Super Super Bowl
I fully expected to be napping by the middle of the second half Sunday night.
It’s not that I lacked faith in the Steelers and the Cardinals. I just figured there was no way we could have another great Super Bowl.
Look back at the past decade of Super Bowls, and you’ll see few back-to-back barn-burners. The Rams and the Titans locked in that epic last-second, goal-line battle in 2000, only to be followed by the Ravens’ blowout of the Giants. Then came the Patriots’ last-second field goal to beat the Rams in 2002, only to be followed by the Bucs’ throttling of the Raiders.
You get the idea.
And after last season, it was difficult to see the pattern changing. After all, the Giants and the Patriots gave us a game for the ages. There was the drama of the undefeated season, the Giants taking the lead in the fourth only to be answered by the Patriots, the huge top-of-the-helmet catch by David Tyree and finally the game-winning touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress with less than a minute remaining.
Surely, we couldn’t expect an epic repeat.
Heck, this is nothing against the Steelers or the Cardinals. It was more just a Super Bowl karma thing, a the-gridiron-stars-can’t-align-like-that-again thing.
Oh, but they did.
What happened Sunday night in Tampa was another game for the ages. Was it better than last year’s game? No, but few games will be. How often, after all, do you have a team going for undefeated glory.
But that doesn’t diminish how great a game the Steelers and the Cardinals provided. Just when you thought James Harrison’s 100-yard interception return at the end of the first half would be the play of the night, the fourth quarter started. Trailing 20-7, the Cardinals scored 16 points in less than five minutes. Then came the drive of the night. The Steelers marched the length of the field in less than two minutes, getting big play after big play. The drive was capped by a diving, toe-dragging catch by Santonio Holmes in the corner of the end zone.
Fittingly, Holmes scored with :35 seconds remaining in the game, the same amount of time that was left on the clock when Burress made his big catch last year.
Super Bowl XLIV is more than a year away. We have no idea who will make the playoffs much less who might be in the Super Bowl. But surely, we’re due a dud. Surely, we shouldn’t expect another great game.
Or should we?
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