Monday, February 2, 2009

Super Steelers

Last night the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the tough Arizona Cardinals in a real nail biter, 27-23. Since I'm a big Steeler fan, having grown up in the Burgh, I was hoping for a blowout so that by the middle of the third quarter I could relax and be virtually sure that the Steelers had won their sixth Vince Lombardi trophy. This was not about to happen though and when Larry Fitzgerald caught his second touchdown pass to put the Cards up by a score of 23-20 with two minutes and change remaining I thought, wow, the Cards, with Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald et al really have given the Steelers all they can handle and more. Can Big Ben bring the Black and Gold back to tie this game and send it into overtime?

Well, we all saw what happened. Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes, along with the rest of the Steeler offense, marched down the field with a real key play being the short pass to Holmes, of The Ohio State University, which he turned into a a 40 yard gain to the Cardinal 6 yard line. All of a sudden it was first and goal with about 50 seconds left. Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians' play menu really had done what it was supposed to do against Arizona. It had put the Steelers in a position to win the game at the last second. With the great Hines Ward playing at limited capacity, Santonio Holmes really picked up the slack. Holmes not only was a receiver par excellance but he really could pick up yardage after the catch. His game winning catch at the corner of the end zone was a great play and was a fitting way to end what was a wonderful game that could have gone either way.

This game fell into the same category a handful other great NFL championship games that came right down to the wire with a victory pulled from the jaws of defeat at the "last moment" of the game with a touchdown pass.

In addition to the gem last night, in which the Chicago.........whoops, St. Louis......., whoops, Arizona Cardinals darn near beat the Steelers, I've got to put last night's Steeler's win into the same pantheon of NFL championship games as the 1953 Lions victory over the Cleveland Browns when Bobby Layne threw a "last minute" touchdown pass to Jim Doran to seal the deal in a 17-16 Lions victory; the 1988 game in which Joe Montana led the Forty Niners to a last minute 20-16 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, and the game last year in which Eli Manning and his receivers managed to drive down the field to beat the "unbeatable" New England Patriots 17-14.

Super Bowls don't give any more theater than they did last night, in spite of the huge number of penalties that were called on both teams.

Easily lost in the excitement of the final scoring drives of the Cards and Steelers were the run defenses of both teams, the O-line play of both teams, the 100 yard interception return by defensive lineman James Harrison and the holding call that gave the Cards a magic two points and almost sent the game into overtime.

Super Bowl XLIII was a game for the ages that could have been won by either team.

Take care. :-)