confidence knocked by back to back losses for a combined seventy four points? The manner of those defeats was telling.

What is the story with Denver's secondary? Denver's last two seasons ended in RCA Dome defeats. To get to the Super Bowl, they could find themselves back there again. Although the Broncos have the second-worst pass defense of any playoff team, they have allowed just 16.1 points a game.