The NFL’s championship weekend is over and now the two-week hype-machine can start rolling for the Packers/Steelers match up in Dallas, Texas. First, the BI writers stepped back to review what happened on Championship Sunday. 

Mike Morris: 

Better late than never, right?

Tell that to New York Jets fans. 

   On a bitter Pittsburgh evening when Ben Roethlisberger’s noodle arm was fusilli, and his overrated playoff legacy swelled larger than the bruise on his own face after Richard Seymour socked him, the Jets still managed to pave the road to the Super Bowl for the Steelers by - you guessed it - taking an entire half to even show up.

   The Jets stood about as much a chance in the first half as a one-eyed, one-armed Napoleon at Waterloo, but the manner in which New York fought back in the second half - despite still squandering  a number of big opportunities - will leave Jets fans wondering “what if?” for years to come.

    Yes, the Steelers possess almost certainly the nastiest defense in the NFL. Yes, Heinz Field in January is one of the most formidable venues in all of professional sports. Yes, I would curl up in a little ball and cry, too, if I saw James Harrison coming at me (you’re not alone, LT!).

    But as a gritty Steeler team moves on to a third Super Bowl appearance - and a third Super Bowl victory - in the past six seasons and Roethlisberger’s odious reputation gets swept under the rug yet again after he basks in the limelight of another championship, we’ll have to wonder what could have been if the Jets would have showed up for four quarters.

    A.J. Hawk, Clay Matthews, B.J. Raji. Please summon the spirit of Ray “don’t call me Nietzche” Nitschke and pound Big Ben and the Steelers into oblivion on February 6. I’m not sure I can stand another black and gold Lombardi trophy, and I’m sure the man the trophy is named after wouldn’t be too pleased either.

Darion Donnelly: 

Clearly Cutler was hurt to the point that he could no longer perform well enough to help the Bears. Grade 2 MCL sprain is a pretty bad injury meaning he wouldn’t be able to do his drops correctly or roll out if needed.

What was worse was the backup Todd Collins freezing under pressure. Caleb Hanie did what he could do but it shouldn’t have been on his shoulders to win the game. If Cutler wanted his team to win, he should’ve stayed in and gave them the best possible opportunity to do so.

Brad Estes:

For Sunday’s Packers Bears game I drank Leinenkugels beer (made in Wisconsin), wore my Packers shirt and held my cheesehead (I held it because it’s too small for me because I got it the last time the Packers won the Super Bowl when I was eight years old). 

The first two games of the playoffs for the Packers against the Eagles and Falcons worried me much more than the NFC championship did. I was confident that the Packers would win this game because the Bears were riding a lucky streak all year. They were not tested in the playoffs, they played the Seahawks, and all season their defense made up for poor quarterback play. 

Jay Cutler is known in this area (Wyoming and Colorado) for when he quit on Denver, and he quit on the Bears Sunday. Growing up as a Brett Favre fan, I only really admire a QB who takes the hits and puts it all on the line for his team – especially in the game before the Super Bowl. The Bears went down 14 early, and they didn’t have a chance until Cutler’s MCL sprain took him out of the game. Brain Urlacher, Lovie Smith have defended their quarterback, but Cutler has always seemed like that kind of selfish no-team guy to me. 

I watched the Steelers’ first 24 points of the AFC title game, and then I went and saw the Fighter instead of watching the second half. Christian Bale makes that a great movie, so go see it this weekend when you’re missing football (the Pro Bowl doesn’t count). 

In two weeks I expect the Packers fast, smart, blitzing defense to stop the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers to have an outstanding game indoors in Dallas as they beat the Steelers and Big Ben who I still believe should be in the Big House right now instead of playing football.

Zach Greubel:

I don’t care for Jay Cutler just like the next guy, but if I sprained my MCL I probably wouldn’t feel like being pounded into the ground much more either, even if a Super Bowl bid was on the line. Who am I kidding? That may have been the only chance Cutler will ever have at reaching the Super Bowl and he was watching from the sideline. Let’s face it; even before he left the game he wasn’t doing the team much good- 6 of 14 for 80 yards and a pick. The Bears defense played pretty well, at least against the pass, considering they intercepted Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers twice and didn’t allow him to throw a touchdown. Green Bay cornerback Sam Shields had the game of his life at the perfect time with four tackles, a sack, two interceptions, and a forced fumble. He’s my MVP of Championship weekend. At the end of the day, with the exit of Cutler the Packers were able to focus on Bears running back Matt Forte for the rest of the game and didn’t give Chicago many options on offense. It’s not very comforting when you have guys like Todd Collins and Caleb Hanie trying to bring your team back against the Green Bay defense.

The AFC Championship game looked to be over before it started, until the second half. Pittsburgh running back Rashard Mendenhall was dominant in the first half, running for 95 yards and a touchdown. New York actually held Pittsburgh scoreless in the second half and scored 19 unanswered points, but the deficit was too much to overcome. The play of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was basically a nonfactor with the exception of some key passes to keep drives going. He was only 10 of 19 for 133 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. With a stat line like that you might think Pittsburgh would have lost the game. Roethlisberger’s counterpart, Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, played very well on the other hand- 233 yards and two touchdowns, but he did have a costly lost fumble that led to a Steelers score. Honestly, I’m glad Pittsburgh won because now we don’t have to hear Jets coach Rex Ryan talk for a while.

Tom Hesse: 

Am I the only one who is worried about the ability of these two teams to finish off their opponent? 

The Steelers were up 24 points and then failed to score the entire second half. The Bears nearly came back against the Packers with a CSU guy leading their offense. The scary thing is that the Packers did the same thing against the Eagles. 

I thought the Steelers looked better when everything is said and done. There’s one quarterback in this league who can play without an offensive line and unfortunately, I have to give the advantage to him. I’ll give you a hint, it’s the same guy who was under criminal investigation this off season.