Bumped. I was excited when I got an email from him letting me know he was writing this and one other thing that I'm sure we'll all enjoy soon enough. Great stuff from WolfpackSteelersFan, one of BTSC's truly great participants. -Blitz-

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I know everyone is all excited about Free Agency and thinking about our team needs for the Draft. But, I wanted to write up a season recap. I'll be honest, before the AFCCG, I was so nervous and worried about losing to the Ravens that I was ready and really looking forward to the Mock Drafts, etc. It helped me keep from stressing out to much. But, now that we've won the Super Bowl, I'm not quite ready to let go of the 2008 season. Thankfully, Mike Tomlin was already thinking about being behind for next year the day after the Super Bowl, but as a fan, I can think back to the championship run without adversely impacting the team going forward. :) 

So, I've been thinking about this past season and all that happened. It certainly wasn't an easy year to be a Steelers fan. But, in the end, it was obviously a very rewarding year. In Mike Tomlin's second year as a Head Coach, the Steelers went 12-4 in the regular season. Six of their wins were by 7 points or less, while three of their losses were by 9 points or less. So, this has been a season of tight, intense football games.

When I think back to the beginning of the season, and our expectations/projections, I think most of us expected the Steelers to win anywhere from 8 to 13 games. We looked at the toughest schedule in many years, and it looked like the Steelers would be running a gauntlet. Then came Week 1 against the Texans, and the game was a dominating win for Pittsburgh. We started harkening back to 2005 when we had destroyed Tennessee in Week 1, and started talking about hopes that this would lead to a repeat of our Super Bowl XL victory. Then we entered a tough 4 game stretch.

The Browns provided the stiff competition that Browns fans hoped they would, but Big Ben continued his dominance in the state of Ohio. The Eagles blitzed the crap out Ben, and put a big hurt on him. Again, like 2001, we lost game 3, to have a 2-1 record after 3 games. The Ravens seemed to have the game in hand, until we saw Pittsburgh score 2 TDs in about an 11 second span. Then, we saw a game where the Steelers dominated the Jags in every category but the scoreboard. Thankfully, Big Ben pulled us through, and he won what I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) was his first victory after throwing over 40 passes. This, to me, was the first hint that Ben may be up to carrying the team on his back this year.

Having gone 3-1 in this 4 game stretch, we got a couple weeks to rest (one Bye week, and a week against the Bungals minus Carson Palmer). Sandwiched between our games against Cincy, we had another very tough 4 game stretch, in which the Steelers went 2-2. Against the Giants, the game was in control until our long-snapper went down, forcing Deebo into LS duty. His snap over the punter's head was the turning point that gave NY the opportunity to steal a win. Next week, in D.C., the Steelers D ended Jason Campbell's streak of games with no interceptions. While Ben struggled in the first half and went out with an injured shoulder, Byron came in and had a great second half. Along with a dominating D (7 sacks and 2 INTs), Leftwich helped put the game away with his solid play. Next came a loss the Colts on two fluky plays (one INT turned TD where Ike had the ball go off his hands, and one horrible pass from Ben that got the Colts back in the game to end the first half). The D was still able to keep the Colts under 300 yards total offense (for the 9th straight week). Then came the game against SD, where we all were thankful for the win, but we wondered where the heck was our goal-line offense. There was also some wonder about the officiating on the final play being overturned incorrectly.

After taking down the desperate Chargers, the Steelers beat up on the Bungals again, and then destroyed the Matt Cassel led Patriots. Prior to the Steelers game, Cassel had back to back 400 yard games (the first Pats QB to do so). The Steelers held him to 169 yards passing with 0 TDs and 2 INTs. At this point in the season, the Steelers were in the home stretch. Wins over Dallas and Baltimore would clinch the division and a first round bye.

The game against Dallas was another excrutiating afternoon game. The offense could not seem to get a thing going for 3.5 quarters, and Romo and company seemed to have things in hand with about 10 minutes to go. But, once again, the D held just enough to give Ben a chance. Down by ten, Big Ben was able to drive us down for 10 unanswered points before big play Deshea took a pick-6 to the house to complete the comeback. In some ways the game next week in Baltimore seemed very similar. It was another defensive struggle with the Steelers down late in the game. Again, with the game on the line, Big Ben drove the offense down the field for the go-ahead TD, a controversial Santonio Holmes TD catch to win the game, the division, and the first round bye.

With two weeks left, the Steelers had a chance to take home-field advantage away from the Tennessee Titans. However, a series of mistakes and sloppy play from various players doomed Pittsburgh to their only loss of greater than 9 points. At the time, I thought that they had just hit a wall considering the extremely tough stretch of games up to that point in the season. The following week was blowout win against the hapless Browns, who were down to their 4th or 5th starting QB that season, both Quinn and Anderson having already been consigned to IR. The only thing interesting about the game was Roethlisberger's concussion, which was certainly a serious concern at the time. The end of the season left us pleased but concerned about the health of our QB, among a few other players.

For the regular season, there were a few significant accomplishments that I wanted to highlight, some of which were discussed at different times throughout the season:

• Went undefeated against the AFC North (particularly 4-0 against the Browns and Ravens)
• Eliminated any "bad losses" similar to the Jets, Cards, and Broncos losses from the previous season
• Finally won a 4 pm game (Tomlin had been 0-fer in 4 pm games until defeating the Chargers, IIRC)
• Defeated the hated Cowboys and Patriots
• Finally knocked off the stinkin' Jaguars
• Had one of the greatest defensive seasons of all time, holding 15 of 16 opponents to under 300 yards total offense

Having completed a very tense but in many ways very satisfying regular season, the Steelers prepared for the playoffs. Their offensive gameplan for the Divisional Round game against the Chargers was the best all year. The defense may have let up some at the end, but they still held the Chargers to under 300 yards total offense. It certainly didn't hurt holding the ball the entire 3rd quarter. Then, in the AFCCG, we saw round 3 verses the Ravens. For most of the first half, it looked like the Steelers would win going away. Then a couple of bad plays, and one horrible pass interference call, and the Ravens were right back in it. In the second half, it was more tense, and when the Ravens got to within 2 points, I was starting to think this was a replay of the '94 game against the Chargers. Thankfully, a Raven made a huge mistake late to pin them deep in their own end, and then Woodley and Troy made huge plays on back to back plays, sealing a trip to Super Bowl XLIII. In his second year as HC, Tomlin finally brought a championship to Heinz Field. As he said about many games this year, including the SB win, it wasn't pretty. We don't go in for style points, but he and all of the players showed great resilience and found a way to win.

I won't recap the SB, since we had plenty of recap right after the game.

I know this was pretty long, and I'm not sure it's as polished as I hoped. But, anyway, I enjoyed sort of reliving the season, even if just for the time it took me to write this. Hopefully, you all will too.