The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl XLV led by passing Aaron Rodgers and a defense that forced three turnovers and scored a touchdown. This was accomplished despite losing key starters Donald Driver and Charles Woodson early in the second quarter. But as they have all season, the turnovers intensified and the Packers won their first Super Bowl in fourteen years.

Aaron Rodgers was great. He was magnificent. He was fantastic. It played out like Aaron Rodgers has done for the past two years, but this time it was on the biggest stage of the game and against the best defense in the NFL. He threw for over 300 yards, had three touchdowns and no turnovers. He also shook off five dropped passes, including two that would have been touchdowns. He displayed extreme mental toughness, especially considering Driver lost his second receiver early and possession receiver Jordy Nelson kept throwing easy passes. He kept going back to Nelson when many quarterbacks would have “frozen” him. By all accounts, Nelson had the strangest game in Super Bowl history. He had almost 150 receiving yards, which looks good on paper, but if he hadn’t dropped so many passes, he could have shared MVP with Rodgers. He too could have been the goat if the Packers lost too. But Rodgers saved the bacon from him. Many times Rodgers came to the line of scrimmage smiling as if he knew that whatever pass he threw was going to be completed. His toughest pass came on the second touchdown pass of the day and first to Greg Jennings. It came in a post pattern as Jennings ran past the line defender and just as a safety ran to bring down the pass, the pass streaked between his fingertips and into Jennings’s waiting arms for a touchdown. The safety knew he was coming, but due to the speed of the pitch, he couldn’t put it down. His best pass came after the Steelers had pulled within three in the fourth quarter and faced third-and-ten. The momentum was clearly on the Steelers’ side. Rodgers stepped back and calmly completed a deep slant pass to Jennings for over thirty yards. Rodgers tossed it like he was playing catch on a California beach. Rodgers did something besides winning the Super Bowl. He also did something that his predecessor Brett Farve never did. He won a game in Dallas or very close to Dallas.

The Packers’ defense also deserves a great deal of credit for forcing three turnovers that led to 21 points and stopped the Steelers’ late charge. This was accomplished while losing to last year’s defensive MVP Charles Woodson late in the second quarter with a broken clavicle. As they have all season, the substitutes stepped up and played well. One of the biggest plays was made by backup defensive lineman Howard Green. After the Packers scored his first touchdown, he lunged at the guard and put a hand on Roethlisberger’s shoulder as he tried to throw the ball deep. This forced a floater that fell well short of its target and an easy interception by Nick Collins, who ran inside for a touchdown. That score put the Steelers behind the eight ball. The biggest play of his came when after the Steelers got to within 4 early in the quarter and were in Packer territory, leading by the go-ahead score. Ryan Pickett and Clay Mathews combined to cause a Rarshard Mendenhall fumble that was recovered by the Packers. This led to another Packer score that gave them an 11-point cushion and put the Packers back in momentum. Although Tramon Williams didn’t get any interceptions, he sealed the deal by knocking down Roethlisberger’s fourth down intended for Mike Wallace. Defensive coordinator Dom Capers deserves the defensive MVP trophy for himself by making adjustments after Woodson got hurt and mixing up coverages. The biggest adjustment of his was after Roethlisberger hurt the Packers with his feet in the third quarter, he assigned a spy just to watch Roethlisberger. Clay Matthews, his best pass-rusher, often allowed another rookie linebacker, Frank Zombo, to get a key sack in the second half.

When the Steelers fell behind 21-3, it looked like they were going to win the Super Bowl. But the Steelers showed courage and put in a valiant effort in their comeback, but came up short. The Steelers actually got past the Packers but not on the score. Turnovers and penalties finished them off. The turnovers that led to 21 Packer points and a couple of key special teams penalties that put them in unfavorable field position. Roethlisberger’s first interception came after a holding penalty dropped them to their own five. It wasn’t his fault the defensive lineman hit his shoulder and caused the pass to go short. The pass should not have been thrown as the Packers had diagnosed the play and could have intercepted it anyway. The biggest turnover occurred when Rarshard Mendenhall fumbled after the Steelers had pulled within four and were driving for the go-ahead score. Mendenhall is known for putting the ball down. It was his second fumble in over three hundred attempts. It was just bad timing and it turned the game in the Packers’ favor. The crucial penalty occurred when after the Packers scored a field late to go ahead by six. On the clinched kickoff, back line Keyaron Fox was handed a silly personal foul penalty that forced the Steelers to start the series from their own fifteen instead of their thirty. Every yard is valuable in that situation and it changed the play.

For a team with more Super Bowl experience, the Steelers seem to play in a daze for much of the first half. It was almost as if they were taken by surprise at how quick the Packers were on both offense and defense. The Steelers couldn’t play their game, which is run the ball, don’t turn the ball over, and on defense stop the run and rush the passer and create turnovers. Them neither. His defense, which managed to sack Rodgers, didn’t have enough constant pressure on him and made him cough. They couldn’t limit them to field goals after turnovers and stop them when they were badly needed. To be perfectly honest, if the Packers hadn’t dropped a couple of easy catches that would have been touchdowns, they would have been blown. The Steelers actually had the lead going into the second half with Driver and Woodson out, but were unable to take advantage of their replacements. Getting to the Super Bowl is great for most franchises, but getting there and not winning for the Steelers is a huge disappointment. They expected more.

Here’s the scary part for the rest of the NFL, plus the possibility of a lockout. The Packers won Super Bowl XLV with sixteen players on injured reserve, including key starters running back Ryan Grant, tight end Jermichael Finley and linebacker Nick (Photo gate) Barnett. They’ll be deeper, they’ll be stronger, they’ll have the confidence of being a champion and a quarterback who’s only scratching the surface and will only get better. Not to mention, he plays like a superman on the domes and on the grass. Next year’s game is in Indianapolis, which has a dome and grass. Oh no!

Now all that remains is for the collective agreement to be reached. So to Roger Goodell, the owners of the NFL and the NFL Players Union. As Larry the cable guy once said, “Let’s do it.”