Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Jerramy Stevens gets the ball knocked out of his grasp by Steelers safety Chris Hope in the second quarter. Stevens, the foil of Steelers linebacker Joey Porter earlier in Super Bowl week, caught one touchdown pass but dropped three catchable passes in the game. Click photo for larger image.

DETROIT -- Super Bowl XL boiled over first, then boiled down to Jerramy Stevens.

Placed in his hands, he dropped it.

Oh, sure, he managed to hold onto a 16-yard touchdown pass in the right corner of the end zone, paring the Steelers' lead to four points with nearly 22 minutes still to play. But he had bobbled catchable Matt Hasselbeck passes thrice before this night. He had been the end point of some bad karma on an 18-yard pass play to the Steelers' 1 a few plays into the fourth quarter, a holding call on Sean Locklear eradicating that gain.

Two plays later, Hasselbeck threw his first interception in five games, a pass that cornerback Ike Taylor nabbed in front of an unwitting Darrell Jackson and a turnover the Steelers transformed into the game-sealing touchdown.

"Obviously, I was considered to make plays," Stevens said after a 21-10 Steelers victory. "I didn't go outside myself. I just didn't make the plays."

So, in the end of this Super night, the foil of Steelers linebacker Joey Porter was foiled.

Porter was somewhat gracious in the giddy championship aftermath, focusing on those who made plays: "That's something that you have to have in football. I feel like they came out and played great but, like I said, there can only be one champion."

Stevens wasn't a full chump, catching three passes for 25 yards and that touchdown. But he probably will be the subject of venting on Pacific Northwest talk shows and message boards.

Even Steelers linebacker James Farrior rubbed it in, approaching Stevens toward game's end.

Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Seahawks tight end Jerramy Stevens drops a pass in the second quarter as James Farrior defends. Click photo for larger image.

"I just told him he dropped a lot of balls," Farrior said with a smirk.

Stevens, his face stern while he sat on a raised podium in the mass-media conference post-mortem, was stoic about his play.

"I had the opportunity to make three or four big plays, and I didn't make them," he said. "It was frustrating.

"I have no one to blame but myself."

Porter stoked the kindling underneath the Seahawks, pouncing on a mostly innocuous Stevens comment -- that Seattle wanted to win the game and ruin Jerome Bettis' homecoming.

Stevens deflected the media attention that gathered around him Thursday a few hours after Porter labeled him as "soft" and "a liability."

Stevens' hands proved hard, with those drops streaking toward the Steelers' end zone in the third quarter, in the right flat later in the third quarter and at midfield in the second quarter -- when Steelers safety Chris Hope had a little something to do with Stevens' failing to capture the pass.

"The bottom line is," Stevens said, "I didn't get it done."