Superbowl XLIII Reaction

Other than the obvious “wow” factor, the four-quarter, 60-minute rollercoaster that was Superbowl XLIII raised such a number of talking points, I know i wasn’t the only one left speechless as Ben Roethlisberger took a knee to hand Pittsburgh a sixth world championship. The referees, the play-calling, the sudden explosion of points in the fourth. The number 1 defense being torched for 16 points in all of 3 minutes. So where do we start? From the beginning of course…

First Blood Pittsburgh
Forget Arizona’s decision to defer the kickoff, forget the fact that Pittsburgh drove all the way to the one yard line on their first drive (well, actually, don’t forget that, that’s kinda relevant), but that first Arizona drive was huge. Much of the talk throughout Arizona’s road to the Superbowl was about Edgerrin James and that running game. How they were surprising everyone but coming into the Superbowl, this was the number 1 defense, and the number 1 rush defense. Furthermore, the Steelers and Dick LeBeau now knew about James potentially being a factor. With two weeks between the championship games and the big one, we were getting into double and triple bluff territory, and that is never a good thing in the NFL. Far too often teams out think themselves. For 16 games, Arizona were a passing team, you planned to stop the pass. But the past 3 games they’d run the ball to set up the pass. So maybe the Steelers were expecting run. So if they expect run, surely you throw the ball? But isn’t that what they expect you to do?

Either way, for me Haley got it wrong and LeBeau got it right, in the early stages at least. Ever since the talk started my stance was the same, you stick to what you know, passing the ball. This is the big one, you can’t afford to start trying these mind games, because you outfox yourself. Yes you’ve had success recently, but that success has still every time been overshadowed by that passing attack. Go out there and find the holes, get off to that quick start. Don’t mess about running to establish the pass. You have Kurt Warner, three 1,000 yard recievers and one of the best recieving backs in recent years. The Steelers first drive was exactly what the Cardinals drive should have been and they really should have gotten 7. But Arizona? Their first drive was:

1st and 10: Rush for no gain
2nd and 10: Pass to Breaston for 10 yards, first down
1st and 10: Offensive Holding on a 2 yard rush.
1st and 20: Rush for no gain after botched handoff
2nd and 20: Rush for 3 yards
3rd and 17: Short pass incomplete
4th and 17: Punt

Just two passing plays called, and the one on 3rd and 17 was out to the flat almost. Now I understand that with Pittsburgh playing the cover 2 and so wary of Fitzgerald the flats were being given up and Arizona went on to have a lot of success there. But on 3rd and 17? Why are you even stuck with 3rd and long in the first place? Pittsburgh went on to punch it to make it 10-0, it should have been 14-0 and at this point it looked as if the game may get out of Arizona’s reach before they’d even got going…

The Zebras
Now, with the risk of the cliche police intervening, the game really was a rollercoaster, but especially during the third quarter I was not particularly impressed with the officiating in this game. Arizona became the most penalized team in Superbowl history in terms of yardage, and I can’t say some of the yards weren’t warranted. James Harrison is probably still giving Mike Gandy nightmares which is something I’ll get to later, but some of the calls were just so ticky-tacky it was unbelievable. The problem is that it may actually be a penalty, but when they’re so incredibly soft, you’re setting a precedent, you have to call every one, and it makes the ones the officials miss all the more damning.

The fact Whisenhunt had to challenge two obviously incorrect calls is a start, he shouldn’t have to waste time challenging those calls, especially the second challenge on the overturned fumble, clearly an incomplete pass. Then of course the ensuing drive where Arizona where hit with 3 personal foul penalties. The first I can live with, you simply can’t touch the face mask and it was a stupid play. But the Dansby roughing the passer call was simply horrible, shades of Terrell Suggs from earlier this season. You have a guy in Roethlisberger (who was absolutely phenomenal in staying alive at times) who is bouncing around the pocket, keeping the play alive, Dansby hit’s him from behind a second after the release and that’s roughing the passer? Please… And then for them to call roughing the holder on a stumbling Adrian Wilson? Yes, it’s in the rulebook but it’s one of those things that never gets called. Rod Woodson claimed that in his 17-year career he’d never seen a flag thrown for that, despite running into the holder numerous times himself. This is the Superbowl, let it be! If you want to call absolutely everything, then actually do it. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who saw Lawrence Timmons clipping on the Harrison run-back, who I’m still not sure even got into the end-zone. There was a soft holding penalty on Rod Hood shortly after and at that time, you thought that Arizona weren’t actually going to get anything going their way. But I’d say there were some questionable calls on the Steelers too, the safety in particular. Ok, maybe, just maybe you call that but damn that seemed soft to me. A make-up call perhaps.

And of course, lastly, you can’t just ignore the final play of the game. If that “sack/fumble” was reviewed and overturned like it should have been, Arizona get the ball at the 29 yard line with 5 seconds left. Yes it probably would have been swatted down, but wouldn’t you have liked to know?

My MVP: Darnell Dockett
Much will be made of Ben Roethlisberger’s 2:02, 88-yard drive that culminated in ring number 6, and I’m sure fingers will be pointed at an Arizona defense who gave up a touchdown to a team merely looking for a field goal. But, without safety Francisco falling down and giving up the 40-yard catch-and-run by Holmes that took them from outside FG range to the Arizona 6, it may have been different. And if it wasn’t for the play of the Arizona front seven for much of the game, it certainly would have been different. Holmes put in a fantastic performance and deserved his MVP honors. Conversely, had Arizona held out I’m sure Kurt Warner or Larry Fitzgerald would be driving home a new cadillac. But for me, Arizona’s MVP at least was Darnell Dockett.

Talk of elite DT’s and I’m sure Dockett’s name wouldn’t come up, but this guy had an absolute monster post-season and was at the heart of a Arizona defense that refused to quit and kept their team in the game while their offense was stuttering. On the first drive, faced with 1st and 1 Arizona held Pittsburgh to a field goal, with Dockett the man bringing down Roethlisberger on his scramble short of the endzone.At 17-7 in the 3rd, he helped stuff Willie Parker on 1st and 4 before Watson snuffed out Big Ben’s QB sneak to keep the score at just 20-7. After a Arizona punt and into the 4th quarter, he dropped Willie Parker for a 4 yard loss on 2nd and 4 before sacking Roethlisberger on the next play to force a punt. Warner finally finds his rhythm again and it’s 20-14 all of a sudden. Next possession, 2nd play and it’s Dockett in the backfield to drop Ben for a 10 yard loss. Punt again, which ultimately led to the Arizona punt which forced the safety. A couple of plays later and Fitzgerald is watching himself hand Arizona a 3 point lead.

Aside from just the sacks, Dockett was superb as the defense held Willie Parker to just 53 yards off 19 carries and his contribution is one that will surely go unrecognised by most. But it’s important to remember that this game would have been over long before had the Arizona defense not held Pittsburgh to field-goals twice inside the five and forced those punts in the second half.

James Harrison…
Another peformance that embodied the nature of this irrepressible affair. On the one hand, he was everything the defensive MVP should be, a constant thorn in the side of Arizona and his mere presence allowed his teammates to have a bigger impact. But on the other, he should have been thrown out of the game on a completely blown call by the officials.

Firstly, his record-setting interception return was an absolutely fantastic play-call from Dick LeBeau who clearly knew what was likely to be called by Todd Haley and just outsmarted Warner. Anticipating a quick slant, and taking advantage of Warner’s wariness of Harrison blitzing, LeBeau had his best pass-rusher show blitz before dropping back into coverage. Warner took the bait and from it being a 10-10 ball game at the very least it was 17-7. Harrison forced four holding penalties on left tackle Mike Gandy, and that’s just the ones that were called. He was held without a sack, literally. At least twice he would have gotten to Warner if Gandy hadn’t illegally stopped him, and likely more.

But the unnecessary roughness call in the fourth, I find it absolutely unfathomable how he was not thrown out of the game. If you see him roughing Francisco, surely you see him punching him in the head while he’s down? It may not have mattered as Harrison didn’t have much of a chance to impact the last minutes of the game, but who knows how it might have gone down. Just an incredibly stupid play from normally such a head-smart player.

The Best Ever?
I’d like to think it’s not the bitterness in me that the hated Steelers won yet another championship but I’m not sure this was the greatest ever, although it’s certainly up there. Few Superbowls come close in terms of ranges of emotion, it had everything, just everything, when it was finally over it left you exhausted. For me, it maybe beats 38 between New England and Arizona, but I just can’t look past St.Louis/Tennessee. That final drive where McNair was almost superhuman was some of the most thrilling football I’ve seen. He seemed unstoppable, he couldn’t be brought down as he just kept making plays. And to have Kevin Dyson hauled down a yard short of the endzone on the final play? It may not have had the scoring that this game did, but that still ranks as the most exciting. One thing to think about though, recent superbowls sure beat the blowouts of yesteryear.

Some have also been crowning the Holmes’ game-winner as better than Tyree’s of last year. Let me be clear, Tyree’s was the most unbelievable, spectacular, clutch play you will ever see in a superbowl. Holmes’ was clutch, technically superb but players make that catch all the time. The fact it won a superbowl makes it great, but the Tyree catch was something that was just out of this world. 3rd and long, Manning somehow escaping a sack, and catching it against his helmet to preserve the drive? No contest…

Still, I have to say I don’t think I’ve seen a Superbowl that’s ever made me go through such a range of different emotions.  And as I hear the cliche police knocking at my door, it really was such a shame one team had to lose