Seattle's passing game is ranked 4th, but Pittsburgh also has a top ten pass defense, one that recently stopped a fellow who spells his name P-E-Y...

I'm going with Pittsburgh to win for three reasons. 1) The only outstanding weakness in either team is the Seahawks pass defense; 2) The Steelers got here by beating the top three seeds in the AFC, by comparison, the Seahawks are the best of the Junior Varsity; 3) Bill Cowher's jaw could beat the hell out of Mike Holmgren's chins, even though it would be something like three on one.

So my official pick for the Super Bowl is Pittsburgh -4.

With only a single game left, the borderline degenerate gambler in me starts casting about for other opportunities. For example the over/under is currently 47.5 points. That's actually a fairly high scoring game. Pittsburgh scored an average of 24.5 points and Seattle scored an average of 27.8 points. So if each team scores as much as they did against the average defense they faced over the course of the season, there would be about 52 points.

On the other hand, Pittsburgh allowed an average of 16.3 and the Seahawks allowed an average of 16.5, so call it an average of 33 points total allowed. Split the difference between scored and allowed and you get about 42.5 points, which suggests the under might be a good bet.

But I wouldn't take it. The Super Bowl is so full of weirdness and uncertainty, and then there's the history of blowouts ... no sir, I don't like it. Not at even money, anyway.

Still, there are some proposition bets that look tempting (courtesy of Pinnacle Sports):

First Quarter/First Half results: A $100 bet on the Steelers to be ahead at the end of the first quarter and the end of the first half would yield $150. A similar bet on the Seahawks would return $360. But things get interesting for other combinations, even though they are entirely plausible. Seahawks leading after the first quarter but the Steelers leading at the half would return $850 — very tempting. Tell me that the Seahawks jumping out to an early lead and then running afoul of the Pittsburgh defense before half time is not as likely as a the Steelers leading both the 1st Q and the half. And if Seattle were to jump out to a 1st Q lead but the Steelers just came back to tie by half time, you could actually get $2500 for your $100 wager.

Another potential way to play the notion that the Seahawks might take the first quarter is by laying $100 on all three scenarios that start that way. For what would then be a $300 layout you would win anywhere from $360 to $2500 (returned $460 to $2600 when you include the return of the winning wager) depending on the outcome at half-time. Worth the risk, I think.