What Happened At Halftime?

By Jerry Steege, Fantasy Football Sideline contributor

Did you wonder what happened at halftime. With the Steelers down 21 to 7 and the Ravens having the momentum by scoring 21 points I have to admit prospects were a bit bleak. But most of these guys had played on at least one Super Bowl winner and a lot had played on two.

Did coach Tomlin give a Knute Rockne speech and tell them to win one for the Gipper? According to most of the players the answer is no. Really, no rousing speech from the coach. The battle tested defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau must have willed his defense to make some big plays and Ryan Clark accepted the challenge forcing a fumble and intercepting a pass setting the offense that had turned the ball over twice up for two easy TDs. Not according to the players.

It must have been the two time starting Super Bowl Champion Quarterback. Where else would a team look but to it’s starting Quarterback. Ben has had his problems off the field, but all he does is win big games and make big plays. Just ask anyone in the stadium last Sunday. Just ask a rookie receiver playing in his first playoff game. Just ask any of his teammates. Ben is just a winner. But, according to the team Ben did not will them to the Victory.

One of my theories is that the coaches did have a plan. Seeing as how the Ravens forced the Steelers to turn the ball over twice, the plan was to try to get them to turn the ball over wherever they had a chance. The Ravens had been on a tear forcing turnovers in the last several weeks, why not give them a taste of their own medicine and see what happened. The result was that Joe Flacco felt the wrath of the Steelers Defense and the noise of the crowd and was shaken. How else would you explain that perfect pass to Clark and the botched snap.

The other theory I have is that this team just plays for each other. They simply are an extremely cohesive unit. Each of them know what the other is doing. They will do anything to win. You need look no further than Doug Legursky. He is a man of many talents for this offense and each time someone on the line went down he came in to take their place. The guy plays center and anywhere else he’s needed. He even lined up as tackle eligible. Geez, throw the guy a ball once to reward him. There’s no doubt in my mind he’d catch it. I heard Ben talk about it one time. He said they throw it to him all the time in practice, but never in a game.

So, what happened in that locker room to turn the game around. The answer is not what, but who. The team is who. This team will not give up on their goal and on each other. Here we go.

Jerry Steege
I’m an aspiring writer and a fan of Pittsburgh Sports teams. One of my favorite things to do is watch my teams play.
If you would like to read more about my Pittsburgh teams visit my website my site to keep up with them also.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 at 10:41 am and is filed under Football News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.