Super Bowl XL | CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks

Big Ben Steelers A lot is being made of the fact that Seattle is the only place Ben Roethlisberger has not played in his 12-year career, but the fact is he and the Steelers were supposed to come in 2011. And then the NFL changed the scheduling rules.

Starting in 2010, teams from the East no longer had to make two trips to the West in a season. The Steelers were slated to go to San Francisco and Seattle in 2011, but the NFL swapped Seattle out for Arizona, and the Seahawks ended up going to Pittsburgh.

The Seahawks have played in Pittsburgh twice since the infamous Super Bowl XL, getting shut out both times — Mike Holmgren’s Super Bowl remnants lost 21-0 in Mike Tomlin’s first year leading the Steelers in 2007, and Pete Carroll’s rebuilding club lost 24-0 in 2011.

This meeting comes on the 10-year anniversary of the Super Bowl XL season, and the Steelers had a reunion of that team a few weeks ago. Four players — Roethlisberger, tight end Heath Miller, linebacker James Harrison and long snapper Greg Warren — remain on the Steelers from that Super Bowl team.

Roethlisberger joked to Seattle media, “That’s how you know you’re old — when they’re doing reunions and you’re still playing.”

Continue reading Here’s why Big Ben has never played in Seattle →

Lockette tripped — The non-call on Malcolm Butler’s trip of Ricardo Lockette in the fourth quarter cost the Seahawks at least 20 yards. (Click to enlarge)

The Seahawks are 1-2 in Super Bowls now, and both losses were steeped in controversy afterward — XL because of a handful of questionable officials’ calls, XLIX because of one questionable coaches’ call.

But they shared a lot more than that in common.

According to ESPN stats, those two teams were the only ones in the 49-year history of the Super Bowl to come out ahead in turnovers and yards and come out behind on the scoreboard — a stunning stat that tells you the Seahawks certainly were not worse than the teams they lost to in those Super Bowls.

Mike Holmgren’s Seahawks outgained Bill Cowher’s Pittsburgh Steelers 396 yards to 339 and won the turnover battle 2-1. Pete Carroll’s Seahawks outgained Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots 396 to 377 and won the turnover battle 2-1.

Continue reading XL and XLIX losses share much in common →