Superbowl XLIII
Well another football season is over (almost over – probowl remaining) and the superbowl today was the 43rd one between the Steelers and the Cardinals. Unlike last year, I personally wasn’t supporting either team, although I did want Kurt Warner to win another ring. However all of the day’s proceedings came down to a few big plays, a few big coaching “mistakes” and a few big officiating “blunders”. I will try to describe each of these below -
Big play – The biggest play in my mind from today’s game was the James Harrison 100 yard interception return for a touch down. That changed the momentum of the game going into the half time in my opinion. Instead of either going in wth a tie or a lead, the cardinals went into half time trailing 17-7, a two possession game. Which meant that they had to catchup from behind first before even thinking about lead / winning. There were other big plays in the game like the one from Larry Fitzgerald for the go ahead touch down and the one from Santonio Holmes that got them in range for the final touch down. I think that they were primarily trying to get in field goal range to go into overtime at the point when Santonio Holmes ran to the 5 yard line for a first and goal.
Big officiating blunders – The first one was personal foul on Arizona Cardinals for roughing the passer. In my opinion that was in the flow of the play and Rothlesberger just got the ball off before being hit. In most games that wouldn’t be called.
The next one was on Adrian Wilson for running into the holder for the field goal. Again he was off balance and didn’t intend to run into the holder. However that I guess the rule book is pretty clear.
The other one which in my mind was somewhat controversial was the holding in the end zone of the steelers that lead to the safety.
The last but not the least was the last play for the cardinals. That play shouldv’e been atleast called for a review from the booth. I think that it was close enough that the booth umpire should have called for the review.
All in all a great superbowl game after a long time and kudos to the Steelers for winning with a great two minute drill.