After hanging on to beat the New York Jets at Heinz Field on Sunday, January 23 by a score of 24-19, the Pittsburgh Steelers are headed to their eighth Super Bowl and their third in the past six seasons.  The Steelers have now tied the Dallas Cowboys for the most Super Bowl appearances in history.  Having gone 6-1 in the previous seven trips, Pittsburgh is home to more Lombardi Trophies than any other city in the world.  This being said, the team that the legendary Vince Lombardi coached before having the Super Bowl trophy named after him, the Green Bay Packers, have a little history of their own. 

After going into Chicago as a number six seed and defeating the Bears by a score of 21-14, the Packers are headed to their fifth Super Bowl in team history carrying a 3-1 record in the previous four match-ups.  They won the first two Super Bowls under Lombardi in 1966 and 1967, before winning again in 1997 and falling in 1998 to the Denver Broncos.  That gives them a .750 winning percentage in the big game as compared to the Steelers .857 percentage.  With these impressive numbers, it appears that something is going to have to give this year.  

The Steelers and Packers will be meeting in the postseason for the first time ever, but the two teams have been playing each other since the 1930s with Green Bay leading the all-time series 18-14.  The last meeting between the two teams was a thriller at Heinz Field just last season on December 20, 2009.  In that game, Ben Roethlisberger completed a 19 yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace with no time left on the clock.  The ensuing extra point by Jeff Reed gave the Steelers a dramatic walk-off 37-36 victory.  In all, Roethlisberger ended up throwing for a franchise record 503 passing yards in the game, but don’t expect nearly as much offense this time around.  Check back later in the week for my game breakdown and prediction.