Now that every single one of us has gotten rest and is sober, we can finally assess the aftermath of Super Bowl XLV clearly. Well, at least those who have fully recovered from hangovers.

In between tequila shots, salsa dip, Buffalo wings from Wingstop and beer bongs, there was a sense of magic when the Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers took charge of the field with two-minutes left. We’ve seen it a couple of times already — Roethlisberger leads the charge downfield and delivers a Super Bowl win for the Steelers, which signifies the start of a dynasty. But in this case it didn’t happen. No rabbit out of the hat.

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With the win Green Bay, in the words of analysts, “Bring Lombardi back home”. They did it the hard way by winning three games on the road to get to the Super Bowl. They executed better and deserve the win.

So, here we are contemplating the fate of the winners and losers of Super Bowl XLV:

Aaron Rodgers: Rodgers won the Super Bowl MVP that Brett Favre didn’t win as a Packer. This is Rodgers’ time. Favre is one of the greatest to ever play the game, but Rodgers is on the right path to match Favre.

Rodgers is the most clutch QB in the league — not Tom Brady or Peyton Manning — and the favorite to win MVP next season. He is the best QB in the league. And none of his contemporaries can touch him.

Ben Roethlisberger: Despite his abysmal game, Big Ben was still in a position to win it for the Steelers. He usually finds his groove when the time calls for it, but the Steelers failed miserably to execute in the last minute. It was a mess. Receivers didn’t know their routes, Roethlisberger was pulling passes and Mike Tomlin looked like he wanted to be in his hotel room watching Jersey Shore.

All the blame is placed on poor Big Ben. Does he deserve it? Yes, he does. Two interceptions is nothing you can’t overlook.

Pittsburgh’s D: Tory Polamalu couldn’t make it to Sunday’s game. Oh, wait? He played? Guess I didn’t see him until he recorded his first tackle of the game early in the fourth.

James Harrison left after recording his only sack of the game. He didn’t leave? He finished the game? Oh right, he did play until the final moments.

The Steelers’ defense was overrated during Super Bowl week. And as it turns out, the Packers’ D was a lot better than advertised.

Overall, Pittsburgh still has to be proud of their effort. They were well within striking distance even though they turned the ball over three times.

Packers’ D: They forced three turnovers. Clay Matthews forced a fumble on Rashard Mendenhall, which basically sealed the game. Wouldn’t it be funny if we started calling the Packers defense, the “Cheese Curtain”? We’re on to something. Remind me to copyright that.

Super Bowls define careers and legacies. It just did that for the Packers. Just as two Super Bowls have defined the legacy of the Steelers – they have nothing to be ashamed of, unless they too were drunk from tequila shots during the Super Bowl like the rest of us.

During the AFC Championship game a few weeks ago, the Pittsburgh Steelers were able to dominate the New York Jets in the first half and were seemingly on their way to an easy victory over Rex Ryan’s lockdown defense. One of the main reasons for the Steelers dominance over the Jets in this game was the impressive performance of running back Rashard Mendenhall.

It is uncertain how well the Pittsburgh Steelers offense would do against a defense like the New York Jets, but one thing was for certain, they were going to throw all different kinds of looks at Darrelle Revis and company to keep them on their heels. With players like Revis in the secondary and Bart Scott near the line of scrimmage, the Steelers were a bit concerned about how their offense would be able to get going against the Jets.

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Fortunately, the offense turned out to be the one thing that they didn’t have to worry about in the AFC Championship game as Rashard Mendenhall led them to victory with arguably his best game of his career finishing with 121 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown.

Even though Mendenhall’s numbers weren’t extremely impressive for a starting running ba

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ck in this league, he was able to have this kind of performance against the third-best rushing defense in the NFL. With the Jets is giving up 90 yards per game, Mendenhall’s performance came at just the right time as he might just be the key to victory in Super Bowl XLV.

Despite the Pittsburgh Steelers defense pretty much getting all the attention in terms of being the better defense heading into Super Bowl XLV, the Green Bay Packers are without a doubt a serious force to be reckoned with on the defensive side of the football. Not only do they have arguably one of the best linebackers in the league today in Clay Matthews, but they also have a Hall of Fame corner in Charles Woodson patrolling the secondary.

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Both Woodson and Matthews can single handedly takeover game on the defensive side of the football and will be trying to do just that Super Bowl Sunday. Their main objective will be to contain quarte

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rback Ben Roethlisberger and keep him in the pocket as much as possible, but they will also be concentrating on limiting Rashard Mendenhall’s production out of the backfield.

If Mendenhall has another performance like he did against the Jets, the Packers’ defense could be in for a long day and might end up being on the losing side of Super Bowl XLV. Unlike the Steelers, the Packers are 18^th in the league at stopping the run as they give up 115 rushing yards per game.

Ultimately, I believe the Green Bay Packers will come out as Super Bowl champions in the end, but if the Pittsburgh Steelers do get their running game going, even if it is just to step up the play-action, Big Ben and company could pull off the slight upset.

Heading into Super Bowl Sunday this year, the hype and hoopla surrounding the big game with in depth analysis by all the top NFL analysts and critics is almost at an extremely overload point. This Sunday will be entertaining to say the least as all anybody has talked about the battle of these two lockdown defenses led by Clay Matthews and Troy Polamalu.

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These two guys are without a doubt to the best defensive players in the league today and proved that fact as they were first and second in the voting for the Defensive Player of the Year award. The Steelers’ Polamalu was able to get the edge in the voting with just two votes ahead of Matthews. Along with being arguably the two best defensive players on the field in Super Bowl XLV, both players will without a doubt be considered as legitimate candidates for Super Bowl MVP this weekend in Arlington, Texas.

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Even though this is a game that many people think will be dictated by the defenses of these two teams, there are two incredibly talented quarterbacks leading the way for the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Despite the Steelers a basically being a team that lives and dies by their play on the defensive side of the football, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is amongst the elite in his position with two Super Bowl titles to his credit already tries to make a third this weekend at Cowboys Stadium.

As for the Green Bay Packers, they have arguably the best quarterback in the league right now behind the New England Patriots’ Tom Brady. Some people might say that the Indianapolis Colts’ Peyton Manning still has the distinction as the best quarterback in the league, if not behind Tom Brady, I believe that Aaron Rodgers is the total package with his ability to hurt opposing defenses with both his arm and his legs.

This will be on display this weekend as Rodgers looks to dissect this lockdown defense of the Pittsburgh Steelers with a mix of run and pass. The Steelers may be the best in the league at stopping the run, but Rodgers might have the skills to keep this defense on its heels and lead the Green Bay Packers to a Super Bowl title.

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As we head into Super Bowl Sunday, Aaron Rodgers is the favorite for the Super Bowl MVP and in my opinion if he has a solid performance he should run away with the award. Big Ben is second in line for the Super Bowl MVP and for good reason as he has been here two times before and come away victorious with two rings to his credit, but it has been other players like Santonio Holmes that have won the award when the Pittsburgh Steelers play on the NFL’s biggest stage.

Regardless of the outcome, this should be one hell of a game with some talented players on both sides of the football!

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been without a doubt one of the best teams in the league, over the past decade or so, on the defensive side of the football. Even though they haven’t had the potent offenses like the New England Patriots or the Indianapolis Colts, they have been able to hang with the best of them and have two of the last three defensive players of the year intimidating opposing quarterbacks.

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With Steelers’ linebacker James Harrison winning the award two years ago when they beat the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl and superstar safety Troy Polamalu winning the Defensive Player of the Year this season, the Pittsburgh Steelers have arguably one of the best defenses in the league hands down.

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Even though the Green Bay Packers Clay Matthews had a breakout season and was one of the finalists for this award, Troy Polamalu got the best of him in the voting with just two votes dividing the two players.

Despite having some major knee problems over the past few seasons that have limited his playing time, Polamalu always just as good, if not better than he was before he went down. This season Polamalu finished the regular season with seven interceptions, 63 tackles and one sack. Along with those numbers the former USC Trojans standout had an interception returned for a touchdown and a forced fumble.

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Most people pay attention to the big names on offense during the Super Bowl like Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers and Greg Jennings, but this time around it might be the playmakers on defense that steal the show as Clay Matthews will be leading the way for the Green Bay Packers and Troy Polamalu will be holding it down for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

With perennial Pro Bowl quarterback Aaron Rodgers going to the air attack for most of his offensive production, players like James Harrison and Troy Polamalu have the opportunity to make some big plays and control the fate for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The same could be said for the Green Bay Packers playmakers on defense like Clay Matthews and former Defensive Player of the Year Charles Woodson. With Ben Roethlisberger not being the kind of quarterback that airs it out like Aaron Rodgers, the Packers’ defense might be able to capitalize on Big Ben’s mistakes during Super Bowl XLV.

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In my opinion, the Green Bay Packers are the better all around team heading into Super Bowl XLV, but it will be interesting to see what happens with two teams that are so evenly matched on the defensive side of the football.

As of right now, the Packers have a -2.5 point spread in their favor, but if Steelers’ center Maurkice Pouncey is able to start, that could change. Green Bay is a solid bet to cover that spread!