Despite Steelers' sixth, 2008 was still a decent season

Let's establish one thing right off the bat: Come Super Bowl Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals will be what we thought they were, and always have thought: they are losers. They have had a great season and deserve credit for their run, but they are overmatched by the Steelers. That said, the new Pittsburgh dynasty is an unwelcome nuisance in this age of supposed parity.
But 2008 had a lot of good things to remember. There was some parity, like the 1-15 Dolphins turning around into division champions. The Ravens qualifying for the AFC championship game with a rookie quarterback. The Falcons unscrambling the mess left by Michael Vick.
For the first time in a long time, all four finalists did not win a single playoff game the previous year. The Titans' 13-3 record was the best in football, the first time since 2002 that the NFL didn't have at least a 14-win team. And the Cardinals removed themselves from a dubious list, those who have never appeared in a Super Bowl. Only the Lions, Saints, Browns, Texans, and Jaguars have never appeared in the Big Game.
The Steelers had a lot of numbers and laws of averages on their side Sunday against Baltimore, much like they did the previous week against 8-8 San Diego, a team essentially playing with house money after a 4-8 start. And on Feb. 1, the Cardinals will be up against not only the league's best defense, but bad history. Seven of the past nine teams making their first Super Bowl appearance have lost, with only the Ravens and Buccaneers being the exception in that span. The Cardinals happen to be going against the team with the most Super Bowl wins, not an enticing proposition for a team that has look extremely pedestrian at times this year.
The Seahawks had a much stronger team than Arizona does, and the Steelers team that defeated them was not as dominant, at least on defense, as this one. Uh-oh.
Oh well. At least there were a lot of positives in 2008, even if the end result did not show it. Did I mention the Patriots were absent from the postseason?