Super BORE XLIII

So after two whole weeks of hype and stories of the ol’ ball coach that could’ve had the job but didn’t…..the whole Fitzgerald family tree exposed on top of the Kurt Warner praise for being Kurt Warner…..we finally played the damn game. Frankly speaking however from this football fan….this game was NOT the greatest game of all time. This game was NOT a good watch. Rather than Super Bowl XLIII….this was indeed Super BORE XLIII.

When did the Super Bowl turn into the NBA?? Everyone says the final 2 minutes of an NBA game are the best part…..can we relate that notion to yesterday’s Super Bowl? I think so.

Let’s face it!! These two teams weren’t going to be a good matchup anyway. You can’t honestly say that you looked forward to this matchup, even if it was week 8 and it was the late game on Fox when there was nothing else on TV…..I know I can’t. So, the matchup was bad from the get-go then comes the game itself. What was the score at the end of the first quarter..3-0….yeah, EXCITING!!!! AWESOME!!! DRAMATIC!!! Arizona only ran 6 plays in that quarter for a total net of 3 yards. Yeah, that vaunted Arizona offense is a must-see. Be careful, you might miss something!!!!

Then we get to the second quarter if the first one didn’t satisfy your hunger for gridiron greatness. The Steelers after scoring early in the quarter obviously lost interest in the game (much like I did). After Arizona got the lead down to 3 scoring with 8:34 left in the quarter, Pittsburgh ran 7 plays the remainder of the quarter for 22 yards and Arizona ran 11 plays for 44 yards. The final 8 minutes of the half, you had 2 punt and 2 interceptions and a total of 66 yards of offense. It wasn’t until the very tail end of the second quarter when James Harrison ran back a 100 yard interception for a touchdown where my interest peaked again….WOW WHAT A PLAY!! Ten point lead going into halftime seemed insurmountable and the game was over….in fact no team has come back from a 10 point deficit at halftime and won it……but I thought I’d stick around to see if the Cards had any fight in em. Plus Springsteen was coming up next!!

Bruce was a nice break from Petty/Prince/Stones/McCartney….it was nice to see a halftime act that actually sung their material live. When’s Zeppelin gonna make a run at the halftime entertainment?? That would be a must see.

Then came the third quarter and this is where I totally lost interest in the whole game. Arizona comes out and punts after a 7 play drive netting a whomping 27 yards and then the Steelers come back with a miraculous sixteen play drive over eight minutes long…….and only get 3 points. I felt like I was watching a bad Bears game and i needed another bowl of nachos and I was looking forward to my next bathroom run. That’s when the television was turned off, alarms were set for the morning and the lights dimmed to dark. Good night America!!

Now of course the Cards came back with two Larry Fitzgerald TD’s (who they should’ve been throwing to earlier in the game) and take the lead only to lose it in the final minute on a dazzling Santonio Holmes catch for a touchdown….Steelers win. Does the final 8 minutes of a football game make it a great game?? In my mind, a great game is when two teams go back and forth the ENTIRE GAME…..not when one team just seems to be consistantly playing much better for 3 1/2 quarters and then it’s a shootout towards the end.

The Steelers were the better of the two teams. All along most people/experts/fans expected the Steelers to win the ballgame. So maybe they don’t win it in the fashion you thought they would have, but does the final 8 minutes of a ballgame make it a great game or a great ending to a sub par game? This game was a total snoozer for me, it couldn’t keep my interest for more than 10 minutes, and it didn’t keep my viewership for the entire game.

I expected the Steelers to win and they did. I expected the commercials for the most part to be bad….and they were. I expected Bruce and E-Street to be entertaining and full of energy and by evidence of a power slide with a crotch full of camera….they we’re entertaining. I expected bad John Madden and I got plenty of that.

I got what I expected from two teams that were unevenly matched up (no matter what the “experts” say), and what I expected was what I got. I got a good 7 hours of sleep!!

-RoCk