I'm recovered now (I think), already got the wife sick, and I'm pretty much caught up on everything I missed while I was buried under three layers of covers and still shivering.
I know everyone was really really worried, so I thought I'd explain.
I've obviously talked to a lot of people about the game since it happened and there have been some differing opinions...
My father in-law thought we should have blown the Cardinals out and would have if Roethlisberger had hit those two deep passes in the first half (and we definitely would have crushed them had we hit those passes and converted in goal-to-go situations). He thought we played 3.5 great quarters, was happy with Roethlisberger and Holmes, and thinks that, ultimately, the best team won.
My Dad doesn't understand why we don't run the no huddle offense all time. He doesn't like the fact that the offense struggles the whole game, then all of the sudden turns it on, zips down the field, and scores. Why can't they do that the whole game? Well, aside shrugging your shoulders and saying, "Because that's the way they won all season?" there really isn't a good answer to that question. And, really, that's kind of like asking why the entire plane isn't made of the black box.
The Bills ran the no huddle as their base offense in the 90s and the Colts kinda run it now, but they run a "quick huddle" offense. They usually snap the ball with only five or so seconds left on the clock and it's a much more controlled pace. The defense has a chance to rest, but not substitute and the quarterback calls a lot more running plays that in the typical two-minute/no-huddle situation. But, like the black box, it's not possible to build an entire game around making the defense tired and hoping they screw up... because it's just as possible that your guys will get tired or screw up. Or, rather, it takes too much effort and too much materials to make a no-huddle offense indestructible.
My brother wondered how we let Kurt Warner pass for 375 yards, how we let Fitzgerald beat us when he was the one guy we had to stop, why we couldn't gain four freakin' inches when we needed to score, how could we let them back into the game?
He was excited -- the common theme among all Steelers fans that I've spoken with is that they all agree that it is awesome that we won the Super Bowl -- it's just that I think that everyone was expecting it to be easier after that first half.
I was worried after the first half, but I was also in Cowher mode. I was thinking about the fact that we're 1,150-1-1 since 1873 with an 11 point lead, or whatever the stat is. I think that Tomlin eased off the gas pedal. I think the fact that he knew he couldn't run the ball came back to bite him, and I think that Cowher wouldn't have let the game be that close.
However, once the Cardinals scored, I knew that we were going to win. And I wouldn't have been as sure as I was if Cowher was still coaching. Tomlin gives this team uncanny mental and emotional resolve. Mental fortitude. Sure, they're tough physically, they're trying to hit you, but they're also disciplined, calm, focused, and have their eyes and mind set right where they need to be. Cowher teams had a tendency to be too emotional. A critical turnover or a big play (like, say, the second Fitzgerald TD) would crush this team. Sometimes they had the resolve to come back, but they usually fell just short.
Some of it has to do with Roethlisberger's development, but I think a lot of it has to do with Tomlin and the confidence and focus he instills in his guys. I've said before that I love Mike Tomlin and I think he's a great coach, but I'll say this now... I don't think we win that game if we're down 23-20 with 2:37 left and Cowher is on the sidelines. I think the guys would have been too rattled, Cowher would have been too emotional, and someone would have panicked.
Getting back to the complaint department, everyone else on the Internet has talked about how the Steelers almost pissed the game away, they maybe got some favorable calls, and they got outgained in the Super Bowl again... and won again. The good news is that everyone seems to have gotten off Roethlisberger's ass for how badly he did in Super Bowl XL (the Steelers won that one, too, by the way) and everyone loves Tomlin almost as much as I do.
Here's what I think...
- We choked in the fourth quarter and let up on defense too much.
- We pissed away four touchdowns (the aforementioned goal-to-go situations and the dropped deep passes).
- We leaned too much on our defense.
- We couldn't run the ball.
- We didn't have a goaline offense.
- We kinda escaped with a win on this one.
- Shit, we still won.
- I wasn't overly surprised because I knew how good the Cardinals were coming in.
- Special teams wasn't our downfall.
- We knew that 2-4 were issues coming into this game. If Dennis Green was still the coach in Arizona, he would've said, "They were who we thought they were." Everything that was broken in this game had been broken all season. We covered it up for this final game, overcame it, and now we know what we need to work on in the offseason.
- WE STILL WON.
In any reality TV series, there's that one contestant that threw up in the bachelor's flowers the first night and was barely conscious for the first elimination ceremony. The next day, she's hungover and isn't at the top of her game and almost goes home. Then, she kind of skates by for a while until you look up and realize that she's in the top six and now anyone can win.
When someone has to be eliminated each time, all it takes is one bad day. You just have to have a day that's not the worst day.
Now, I think we played better than "not the worst" in the Super Bowl, but we also were not as strong as the guy from Survivor who killed a shark with a machete.
Ultimately, style points don't make much of a difference. All that's going to matter according to history is that we won. We couldn't throw the ball to save our lives in Super Bowl IX and needed some favorable calls and another crappy game from Fran Tarkenton to win 16-6. In Super Bowl X, we almost lost on three consecutive Hail Marys, we squandered several great opportunities on defense, and Roy Gerella and (insert punter's name here) were so terrible that Chuck Noll gambled on fourth down a number of times he didn't need to and lost... including on fourth and 12 from his own 35 with a four point lead towards the end of the fourth quarter. In XIII, we needed some lucky turnovers and for Jackie Smith to drop a wide open touchdown in the third quarter. In XIV, we were losing to Vince Friggin' Ferragamo for a good portion of the game before we eventually pulled away. And I'm sure you don't want me to bring up XL again. Too soon.
Style points aren't what got us six Lombardi Trophies. Style points aren't what make us successful.
And so -- not calling anyone out, just making a statement -- that needs to be considered. And we also need to consider, as Steeler fans, that the Pittsburgh Steelers have more Super Bowl wins than 21 teams combined (Arizona, Atlanta, Baltimore, Buffalo, Carolina, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Jersey/B, Kansas City, Minnesota, New Orleans, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa and Tennessee).
At this point, to split hairs about how much we won by or how we won or how stylish it was seems kind of insensitive, when you consider the fan bases of those 21 teams.
Enjoy it. Savor it. In a couple weeks, you'll be thinking about free agents. In a couple months, you'll be thinking about draft picks. Then mini-camps and OTAs. Then training camp.
For right now, just enjoy that the Steelers won Super Bowl XLIII and leave the analysis to someone else.
No comments:
Post a Comment