Sports pundits have called Sunday night’s battle on the gridiron “the greatest Super Bowl of all time.” While I’m not quite ready to forget Super Bowl XXXVIII, in which the Patriots defeated the Panthers 32-29, I will allow that this was perhaps the strangest championship game of the modern football era.
For most of the game, the Steelers marched up and down the field, not scoring much but displaying a stifling defense which held Arizona to three total yards in the first quarter. The highlight of the first half was, without a doubt, James Harrison’s 100-yard interception return as time expired, which gave the Steelers a 17-7 lead going into halftime.
With the exception of Harrison’s unlikely heroics, however, both sides appeared listless throughout the first three quarters. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin committed the first of several mental errors when, facing a fourth and goal on the 1 yard line, he opted for a field goal instead of giving quarterback Ben Roethlisberger a final try for six points. That early in the game he should have been trying to send a message instead of settling for easy points. The Cardinals’ offense was typified by the opening drive, which, after a promising start, fell apart with a holding penalty, a muffed handoff, and an incomplete pass.
After a crotch-crushing performance by Bruce Springsteen and an equally painful third quarter, it seemed that Pittsburgh would easily rumble to its record sixth Super Bowl Championship. But in stranger-than-fiction fashion, the Cards roared back, led by star receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who scored on a third-and-goal fade and then again on a fantastic 64-yard catch-and-run.
Once again, I have to question the play calling here. This time the offenders are Cards QB Kurt Warner and Arizona offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who took until nearly the end of the first half to get the ball to the most lethal downfield threat currently playing football. Combined with a holding call for a safety, Fitzgerald’s efforts delivered Arizona the lead with only two and a half minutes left on the clock. Not to be overshadowed, Roethlisberger connected with Santonio Holmes twice—including one of the greatest Super Bowl touchdown passes ever caught—in a two-minute drive to retake the lead. An officiating error gave Pittsburgh the game when what was clearly an incomplete pass was called a fumble and was recovered by defensive end Brett Keisel.
Despite the efforts of Holmes and Fitzgerald, this game should be remembered as much for what didn’t happen as what did. Neither team was able to put together a coherent running game and, at least in the fourth quarter, neither could stop the other’s passing attack. Penalties proved costly to both sides, especially Pittsburgh’s personal fouls in the fourth quarter and Arizona’s holding penalties throughout the game.
Perhaps most surprising was Arizona’s inability to pressure Roethlisberger. Big Ben looked uncharacteristically light on his feet as he evaded an anemic pass rush to go 21 for 30 with a touchdown and an interception. This should help Roethlisberger lovers ignore the fact that, until the final drive, the burly quarterback managed just one touchdown in 13 plays within the opposition’s 10 yard line. I won’t go any further into the fumble call, except to say that somewhere in the suburbs of Phoenix, Ed Hochuli is thanking God no one will remember his boneheaded officiating in Week 2. A strange game, indeed.
