the steelers clinch the championship 27-23 [by ivan]
WOW! What a thriller! Ben Roethlisberger just put himself up there with Tom Brady as the greatest (young) quarterbacks to win multiple Super Bowl championships. The results… The Pittsburg Steelers with the win, 27-23 over the Arizona Cardinals.
But it was very, very, very close. But also very, very, very controversial. There were many penalties called. A few challenges to be reviewed, as well as the way that the game ended (after Holmes TD).
The game ended with a magnificent fourth quarter game-ending drive by Roethlisberger to take the lead. The great touchdown pass was caught by Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes. It was with 35 seconds left that Steelers regained the lead. Rooting for a drive to end with a field-goal, it would’ve brought the game to the first Super bowl to reach overtime. But Ben took the lead 27-23 and it gave the Cardinals a few seconds left, to work with three or four plays.
Which leads me to the ending play… Did Warner have a chance to make a miracle comeback? Maybe yes, maybe no. Kurt Warner makes two great passes rushing up the field with the clock ticking away. And then he was… sacked? Then he fumbled? Or was it an incomplete pass? The play could’ve gone either way. It was really close. Maybe yes, it was a fumble, but it was not officially reviewed. So instead of reviewing the play to make sure it was the correct call, the Steelers knelt down to clinch the Super Bowl Championship. The Steelers celebration then began. As well as a sad off-season for the Cardinals.
Ben Roethlisberger (Pitt) – 21 Comp, 256 Yds, 1, TD, 1 Int
Kurt Warner (Ariz) – 31 Comp, 377 Yds, 3 TD, 1 Int
Santonio Holmes (Pitt) – 9 Rec, 131 Yds, 1 TD
Larry Fitzgerald (Ariz) – 7 Rec, 127 Yds, 2 TD
Comments
To say Ben Roethlisberger in the same breath as Tom Brady is blasphemy.
Ivan…as much as i thoroughly enjoy you as a human being, it is clear that youre understanding of the game of football is slim to equate ben roethisberger to our man, tom brady…and i may be the biggest fan of big ben on the planet, and that includes EVERY steelers fan on the planet. I have known the man since his freshman year at Miami(ohio) AND called it from his first season to his first and second super bowl. he is my favorite douchebag in the world. However, his greatness lies in the fact that he is not a great quarterback but he is a winner and he knows it, which explains his rather elementary NFL numbers while winnning two super bowls in four years along with very successful seasons in a solid division. that being said, tom brady is the single greatest quarterback to grace the gridiron since the invention of the game, with the only competition being peyton manning, who by all means is also a great quarterback, and the debate of who is better will only come down to personal preference and opinion. the only difference between those two is that brady is more talented while manning is more skilled, which is the only way to explain why brady is much smoother in action during game play compared to mannings “mechanical-ness,” yet they can produce similar numbers each season.Although steelers fans may not want to admit it, the new england patriots are the team of the deacde, pending the next season and its ultimate victor. Although many new england fans do not want to believe it, the steelers are, by definition, the greatest franchise in the history of the NFL having just won their 6th championship out of 43 possible tries, the most of any team ever affiliated with the league. the main point here is that while the steelers have put together a great “career,” if you will, along with recent greatness, they ultimately are not as good as the patriots at any time they have played them while tom brady is on the field. they were only one win better than the patriots this season, a team playing without tom brady, the best player in football no matter what anybody wants to believe, and any time they have played the patriots with him they have lost, and quite miserably at that as many of the games they have played have been in pittsburgh at heinz field, a place that nobody is supposed to be able to win at except the steelers, much less in playoff football, which is the most unpredictable beast in sports. although he has only been Most Valuable Player of the league once, his (and THE) single greatest season at quarterback ever, there is no question and very little argument that tom brady is the most valuable player ever since, if nothing else, the patriots have rarely been successful when he has not been running the team. in case extreme ability is not enough, he may also be the most selfless player to grace professional sports, taking paycuts at any time necessary to sign the needed player so that the overall team will be the best it can possibly be. there has been much talk this past season about trading brady and keeping the 4 year old prodigy matt cassel, but it ALL comes from people who have little to no understanding of the actual game of football and its intricacies. matt cassel is an extraordiany individual and football player, but he is no tom brady. this is not a shot at cassel, as nobody ever is as good as brady. matt cassel has a bright and long future in the nfl and will, without doubt, win at least two super bowls in his career, barring serious injury(which is wished upon no athelete). his success this season is clearly due, however, to the fact that he has the best coach the game has ever seen as well as playing behind and with the greatest quarterback the game has ever seen. the main base for my argument here will be witnessed next NFL season, which starts in september, and will be controlled by the story of a man named tom brady, who has returned to his team after missing a season due to freak injury, and is hungrier to get back and show the league that the 2007 season was not a fluke and that nobody can run a football game better than the two men that will be controlling the patriots during the 2009 season. all teams on the patriots schedule next season should beware, as the scariest thing on the planet is a vindictive tom brady and bill belichick, as indicated by the absurd success of the last 9 years along with the fact that any team that has pressured the patriots and then made a mistake, or really any team that has played the patriots twice in one complete season has lost, usually an embarassing loss at that. while not infallible (putting aside a particular unmentionable trio of games over the last few years) the patriots have proven that during the tom brady and bill belichick period they are the team to beat, and any person or team that may think otherwise has clearly been beaten and burned by the team on top, which will always be the most hated, no matter who it may be. all of this being said, ivan is a solid sports writer and can be quite successful as he continues along his current path