Super Bowl XLIII Recap

Super Bowl XLIII
February 1, 2009
Tampa, Florida
Pittsburgh Steelers 27, Arizona Cardinals 23

What is it about Kurt Warner and exciting fourth quarters in the Super Bowl?

Super Bowl XXXIV was one of the most boring championship games ever played — for three quarters. The fourth quarter was probably the most exciting in Super Bowl history, at least up to that point. Two years later, Warner played in Super Bowl XXXVI, which the Patriots won on a last-second field goal.

Now this. There were a total of 27 points scored in the first 52 minutes of the game. There were 23 points scored in the last eight minutes. Wild comebacks when this guy is involved.

I don't know if anyone else wondered about this, but I did. Warner's go-ahead touchdown pass to Larry Fitzgerald came with 2:47 left in the game. His winning TD pass to Isaac Bruce nine years ago came with 1:54 remaining. What a difference a minute makes.

Where Did That Ending Come From?

Halftime wasn't the real divider in this game. The fourth quarter was. For three quarters, this was Pittsburgh's game: low-scoring and slow-paced, with most of the big plays coming on defense. The teams combined for 11 offensive possessions and 27 points. The fourth quarter was exciting and fast-paced, with most of the big plays coming on offense. The teams combined for nine offensive possessions and 23 points. What changed?

Two of Arizona's biggest stars, Larry Fitzgerald and Darnell Dockett, broke free in the fourth quarter. Fitzgerald, the unquestioned star of this postseason, had one catch for 12 yards in those first three quarters. The Steelers blanketed him with coverage, and the Cardinals' offense was ineffective without him. In the fourth quarter, Warner finally started throwing it to Fitzgerald. Suddenly, their offense exploded. In that fourth quarter, Fitzgerald had 6 receptions for 115 yards and 2 touchdowns. Good things happen when this guy gets the ball.

Pittsburgh's offense played well throughout the game, except for a cold streak that lasted most of the fourth quarter. That cold streak was keyed by the play of Dockett. On consecutive plays, he broke into the backfield, stuffing Willie Parker for a four-yard loss and sacking Ben Roethlisberger for another 12 yards. Punt. The next time Pittsburgh got the ball, Dockett sacked Roethlisberger again, this time for 10 yards. That set up another three-and-out.

The heroics from Fitzgerald and Dockett gave Arizona the lead with 2:47 remaining. That's when Santonio Holmes took over.

MVP

For only the second time in my seven years covering the Super Bowl for Sports Central, I agree with the choice for MVP. Through 3½ quarters, when the score was 20-7, it had to be someone on defense. I was waffling between Ike Taylor, who had shut down Larry Fitzgerald, and James Harrison, whose 100-yard interception return set a Super Bowl record.

Taylor quickly took his name out of the running. He fell apart in the last eight minutes, getting burned by Fitzgerald several times and earning a 15-yard penalty. Harrison had a couple of tackles and he drew at least two holding penalties, but he was only a serious contender because of that interception return.

No one made more big plays in Super Bowl XLIII than Santonio Holmes. He had three catches on Pittsburgh's first touchdown drive and drew a 15-yard facemask penalty in the third quarter, but Holmes was even better with the game on the line. After the Cardinals went ahead, Holmes picked up four catches for 73 yards and the game-winning touchdown. He accounted for almost half of the team's offensive yardage (131/292, 45%), finishing with 9 receptions for 131 yards, not including two catches for 41 yards that were called back because of holding penalties.

Wide receivers won Super Bowl MVP only three times in the first 38 years of the event. In the five Super Bowls since, they've doubled that, with MVPs for Deion Branch (XXXIX), Hines Ward (XL), and Holmes (XLIII). Three of the six WRs to win this award did it with the Steelers (Ward, Holmes, and Lynn Swann).

A Little More About Receivers

This Super Bowl set records for fewest rushing yards (91) and fewest rushing attempts (38). The previous record low for yardage was 136, set last year. This year's total was the lowest by a huge margin. Super Bowl XLIII was a story of two receivers, Holmes and Fitzgerald. These were the two best players on the field Sunday, and almost every big play involved them.

Having said that, the play of the game — easily — was Harrison's interception return for a touchdown. That one play was a 10-14 point swing, +7 for Pittsburgh and -3 or -7 for the Cardinals. If that pass is incomplete, there's a good chance Arizona wins the game.

Super Bowl XLIII in Perspective

About every other year, there is a chorus declaring the best Super Bowl ever. We heard it for XLII (Giants/Pats), XXXVIII (Pats/Panthers), XXXVI (Pats/Rams), and XXXIV (Rams/Titans), which started this unfortunate trend. In all fairness, I really do think that XXXVI and XLII were the two best Super Bowls ever. This was a good game, probably in the top 10, but not the best.

I don't mean to bash a fine Super Bowl — I enjoyed the game — but this was an uneven contest. The teams themselves seem to have been evenly matched, but the quality of play was up-and-down all game. The Steelers led by 13 points entering the fourth quarter. At no point in last year's Super Bowl was either team ahead by more than four. This game was also marred by penalties. This Super Bowl had the most penalty yards in almost 40 years, since the notoriously ugly Super Bowl V. This year's championship game ranked among the top three Super Bowls in combined penalties (18), combined penalty yards (162), penalties by one team (Arizona, 11), and penalty yards by one team (Arizona, 106).

Here's my question for the overly-enthusiastic fans who want to call this the best Super Bowl ever: did you watch the first 52 minutes?

History

With Sunday's win, the Pittsburgh Steelers became the first NFL franchise to win six Super Bowls. This franchise, owned and run by the Rooney family for more than 70 years, is a model for how every NFL team should conduct itself. The Steelers are also the shining example of why the NFL is the best professional sports association in North America. Pittsburgh is a small-market team in other leagues. The MLB Pirates are never competitive, and the NHL's Penguins struggle just to exist. The Steelers are consistently one of the best teams in the NFL, and that reflects extremely well on both the league and the Rooneys.

This game was also significant with regard to the winning coach. Pittsburgh HC Mike Tomlin is the youngest head coach ever to win a Super Bowl (he's 36). He's also black. Deion Sanders noticed this, too, but we've heard a lot about Tomlin's age, and hardly anything about his race. That is, in my eyes, a sign of tremendous progress. Let's not ignore, though, that two of the last three Super Bowl-winning HCs have been African-Americans. That's hugely significant.

Announcers, Entertainment, and Commercials

This section is a scattered collection of thoughts that don't fit well into paragraph format, so I'm just going with bullet points.

• I have long maintained that Bruce Springsteen should play the Super Bowl halftime show pretty much every year. I rest my case.
• Cris Collinsworth is a suck-up. I remember when he would say what he felt, but now he just wants people to like him.
• NBC did a fine, professional job with the game itself.
• This was a disappointing year for Super Bowl ads. I might give the nod to that very strange Hulu ad, basically because Alec Baldwin is funny.
• Those commercials with the baby are really tired. They need to stop.
• Younger fans might not get this, but one of the soda companies parodied probably the most famous ad in Super Bowl history, the "Thanks, Mean Joe" spot from almost 30 years ago. When it started, I thought they were re-creating the original, and thought, "Oh, that's not a good idea." Well, it would have been a better idea than what they actually did.
• I don't think Super Bowl ads are safe for children any more. I bet about a third of them, you wouldn't want your daughter to see. The commercials that run during the most widely-watched event of the year should be safe for all audiences.

Hall of Fame

The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced the Class of 2009 on Saturday: Bob Hayes, Randall McDaniel, Bruce Smith, Derrick Thomas, Ralph Wilson, and Rod Woodson. Smith and Woodson were absolute locks, and there is no room for controversy in their selections. Hayes was a Senior candidate; he retired 34 years ago and died in 2002. Opinion has long diverged on Hayes' candidacy, but I believe he belongs in. Hayes made his reputation as an Olympic gold medalist, but he was also an all-pro receiver and a Super Bowl champion. McDaniel made 12 Pro Bowls and was a foundation for the great Minnesota offenses under Dennis Green. Ralph Wilson has owned the Buffalo Bills since their inception in 1960 and has resisted efforts to move the team to a larger city. All of those guys belong in the Hall.

I am not going to say that Derrick Thomas, who tragically died at the age of 33, doesn't belong in Canton. Thomas was an exceptional pass rusher, and outside linebackers are badly underrepresented in the Hall. But Thomas got in ahead of other, even more deserving OLBs. Here's hoping Thomas' election clears the way for Kevin Greene, and maybe even old-timers like Chuck Howley and Chris Hanburger.

The real mistake the voters made this year wasn't who they voted in, but who they left out: Senior nominee Claude Humphrey, a six-time Pro Bowl DE with the Atlanta Falcons. It's my feeling that the Senior candidates should pretty much always get in, unless they are obviously undeserving. Humphrey was not obviously undeserving; I would even argue the opposite, that he was obviously deserving of induction. I question whether the voters who nixed his candidacy really knew much about Humphrey. I'm also surprised that Shannon Sharpe didn't get in. He'll probably make it next year.

Other Sports Thoughts

Terrific men's final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the Australian Open. This match was more interesting and better-played than their overrated Wimbledon final last year. The final in Melbourne featured lots of long, exciting rallies, and three or four games with at least six deuces. It also became clear this weekend that Nadal is the best player in the world.

If you watched ESPN2's re-broadcast of the event, though, you would have thought the biggest sports story on Sunday was Michael Phelps smoking weed. SI.com thought Phelps was a bigger story than the tennis match. I respectfully disagree with my editor's opinion that this is a noteworthy sports story. Get a grip, all of you. This is tabloid gossip, and it has no foreseeable effect on anything related to sports.

Finally, MMA fans were treated to a pretty good January, with two major events in the UFC and another from the WEC, plus the Affliction/M1 card featuring Fedor Emelianenko. Following Saturday's fights, I'm prepared to say that Georges St-Pierre and Lyoto Machida are the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. Are they really ahead of Anderson Silva, Miguel Torres, and Fedor? Maybe not, but the way they fought this weekend, I don't see how anyone could be better.