Monday, February 2, 2009

Super Bowl XLIII: A Quarter for the Ages

As I sat on a couch surrounded by some of my buddies last night I feel like I was not the only one bored to death.
The Super Bowl is the game of all games in my mind. No other sporting event is watched by more people at one time on a yearly basis. It's special because it's the culmination of 17 weeks of match ups plus 5 weeks of premier playoff action. Unlike the BCS Championship game the Super Bowl features the two best teams over the last 5 weeks.

But last night's matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals was anything but a duel between the top two teams in football- at least through the first three quarters. The game started at 5:17 Central time and within hour there were just under two minutes left in the first half.

I picked the Cardinals to win because I love watching high octane offenses go against a shutdown defense. But the lone highlight of the first half was a James Harrison 100 yard interception return for the touchdown as time expired in the first half.
As the third quarter started I figured that some halftime adjustments would be made and the game would slowly start to favor the high powered Cardinals. Wrong. The third quarter was even worse than the first two. The lone highlight: a Jeff Reed 21 yard field that capped a 9 minute 16 play drive with just over 2 minutes left in the 3rd.

Even into the fourth one of my friends made the comment, " What else is on?" Ridiculous. But thank God for Larry Fitzgerald.
After making a ridiculous catch in the corner of the end zone to cut the deficit to 6 at 20-14 we all began to feel the momentum change. Not to mention after a bad holding call in the endzone that cost the Steelers 2 points and shrunk their lead to just 4 everyone knew what had to happen and who the ball was going to. So when Kurt Warner hit Larry Fitz on that slant my house erupted. It was indeed a story-book ending for an organization that had through so many valleys over the last 40 years. As Fitz walked into the endzone with his arms raised and millions of fans watching around the world everyone knew the game was over. It had to be.Wrong again.
Big Ben showed why he was the best QB on the planet when the game was on the line (and Tom Brady is hurt). As he marched the Steelers down the field and made that incredible throw to a darting Santonio Holmes. What a catch. There was the
ballgame.
I'm glad tonight that I was not a true Cardinal's fan.

What a quarter that was...


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