PITTSBURGH -- The Steelers are already having fun this week with being considered underdogs to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV.
"We're just going to give up," Steelers safety Ryan Clark joked Wednesday. "They're better than us at every position. So we decided to go to Dallas and buy the tickets and sit in the stands and watch them scrimmage. So, that way, the two best teams [will play]."
It's been the same old story for Pittsburgh.
Very few people gave the Steelers a chance this season, including your AFC North blogger who embarrassingly picked Pittsburgh to finish third in the division. A four-game suspension for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was a major reason for the criticism. But the Steelers instead went 3-1 to start the season.
"I knew it was going to be a special year when we started 3-1 without Ben," Pittsburgh receiver Hines Ward said.
Many early projections have the Steelers as three-point underdogs against the Packers. The Steelers are quietly smiling, because they traditionally play better with lower expectations.
Green Bay, behind quarterback Aaron Rodgers, has won three consecutive playoff games on the road on its way to playing the Steelers Feb. 6 in Arlington, Texas.
"They're the hot team right now," Clark said. "They're the team that nobody wants to play, a team that everybody thinks is going to win and
that's fine. But if that's the case we wouldn't play the game."
http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/post/%5F/id/23914/page/espntexas/steelers-relishing-underdog-role