By Jim Coffman
How did we ever survive a decade of Super Bowl blowouts? From 1992 to 2001, eight games were decided by 10 or more points – the other two featured seven-point spreads and only one of those games was still legitimately on the line in the final seconds. We’re spoiled now, what with the last eight contests featuring three field-goal wins by the Patriots and the last two big games coming down to back-and-forth “you think that was incredible? Try this!” touchdown drives.
Actually, the Cardinals’ final touchdown was less the result of a march and more a matter of one perfectly executed play. In it, frazzled Steeler safeties were enticed to try to jump intermediate routes run by receivers out wide on both sides and Larry Fitzgerald (who finished another multiple-touchdown playoff game with a just-about insurmountable lead in the “greatest post-season ever by a wide receiver” competition) found nothing but wide open territory in front of him after he turned upfield in the middle. Had the Steelers lost this one, that 64-yard touchdown would have haunted coach Mike Tomlin and his staff for the rest of their lives.
Pittsburgh still had plenty of time when it got the ball back down 23-20, but there is no overstating the degree of difficulty involved in putting these sorts of drives together. There are so many things that can go wrong on the offensive side of the ball (and one did, immediately, when the Steelers were called for holding on the first play) and defenses these days deploy fewer bend-but-don’t break, prevent schemes. Those are the ones that, all together now, actually prevent the team that holds a late lead from putting away a win.
Going into the winning drive, it was clear Pittsburgh receivers other than Santonio Holmes were struggling to create any kind of substantial separation from Cardinal defensive backs. So Ben Roethlisberger zeroed in on his primary target. And zeroed in again, and again. The final march covered 88 yards after that holding penalty. Four passes from the quarterback to his favorite receiver covered 73 of those yards, capped off by Holmes on his tippiest toes hauling in the game-winning touchdown over double-coverage. An encore is going to be tough.
Seeing Yellow
What was your favorite penalty during this flag-fest? Mine was the one where the ball-carrier stiff-arms a potential tackler by stuffing his hand right into his face mask, the defender responds by getting a brief handful of the ball-carrier’s mask (but not dragging him down by it) and is flagged for 15 yards (let’s amend the rulebook to say that if a ball-carrier pounds a defender in the face, the defender can then do the same).
Or was it that ridiculous roughing-the-quarterback brought on by the usually ultra-sturdy Roethlisberger crumpling dramatically after an Arizona linebacker brushed against him?
It is fair to say that the two late holding penalties on the Steelers – one resulting in the safety and the other backing Pittsburgh way up at the start of the eventual game-winning drive, evened things up after too many earlier infractions were whistled against the Cardinals.
And it is always easy to complain about the officiating in the abstract, i.e. without going back, breaking down the individual flags and deciding which ones didn’t need to be called.
But this one was downright tough to watch at times.
Hey, and I think we should all tune in one more time today for one last replay review, perhaps of some exciting footage of one of the clean-up crews in Tampa, just to stretch out the Super Bowl experience as long as we possibly can.
Buh-Bye
One final item as we say our final good-bye to the 2008-09 football season: as bad as it was between 1992 and 2001, the 12-game stretch of Super Bowls from 1977 to 1988 was worse. A fearsome 10 of those contest featured spreads of 10 or more points. Remind me again how our nation came to be obsessed with this game?
Blunderbuss
First of all, thanks to alert reader Mark M. for pointing out a wonderful blunder in last week’s SportsMonday. Perhaps displaying a deep-seated, subconscious need to take gratuitous shots at the Manning family, I substituted Eli and the Giants for Donovan McNabb and the Eagles as the Cardinals’ foe in the NFC championship game. Then again, maybe it wasn’t about Manning. Maybe it was about McNabb, a proud son of the South Side whom I actually watched play basketball with Antoine Walker way back when at Mt. Carmel. Clearly this was my attempt to subtract his latest playoff setback from the written record.
Actually, McNabb played beautifully for long stretches of the Eagles’ loss to the Cardinals. It was the highly touted and perhaps overconfident Philly defense that lost that one, especially after McNabb rallied the troops from several scores down to take the lead late.
Editor’s Note: I missed it too, perhaps because I was distracted by another Peyton Manning commercial and subconsciously transferred my annoyance at Eli.
My Coach Vinny
Last week’s John Paxson and Jerry Reinsdorf “we know the Bulls stink and we’re really upset about it” tour kind of floundered, didn’t it. when it became apparent there was no way in the universe anyone was going to accept that it is all My Coach Vinny’s fault? The general manager and the owner took turns trying to reassure Bulls fans that they are on top of things despite the team’s struggles. The bizarre Reinsdorf attempt over the weekend to blame the assistants or perhaps some otherworldly, superhuman shadow coach who controls Vinny Del Negro’s every action capped things off nicely. The timing was a bit unfortunate as well, coinciding as it did with the Bulls’ first three-game winning streak in many a moon. The men in charge should have waited until this week – the Bulls’ schedule is much tougher.
Hawk Tawk
On the bright side . . . the Hawks notched a huge victory at San Jose late Saturday. The Sharks are well out in front off the rest of the NHL in the points race so far this season; the 4-2 decision was only their second regulation loss at home. Jonathon Toews knocked in a couple goals but the guy who clearly makes the biggest difference, the guy who was out of the lineup during the Hawks’ rough patch before the All-Star break last weekend, is defenseman Duncan Keith. Given how well the Hawks have played in notching a couple victories in their first three games of their current West Coast road trip, it is becoming ever more clear that Keith is this team’s MVP.
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Jim Coffman brings you the city’s best weekend sports roundup every Monday because he loves you. You can write to him personally! Please include a real name if you would like your comments to be considered for publication.
Posted on February 2, 2009