so its tuesday, and i think i'm ready to talk about it. but i might not be. so bear with me.
yes, i went to pittsburgh (awesome) on sunday, and got to see my sister Mary(awesome). we went to heinz field (awesome) and enjoyed an incredibly warm and beautiful day (awesome). we got to the stadium early enough to see the team warming up (awesome):
i'm thinking that they should have stopped right there. because that was the best they looked all day. however, the game began and i was screaming my face off. at one point i looked at Mary and whispered to her that my voice was shot. this was only 5 minutes into the first quarter. i'm not joking. i was worried about not having anything left in the tank for supporting my steelers, but it turned out not to matter because they didn't give me many more opportunities to yell (not awesome).
it was an ugly football game with both teams just trying to grind it out and with the steelers making more mistakes than the bengals. even though it was the second most attended game in heinz field history (awesome), the steelers never really gave us something to go crazy about (not awesome). we mostly just watched the bengals dink and dunk their way to endless field goals while the steelers offense tried every 40-yard pass play in their playbook, to no avail (not awesome). with about 2 minutes to go the steelers got the ball, trailing by 6 points, and with a chance to put a dramatic bow on the thing and escape with a big divisional win. but it didn't work out that way (totally not awesome). everytime i close my eyes since sunday afternoon, i see a different ending, one in which big ben hits hines and santonio on a couple of 10-12 yard slants, mewelde moore scampers for a 16-yard screen, wallace catches a 29-yard pass across the middle and the steelers have 4 chances at the end zone from inside the red zone.
alas, it ended up not being that awesome. but everything else about the day was awesome. just not the outcome.
as Mary and i walked along the river with a huge throng of black-and-gold clad fans, i noticed that it was almost silent. here you have thousands of fans in a busy city, and you could literally hear nothing but the whispers of people talking to one another. i whispered to Mary that it felt like a funeral procession. we all had our heads hung and whispered in hushed tones. i love steeler nation.
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