ShareThisARLINGTON, Texas - Football coaches preach it every day -- from peewee leagues to the NFL.
"The team with the fewest turnovers will win the game."
To those of us in the press box, it often goes in one ear and out the other. Just not cool enough for us who make a living writing such cool prose.
But it certainly told the story of Super Bowl XLV on Sunday.
Turnovers: Pittsburgh 3, Green Bay 0.
Final score: Packers 31, Steelers 25.
"You can't turn the ball over. You can't do it on this stage," Pittsburgh's Hines Ward reminded everyone afterward.
In the first half, Ben Roethlisberger was doing his best impression of Neil O'Donnell.
You remember O'Donnell, the Steelers quarterback who played catch with Dallas cornerback Larry Brown and threw away Super Bowl XXX 15 years ago.
Roethlisberger's first interception turned into a pick-6 by Nick Collins. The free safety's 37-yard return put Pittsburgh into a hole no other Super Bowl team has ever dug itself out of.
The biggest comeback in the 44-year history of this game was 10 points.
Green Bay was up 14-0 before the Steelers made their second first down.
"Oh, man, that was the highlight of my day right there," Collins said. "I was able to read Big Ben and got a nice jump on the ball. I made a couple of cuts to get into the end zone."
Roethlisberger's second pick was gifted to Collins' backup, Jarrett Bush, and led to Aaron Rodgers' 21-yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings that stretched the lead to 21-3.
Big Ben, who threw just five interceptions in the regular season, threw two in the first 25-1/2 minutes of the biggest game of the year.
But this guy doesn't own Super Bowl rings because he's an O'Donnell throw-a-like. He didn't just leave his whole game at some piano bar last week.
Roethlisberger got his act together, and Dick LeBeau's defense also started living up to their old Steel Curtain reputation.
The Steelers' quarterback used the final 2:18 of the first half to put together a nice 77-yard drive that ended with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward.
Then when Rashard Mendenhall ran straight up the gut for an 8-yard touchdown early in the second half, Green Bay's lead had been whittled down to 21-17.
We had ourselves a game.
All those thousands of gold towels were waving in the air again.
At that point, I felt the same way that I did when I woke up Sunday morning. I thought the Steelers were going to win a seventh Lombardi Trophy.
And why not?
All the Packers' offense had to show for the third quarter was one lousy first down.
When the fourth quarter started, the Steelers were on the Green Bay 33 facing second-and-2.
But then Mendenhall, the player I thought would be the difference-maker in this game, was handed the ball on the first play of the quarter and ran right into linebacker Clay Matthews.
Mendenhall went straight down. The ball went straight up. And Desmond Bishop fell on it.
"I was able to get around my guy and made a solid hit on the football. I wasn't sure that it had come out until I looked up and saw Desmond with the ball," Matthews said.
For the third time in the game, the Packers cashed a turnover into a touchdown.
Rodgers coolly led his team 55 yards and ended the drive with his third touchdown pass of the game.
The Steelers, down 28-17, were once again in a hole that no Super Bowl winner had dug itself out of.
Now even Roethlisberger's 25-yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace and a cute two-point option pitch to Antwaan Randle El would not be enough to rescue Pittsburgh.
Rodgers, as always, had an answer.
He overcame a sack and false start by completing five passes to four different receivers in a drive that erased almost 5-1/2 precious minutes off the clock and ended in Mason Crosby's field goal.
Keyaron Fox put Pittsburgh in a hole with a stupid personal foul penalty on the kickoff, and Roethlisberger's day ended with three straight incompletions.
"You know me. I hate to lose, especially when you feel like you're letting down guys that really stepped up today in a big way. So it's really hard," the Steelers quarterback said.
Even though he quarterbacked the Steelers to two Super Bowl wins before this, each time Big Ben had to stand back and watch one of his wide receivers -- first Hines Ward, then Santonio Holmes -- receive the MVP trophy.
This time it was Rodgers walking away with the prize.
And rightly so.
"We put this game on his shoulders. He delivered," Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy said of his quarterback.
And what did Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin think of Roethlisberger's performance.
"It was a losing one, just like mine," he said.
(Contact Nick Gholson of the Wichita Falls Times Record-News at gholsonn(at)timesrecordnews.com.)
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