Super Bowl XLIII Thoughts
Yeah, I know I haven’t blogged in forever, and this blog entry may or may not signify the return of my blog. I haven’t posted in forever for a number of reasons, none of which I will get to in this entry.
However, after watching one of the finer Super Bowls in recent memory—no, it won’t exceed last year’s game, but it was sure a heck of a lot better than the stink-fests of 2006 and 2007—I just had to post my thoughts on the game.
On with it.
- Raise your hand if you thought James Harrison’s 100-yard pick and TD was the nail in the coffin for the Cardinals.
*raises hand*
To call that play ridiculously amazing is an understatement, and the timing of it (end of half, with the Cards at the Steelers’ one yard line, knowing that they were probably going to punch it in AND get the ball to start the second half) screamed absolute “stomach punch,” to borrow a phrase from ESPN’s Bill Simmons.
(During the half time show, Mike Holmgren asked why Warner didn’t throw a better pass, one that had a ~ 0% chance of being picked. I tend to agree; they had three shots at the end zone. Why not throw three fades?)
I try not to use superlatives often, but that play might go down as the biggest momentum-shifter in Super Bowl history. I still couldn’t believe it happened. It was certainly the most memorable play since…last year, of course. And to think, the play might still only be a footnote in the history pages of Super Bowl XLIII, because of the events of the fourth quarter!
- MVP Santonio Holmes definitely deserved to win the honors. I’m glad that Big Ben, freak of nature that he is, did not win the award. Holmes picked on Cards’ DB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie all game, and of course, Holmes made the two biggest plays of the game on the Steelers’ game winning drive.
- I’ve read that the Cardinals played with somewhat of a “We’re happy to be here” attitude, and I don’t buy that at all. Never mind the fact that that excuse waters down the Steelers’ record-setting sixth Super Bowl win, but a team doesn’t 1) have a shot at a 14-10 halftime lead with all the momentum in the world AND the ball to start the second half, nor 2) rally from 13 points down to the brink of a Super Bowl, because they played like they were just “happy to be here.”
Kurt Warner played his butt off, Larry Fitzergald was amazing—even if it took a half for his greatness to show up—and Boldin, Breaston, and James (at times) came up with big plays to keep the Cards in the game. I just hope Warner is remembered more for the 300+ yard passing game and the near-comeback, rather than the disastrous pick-six and the end-of-game fumble (more on the latter later).
- Overall, the game greatly exceeded my expectations. I picked the Steelers to win handily, 27-13, and I was more than pleased that the game was closer than I anticipated. However, I have two major gripes about the game:
1) James Harrison’s sick 100-yard pick and return will be remembered for years to come, but why is nobody talking about the sucker punch/forearm shivers combo delivered to the Cards’ Aaron Francisco (warning: obnoxious music, NSFW language, and ridiculous Steeler myopia…just read the description)? Michaels and Madden touched upon it during the game, but they were talking more about the fact that the penalty might have been a pre-kick penalty (it wasn’t) than the fact that it was totally classless and completely unnecessary. Yeah, like Harrison’s MMA-like attack impacted the play in any way.
I haven’t read a single article on any sports web site even mentioning the sucker punch! Why is this? Do you see ANY mention of the penalty in this ESPN article?
(And Gene Wojciechowski: the Steelers won the “right way?” Really? Sucker punches included?
Yeah, now I’m just splitting hairs at this point, and I must admit that Mr. Wojciechowski makes one excellent point: the Steelers should be ahead of the Cowboys for the “America’s Team” moniker.)
How Harrison wasn’t tossed on the spot was mind-boggling, and the apparent sweeping under the rug of the sucker punch is ridiculous. A fine and a suspension for at least one game next year seems fitting, considering the magnitude of the game.
In my eyes, the play will forever leave a stain on the game, and it’s completely unfair given the events of the epic fourth quarter.
EDIT: (from Digg) Here’s another blog agreeing with me that Harrison’s play was dirty and warranted an immediate ejection.
2) Also, why was the penultimate play (Warner’s apparent fumble) not reviewed by the officials? Isn’t this the type of play that the replay system is designed for?
After watching a couple of the replays, I was pretty confident that a challenge would not have reversed the call anyway; although his arm was going forward, he was stripped before he made a throwing motion. However, are you telling me that the call on the field was so certainly correct that there was no point in, at the very least, looking at it on replay? What if the head official looked at the replay and saw something that I didn’t see? What if he saw enough conclusive evidence to overturn the fumble call?
Save your “Well, even if it was overturned, the Cards still needed 45 yards to get in to the end zone!” That’s not the point of this rant. If you have a challenge system designed to get questionable calls scrutinized and, if an error has been made, corrected, why would the officials not use it on THAT play? It makes no sense to me.
Two closing thoughts:
Big Ben is well on his way to the HOF. You can’t argue against two Super Bowl rings, even if one might have been *cough, cough* “referee-assisted.”
Kurt Warner? I’m torn. I love the guy, and even though he’s 1-2 in Super Bowls, consider that he took the St. Lous Rams to the Super Bowl TWICE and the lowly Arizona Cardinals once. Brett Favre (*gag*) made it to two Super Bowls and went 1-1, and people forget how good the Packers’ defense was in those years. Arizona’s defense was good in the postseason, but no one’s going to argue that they greatly overachieved, and their defense was nothing compared to the Packers’ D of those years.
I think Warner gets into the HOF, definitely not on the first ballot, but he’ll probably sneak it somewhere down the road.