 |
| Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (right) and linebacker Clay Matthews celebrate with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL’s Super Bowl XLV football game in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday. Rodgers was voted MVP of the game |
Inspired by their dynamic young quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the Packers gave a masterclass demonstration, opening up a 21-3 lead in the second quarter and then showing amazing courage to survive a ferocious late comeback from the Steelers.
It was game that lived up to all the hype as two of the most successful franchises in the NFL slugged it out in front of a crowd of more than 100,000 at Cowboys Stadium.
They scored seven touchdowns between them but it was game characterised by hard-hitting defense as both teams lost key players, including Packers receiver Donald Driver and his team mate cornerback Charles Woodson, to injuries.
“We just kept battling. We had some adversity, we lost some guys to injuries and we had some rough plays out there,” Packers head coach Mike McCarthy said.
“We knew it was going to be a heavyweight slug match. We knew it was going to come down to the wire.”
Rodgers, who emerged from the shadows of his predecessor Brett Favre, was named MVP after completing 24 of 39 passes for 304 yards and throwing three touchdown passes but there were plenty of other worthy contenders for the award.
Greg Jennings scored two touchdowns, Jordy Nelson scored one (among his nine receptions) and Nick Collins intercepted a wayward pass from Ben Roethlisberger and raced 37 yards for a TD in the first quarter that gave the Packers a 14-0 lead.
“Wow, wow, wow,” shrieked Jennings. “It’s a great day to be great, baby.”
The Steelers, who were chasing a record seventh Super Bowl win, were brave in defeat.
They never led but pulled to within 28-25 midway through the fourth quarter when a costly turnover, their third of the night, handed the momentum back to Green Bay.
“We’re not into moral victories,” Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin growled.
“We came here to win the football game and of course we didn’t do that.”
For the Packers, it was their fourth Super Bowl win. Only the Steelers (six), Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers (five each) have won more.
With a population of 102,000 Green Bay is the smallest city in the US with an NFL team but few franchises have a more sentimental attachment to the Super Bowl than the residents of Wisconsin.
The Packers won the first two Super Bowls, in 1967 and 1968, and the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which is presented to the winning team, is named after their legendary coach.
“The Vince Lombardi Trophy is finally going back home,” McCarthy said.
Although the Packers were the slight favourites to win Sunday’s game, they overcame some incredible obstacles just to get to the big one as the casualties starting mounting up during the season.
They needed to win their last two regular season games to secure a wildcard berth into the postseason and then win three playoff games on the road to win the NFC championship.
Green Bay threatened to turn the game into a rout when Rodgers picked out Jennings in the end zone with a superb 21-yard pass to give the Packers a 21-3 second-quarter lead.
The Steelers began to claw their way back with Roethlisberger hitting Hines Ward on an eight-yard TD pass before Rashard Mendenhall scored on an eight-yard run.
A second Jennings touchdown gave the Packers some breathing room at 28-17 but the Steelers set up a grandstand finish when Mike Wallace collected a 25-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger and Antwaan Randle El completed a two-point conversion.
However, a 23-yard field goal from Mason Crosby with just over two minutes left gave the Packers the six-point lead they maintained until the end as the Steelers failed to mount one last challenge.
“What a great football game with two classic teams,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.
“The smallest city in the league has won the biggest game.”
While the game did live up to all expectations, there was some embarrassment for the NFL when more than 400 fans were unable to get in to the $1.2bn stadium because they ran out of temporary seats.
The NFL paid them each three times the face value of their tickets and ordered an investigation into the mix-up.
Grammy winner Christina Aguilera also fumbled a line of the national anthem during the pre-game presentation but the Black Eyed Peas performed a dazzling half-time show watched by an estimated television audience of more than 100mn.
Meanwhile, distraught Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said he felt like he let his team and fans down after throwing two interceptions in a 31-25 Super Bowl defeat to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
Roethlisberger, who sat out the opening four games of the NFL season after being suspended for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, said there were several throws that he would like to have back.
“I don’t put blame on anybody but myself. I feel like I let the city of Pittsburgh down, the fans, my coaches, my team mates. It’s not a good feeling,” he told reporters.
“You know me, I hate to lose. Like I said, especially when you feel like you’re letting down guys that really stepped up today in a big way, so it’s really hard.”
Roethlisberger’s first interception, an attempted pass to Mike Wallace, was returned for a touchdown by Nick Collins to put the Steelers down 14-0 down in the first quarter.
His second pick, also on a pass attempt to Wallace, set up a Green Bay scoring drive that put the Packers up 21-3 late in the second quarter.
Roethlisberger said the Steelers, who battled back with two touchdowns and were down four points at the start of the fourth quarter, believed a record-breaking comeback could be in the cards but blamed himself for the failure.
“We’re a team of fighters. We don’t quit. We believe in each other. We were going to fight all the way to the last second, which I think we did,” said Roethlisberger.
“If I had played a little bit better, I feel like we would have had a better chance to win the game.”
Super Bowl 45 fell shy of setting an attendance record, despite having two of the NFL’s most storied franchises facing off in the mammoth 1.2bn-dollar Cowboys Stadium.
The league - and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones - had hoped they would draw a record crowd by staging the NFL championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the palatial home of “America’s team”.
But the announced attendance of 103,219 fell short of beating the mark of 103,985 set at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, in 1980.
In addition, 400 fans were nearly turned away altogether when the temporary seating areas for which they had purchased tickets were not ready in time.
The NFL said each of those fans received a refund of triple the face value of the 800-dollar ticket.
Those 400 were first going to be put in the “Party Plaza” area outside the stadium, but were eventually accommodated in the field-level club behind the Steelers’ bench.