Super Bowl 43 is in the pantheon of all-time great super bowls, up there with niners-bengals, giants-bills, rams-titans, pats-panthers, giants-pats. And interestingly, it has followed the pattern of the last few great super bowls: a torrid fourth quarter which features a ridiculous explosion of scoring. Ultimately, I don't think it matches last years giants-pats for best of all time for a couple reasons: the giants-pats game was tight all game, it featured the potential greatest team of all time, and was also more crisply played and you didn't get the impression of sloppy play even though it was low-scoring (whereas steelers-cards was a bit sloppy and featured a ton of penalties). And anotherthing is that the difference on the final drive was 3 points, so the steelers only needed a fg to tie. The giants were down 4 and it was touchdown or bust. On the plus side, it did feature an unbelievable comeback by the cardinals against the league's best defense.
I have to mention the officiating. There were some really bad calls made (notably the 3 personal fouls on the steelers 2nd-half fg drive). The penultimate play of the game, the Warner fumble, should have been given a full review. I for one, thought a great case could be made that it was a forward pass. It was even better than a classic tuck rule call. And I really wanted to see Warner get a chance to throw up a hail mary for fitzgerald and boldin.
Harrison and Woodley are the Steelers' defense. The combination of speed and power they have is crazy. Harrison, simply, cannot be single-blocked, and the running backs didn't do a great job helping Gandy. The interception return was one of the most significant plays a defender has ever made in the super bowl (though Warner made a horrible decision with the throw). You cannot have a bigger swing: from the cards looking to be up 14-10 or at least 10-10 (and getting the ball first to the start the 2nd half) to the steelers having an almost commading 17-7 lead.
Warner, other than that one throw, was amazing. 70%, 375+ yards against the league's top pass defense. The Cardinals recievers are the best corps. in the league. Fitzgerald completed the greatest 4-game stretch for a receiver in league history. At this point, superlatives don't do him justice. Boldin and Breaston are also really good.
Roethlisberger, though he didn't play particularly well from the 2nd until midway through the 4th, made a number of clutch plays on the final drive. He is so big and so hard to take down, and he utlilizes the pumpfake as well as any qb in the league. The throw to Holmes was as good a throw a qb can make. Santonio Holmes is a great receiver. He got open and made all the offensive plays for the steelers. 4 catches on the last drive, including the beautiful td grab. But it was the 40-yd reception two plays prior that put the steelers in position to win. One other thing: Holmes is jewish (white Jewish mother, black father). Go look it up.
For the Steelers, that's 2 sb's in 4 years. They are good every year and always in the playoffs. They'll contend as long as they have Harrison and Woodley.
For the Cardinals, I really hope they have a couple more playoff runs in them. They should sign Warner to a two-year deal, and they'll have fitzgerald and boldin (they'll restructure his deal; I can't see the cardinals giving him up), they have a young defense (especially the secondary, whihc is loaded with skill but short on technique), and their salary cap situation is among the best in the league ($25+ million under). And don't forget, they play in the NFC west. That's a free ride to the playoffs.
Doesn't it suck that the season is over?
One final thought on the pro-bowl: there is a way, albeit crazy, to make the pro-bowl one of the most exciting sporting events of the year. If league officials decided to put up some substantial $$ for the winners, it would turn the game into a must-watch game. Imagine if all ticket proceeds for the game were pooled together for the winning team--I'm thinking something like $250,000 for each member of the winning team, almost nothing for the losers. Could you imagine the best football players in the league going all-out against each other for the cash? A game like that would generate exorbitant ticket prices, millions in advertising for the league, ridiculous hype, and it would almost be like a second super bowl. Each team would take like two weeks to prepare seriously and then they'd get it on. (The same idea would work for the nba all-star game, and is even more feasible for that)
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