This Super Bowl Championship was supposed to be the one for the thumb for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But this Super Bowl turned out to be the one for Jerome Bettis, Bill Cowher and the entire Pittsburgh Steelers organization.

After a shaky first half, the Pittsburgh Steelers put together an impressive second half to pull away from the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 in Super Bowl XL Sunday night in Detroit, Mich. After going down 3-0 to start the second quarter, the Steelers rallied behind the big plays of running back Willie Parker and wide receivers Hines Ward and Antwaan Randle El to hold off the Seahawks' late charge.

Cornerback Ike Taylor had a stellar game for a Pittsburgh defense that effectively shut down one the NFL's top-ranked offenses. The Steelers' defense held league MVP Shaun Alexander to 96 yards rushing on 20 carries, but kept the NFL's top touchdown-man out of the end zone. Ike led the Steelers with seven combined tackles (six solo, one assisted), two pass break-ups and one interception. Ike broke up a big third down pass on the Seahawks second drive of the game, nearly intercepting a hot throw from Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselback. The Seahawks came out throwing the ball at Ike, looking to test him early. Seattle wide receiver Darrell Jackson had five catches in the first half (for 50 yards) but did not make a single catch the rest of the game.

Ike really settled into his game in the second half, and for the 18th time this season, prevented the opponent's top pass-catcher from finding the end-zone.  But Ike's biggest play came with just under 11 minutes left in the game with the Steelers up 14-10. With the Seahawks driving deep into Pittsburgh territory and looking to score, Hasselback--on second and 25 from the Pittsburgh 34-yard line--looked deep down the left side of the field for wide receiver Darrell Jackson, but Ike jumped the errant throw and made a huge momentum-changing interception at the Pittsburgh five-yard line. After a return of 24 yards and another 15 yards tacked onto the end of the run for a personal foul-low block on Hasselback-the Steelers had first and 10 on their own 44-yard line.

Four plays later, the Steelers struck on what is now becoming their signature trick play. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger pitched left to running back Willie Parker who handed off to a reversing Antwaan Randle El. Randle El set up and threw a beautiful pass that found Hines Ward down the right sideline for a 43 yard touchdown pass.

The score put the Steelers up for good, 21-10 with 9:04 remaining. Seattle went only eight plays before Hasselback was drilled on third down by cornerback DeShea Townsend for the sack, forcing the Seahawks to punt. Pittsburgh then burned four minutes off the clock before punting the ball back to Seattle at the two-minute warning. The Seahawks drove to the Steelers 23-yard line before the clock and downs caught up with them. On fourth and seven, Hasselback tried to force a pass to Jeremy Stevens, but the talkative tight end could not hang onto the ball. With just three seconds remaining, all Roethlisberger had to do was take a knee, giving the Pittsburgh Steelers their fifth Super Bowl championship and their first since 1980.  Steeler wide receiver Hines Ward finished with five receptions for 123 yards and the touchdown and was named the Super Bowl MVP.