Super Bowl XLIII Recap

Larry Fitzgerald catches the ball in the middle of the field and darts through the befuddled Steelers secondary. Fitzgerald has just caught an improbable touchdown pass from the arm of his 37-year old quarterback, Kurt Warner. With fewer than two minutes left in the season, Fitzgerald's majestic score has put the Cardinals ahead for the first time, by the score of 23-20.

Ben Roethlisberger walks onto the field knowing that he has the chance to cement his legacy in the annals of NFL lore with a touchdown drive or be forced to deal with the unending pain of coming so close to the sport's ultimate prize only to fall short. After moving the ball slowly but effectively, Roethlisberger scampers for a first down using his feet. With 1:01 left, Head Coach Mike Tomlin wisely calls a timeout. One play later, Roethlisberger throws the ball to Santonio Holmes which puts the Steelers in field goal range with 48 seconds left.

A play later I run to the stairs and scream up to my mother, "You might wanna watch this. The Super Bowl is coming down to the last play." Before she could come down, Roethlisberger drops back and fires a perfect pass into the poetically placed hands of Holmes; his toes painted on the blades of the end zone. It was a play for the ages and the winning touchdown. Warner tried in vain to mount one last drive, but a borderline fumble that went against the Cards ended their chances.

It was an exciting game, even if it wasn't well played. The mass of penalties highlights that claim. The Cardinals had Kurt Warner rolling and moving in the first half which turned out predictably to be ineffective. The Steelers should have gone for the touchdown on 4th down from the 1 inch line on their first drive and it almost cost them the championship. If you can't score from 1 inch out, you don't deserve the championship. Conversely, if you don't make it and your defense can't prevent a 100 yard touchdown drive, you don't deserve the title either.

The play that helped to render that poor decision moot occured at the end of the first half. Arizona had recently scored to cut the Steeler lead to 10-7. The Cards drove to the red zone to at least tie the game if not take the lead heading into halftime. Warner dropped back looking for Anquan Boldin but never saw the usually-blitzing James Harrison, who had dropped back into coverage. Harrison picked the pass and what happened next will go down in Super Bowl history. He rumbled down the field, hurling over opponents, his heart dragging him to the promised land where he stumbled passed the goal line for a 17-7 advantage at the break.

Tying up some loose ends: Santonio Holmes was the MVP- Roethlisberger and Harrison were also contenders. After Fitzgerald's first TD, I said (to no one), "He Tyreed it." Then five minutes later, John Madden made the David Tyree catching the football on his helmet reference on national television and my witty comment became irrelevant. James Harrison was called for a personal foul that Al Michaels deemed to be a big penalty, even though it only cost Pittsburgh 1 yard. That possession, Nick Hartwig was called for a stupid hold in the end zone, resulting in a safety, but it was 6 yards behind the goal line. The personal foul call against Karlos Dansby was wrong. This Super Bowl was reminiscent of Super Bowls XIV and XXIII. I did not watch the halftime show.

My favorite commercial, besides all of those misogynist or unnecessarily violent ones, was the one where the guy asks for a girl's number, calls her, goes on a date, and brings his parents to meet her within 30 seconds. That was humorous.