Now THAT was a finish. With toes touching and his hands grasping, Santonio Holmes drove a stake into the collective heart of the Arizona Cardinals and their fans. It was the last score of a thrilling fourth quarter that saw the Cardinals rally from thirteen points down to take a 23 – 20 lead with 2:37 left on the clock. That was 35 seconds more than the Pittsburgh Steelers needed to drive 78 yards to the end zone, regaining the lead and winning the forty-third Super Bowl. I won’t waste your time recapping plays like James Harrison’s 100-yard interception return or Larry Fitzgerald’s 64-yard catch and run. You watched those on Sunday. Instead, I’ll try to hit the nuances and little snippets you may have missed as you stuffed down wings and left the room during gameplay so you wouldn’t have to miss a commercial.
Harrison’s half-ending touchdown run may have had all the flashbulbs in Tampa popping, but a play where he wasn’t the primary focus caught my attention. On a punt late in the fourth quarter, Harrison engaged Arizona safety Aaron Francisco. Harrison knocked him to the ground, where he proceeded to viciously shove and punch him until the Cardinal got to his feet (Shown Here). From there Harrison continued his outrageous behavior, now hitting Francisco’s facemask for no reason whatsoever. The play was far past them at that point, so what was the point in being a complete jerk? Harrison was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which is normally 15 yards. On this play, since Arizona downed the punt at the 2, it only cost Pittsburgh one yard and Harrison was allowed to continue playing. In my opinion, that was eject-able behavior on the defensive MVP’s part. It was classless, plain and simple. I’m honestly surprised it’s not getting more coverage by the sports media, but I guess it’s over, so who cares? (I mean, besides Cardinal fans.)
Another detractor of the game’s entertainment was the over-officiating. If you saw five minutes of the NFL Networks eight hours of pre-game, they put the average of head judge Terry McAulay’s crew versus the NFL average of offensive and defensive penalties. His crew was above the league average for offensive penalties and well below average for offensive penalties. You saw that emerge as the game went on, with numerous holding penalties on both teams, including one on Pittsburgh that resulted in a safety. (That was the correct call and could have been made on three different Steelers, by the way.) The real shocker was the amount of personal foul calls. Arizona’s defense idiotically committed three personal fouls on one drive but still managed to hold the Steeler offense to a field goal (after having 6 plays from inside the 10, that’s not so hot). Honestly, the game was slow for the first three quarters as it looked like the Steelers were headed for a blowout and the officials had a part in that. I’m not necessarily disagreeing with all of their calls, but with 7 penalties (for 78 yards) on Pittsburgh and 11 penalties (for 106 yards) on Arizona, it was one of the sloppiest and undisciplined Super Bowls I can remember.
Now, with all that officiating, you’d think that if a play in the final 40 seconds of a Super Bowl could be in question, it’d get a review, right? That’s what I would have though too. Apparently the booth officials clearly saw Kurt Warner’s last play as a fumble in the 20 seconds they had before Pittsburgh’s offense took the field. I can’t remember the last time a fumble / incomplete pass call DIDN’T get a review. Those are as automatic as an extra point. The replays I’ve seen show Kurt Warner being hit, but maintaining enough control of the ball to make a crude attempt at slinging it out of trouble. Obviously his throwing motion was impaired, but he didn’t lose that ball until well after his arm was moving forward. To me, that’s an incomplete pass. I’ve heard plenty of experts disagree with me, and it seems about 70 / 30 in favor of calling it a fumble, but couldn’t we have been cautious and taken another look? What was the rush? We couldn’t hold up the episode of The Office NBC has been advertising? After taking over three minutes on Santonio Holmes’s obvious touchdown, no time was afforded to analyze this constantly questioned scenario. If it had been overturned and called as an incomplete pass, a Pittsburgh personal foul penalty on that same play would have placed the ball at about the 30 yard line with around five seconds to play. That’s not exactly a long shot for Kurt Warner and those receivers. Well, maybe next time Arizona.
As much criticism there is regarding Super Bowl XLIII, it was still one of the most exciting finishes in Super Bowl history. The Cardinals proved they belonged on the same field with Steelers, but their defense was too exhausted to provide much resistance on the final scoring drive. Oh, and in case you didn’t read my Opening Drive: game Preview last week, I managed to correctly predict the score (the hard part) of Sunday’s Super Bowl, but missed on the winning team. I was so close to being an NFL genius. I guess there’s always next season. That’s the next time you’ll see a Final Drive, so thanks for keeping up with me this year! I’m going to be shifting my focus to the Draft and Free Agency soon, so stay tuned!
