The Aftermath... and the New Beginning

Wow, what a Superbowl. The Steelers obviously won taking my post season pick record to 7-4.

The game itself left me an emotional wreck. My wife and I were watching it with a bunch of Cowboys fans and general haters. So they took great fun in fucking with us every single time Arizona did anything. That said, my only option was to get really drunk and put on my full Steelers tailgating armor and fight back. Because of this, I couldn’t remember most of the game except that last drive.

So this past Sunday I finally re-watched the game and here are my observations:

In the 1st quarter, Arizona only had the ball 1 time (5 plays, 13 yards).

Ben’s rushing TD should not have been overturned.

Ben is awesome… On the first touchdown drive, on 3rd and 10, he hits Heath Miller for a 1st down after an awesome scramble.

The interception with 2:01 left in the 2nd half was not really Ben’s fault (tipped high in the air).

Very next series: James Harrison 100 yard INT for TD. The blocking was incredible, especially as he moved through the area where the Arizona offensive line was pursuing.

End of first half.

3rd quarter. This is where I predicted the game would be won or lost.

First possession, Arizona with time consuming drive ending on PIT 49, punt.

Second possession, Ben to Hines for another clutch 3rd down conversion. Ben kept the ball, scrambled like crazy, ended up getting roughed by Dansby (bullshit call but they all are). Rack it up to the scramble. Later in that drive, bullshit call against Arizona’s Adrian Wilson for running into the holder on a field goal try. Manage to get to 1st and goal but still can only walk away with a field goal.

Third possession, Arizona starts on their 20. The quarter ends on that drive.

Overall, the 3rd quarter was uneventful. The Steelers win it 3-0. My prediction comes true, I guess, though it wasn’t as spectacular as I thought it would be. For the record, Arizona would finally end this drive in the 4th quarter with a punt.

How did this game get close? 13 minutes to go in the 4th and Steelers are up 20-7 with the ball at the 50.

Well, it started with a sack by the Cardinals on Ben on 3rd down with that ball at 50.

Arizona receives a Steelers punt on their 13 yard line with 11:30 left. On their first full possession of 4th: Lot of passing. Lot of 1st downs. Passing into middle of field (TE, WR-Fitzgerald, JJ. Arrington, Fitzgerald again, and Fitzgerald again, quick Hightower pass and then Fitzgerald again in the end zone (fade). Damn near all these passes are into the middle of the field. Arizona figured something out and adjusted. Fitzgerald is good, really good. Taylor defended the TD play about as well as you can.. Drive took only 3:57 (lot of quick passes).

Steelers ball. Parker up middle. Sack (Dockett, number 2 on the game). Pass to Miller. Punt. 3 and out. Credit the Arizona defense.

Arizona ball. Steelers touch the punt dead. ~5:30 left in game. 20-14. Bullshit personal foul on Ike Taylor (fucking with a guy out of bounds). Breaston with a huge 26 yard catch and run up the middle (again!). Troy almost picked a ball off (a little outside). 3rd and 20. Steelers bring too much pressure for Warner to handle. Punt. ARZ downs it on the 2. James Harrison with really bullshit personal foul. He was just beating the shit out of someone. It’s football for christ’s sake. It’s his job.

Pittsburgh ball. 3:26 to go. Ball on 1 yard line. 1st down, incomplete (Hines with a rare miss he should have caught). 2nd down, Parker up middle… close to a safety. Parker did a good job to avoid the safety with a massive 2nd effort push. 3rd and 10 from the goal line. Beautiful 1st down catch by Holmes, negated by an ultra bullshit holding call. Safety. Steelers free kick (from 20). It is interesting to note that Tomlin later claimed that if they did not get this first down (I assume he meant if the pass went incomplete) that he would have taken the safety anyhow as opposed to punting the ball from the goal line. I see no reason to doubt that he would have.

A lot of bullshit penalty calls in this game against both sides. Fairly poor officiating but at least the errors were pretty balanced on both sides, I guess.

Arizona gets the ball on their 36, down by 4 points with 2:53 left. Incomplete pass on 1st. 2nd down is Fitzgerald TD. Wow. My first thought as this play happened on 2/1/09 was, “at least they left plenty of time on the clock”. Both safeties playing deep but on the outsides. Middle was wide open after Fitz got past Ike and Harrison. There was a 4 man rush on Warner. Wow. Quick score. Plenty of time on the clock. Both safeties bit on each outside receiver moving to the sidelines. Fitz cut from left right up the middle after other WRs broke. That passing into the middle of the field stuff is getting really old.

PIT gets ball on 22 with 2:30 left. Arizona up 23-20. Plenty of time.

1st down: Pass to Moore (4 yds), Hold. Ball moved back to 12.

1st down: Ben drops back to 2 yd line, scrambles to avoid multiple sacks. Pass to Santonio for about 14 yards. NOTE: This play was my favorite of the game and the reason I think Ben should have won the MVP. He should have been sacked. We should have been 2nd and long from the 2. 98 yards to go and a very bleak outlook. I think 95% of the quarterbacks in the NFL would have been sacked on that play.

2nd down: Quick play to avoid 2 min warning… deep to Washington, incomplete.

3rd down: (and 6). Ben to Santonio, he stands in the pocket amidst all the pressure. 1st down!

1st down: Washington, 1st down. In bounds. Ball on 50.

1st down: Ben, scrambles, rush up middle for 4.

2nd down: Timeout. 1:02 left, on the 46 of Arizona. Ben, plenty of time in the pocket. Stays in it. Pass deep to Holmes, run down to 7 yard line!

1st and goal: Time out . 49 sec. Why the time out?????? That was the last time out. Should have saved it for a potential field goal or not used it so all the time could be run off the clock. Pass right through the hands of Holmes on the left side. He should have caught it. Pathetic. Needless to say during the actual Superbowl I was motherfucking Santonio up and down during the instant replays.

2nd and goal: Santonio. Perfect catch. Feet in bounds. TD! Plenty of time. Threw into 3 Arizona defenders in a strange kind of fade afterthought. Perfectly thrown. Perfectly caught. Why did Ben even throw it? Into triple coverage? Chances are by the time the ball gets there Holmes will be out of bounds. Replayed a million times. But both feet down, control of the ball. TD, motherfucker! 35 seconds left. NOTE: Its worth mentioning that the ball spot strangely moved half a yard between 1st and 2nd down.

Arizona ball on their 23 with 29 seconds left. Steelers ahead, 27-23.

1st down: Fitzgerald almost 20 yarder. Timeout. 22 seconds to go.

2nd down: Arrington for about 12. All these passes are in the middle. At this point it makes sense as we were obviously protecting the sidelines. 15 seconds left. Timeout.

3rd down: Warner. Steelers Pressure. Good coverage. Woodley creates a fumble. 5 seconds left. Kiesel recovers.

1st down, Steelers. Victory formation. Polamalu in the V. Game over.

Steelers win their 6th Superbowl, the only team in NFL history to win 6 of them.

Ben should have been MVP. But maybe that’s ok… keep him hungry. If we get back again maybe that will drive him to super human levels.

As predicted, the better team wins. Arizona had a few glorious moments, but you just can’t stop Pittsburgh for 60 straight minutes. They are too good.

NOTE: I apologize ahead of time for the rough transition here. Now that we have closure on the 2008 season, it is time to focus on 2009. No rest for the wicked or the World Champions!

The Steelers have many things to address in the offseason, including re-signing both free agents (M. Starks, M. Smith, C. Kemoeatu, T. Essex, B. McFadden, N. Washington, etc.) and re-signing guys going into the last year of their contracts (J. Harrison, H. Ward, H. Miller, J. Reed, etc.)

In my opinion, here is the order that I think the Steelers should focus on when extending/offering contracts:

James Harrison (1 year left on contract)
Hines Ward (1 year left of contract)
Heath Miller (1 year left on contract)
Jeff Reed (1 year left on contract)
Bryant McFadden (Free Agent at the end of the month)
M. Starks (Free Agent at end of month, Steelers franchised him again)
Chris Kemoeatu (Free Agent at the end of the month)
Nate Washington (Free Agent at the end of the month)
Kenyaron Fox (Free Agent at the end of the month)

That said, I’d like to see them lock up McFadden before he become a free agent. The rest of the free agents I’m okay if the Steelers wait until they hit the market.

It seems like an automatic at this point that they will resign Harrison and Starks.

While I didn’t list him above, I also think we need to re-sign Charlie Batch. I didn’t list him because I think it is a given that he wants to come back so I can’t imagine it would be a great challenge to sign him.

The next priority will be the draft. I’m sure I’ll talk about that a lot later but off the cuff we need to pick up Offensive Lineman, Defensive Lineman, a Wide Receiver (especially if we don’t re-sign Washington), and maybe a Safety. A Corner if we don’t resign McFadden. Of course you’ll never hear me complain about drafting Linebackers.

Enjoy the offseason!

-David