Monday, February 2, 2009

Stuper Steelers

The game unfolded the way I expected, more or less. I was starting to get bored in the second half as yellow penalty flags began falling like rain. Fortunately, a riveting 4th quarter more than made up for it.

It's been a long time since I've seen a quarterback duel quite like the one I witnessed last night. Except for that costly interception return for a touchdown, Kurt Warner was phenomenal. Peyton Manning should take notes on how Warner mans up in big games. Warner now has thrown for the most yards in Super Bowl history, passing none other than Joe Montana in the process. He also owns the three biggest games in terms of passing yards. Of course, that is little consolation for him right now, as the only throw he'll remember is that mistake that turned out to be the margin of defeat for Arizona.

Roethlisberger was equal to the task. You just can't get that guy to the ground. This was the most accurate game I've seen him play. He and Santonio Holmes probably should have shared MVP honors. They make a potent combination. The Steelers should try to give Holmes a more prominent role in the offense next season. Their performance is made all the more remarkable by the fact that the vaunted running attack was non-existent. In the first half Holmes helped move the chains as Dominique Rogers-Cromartie gave him a huge cushion on nearly every play. Effectively, that was Pitt's running game.

Though the Steeler D didn't play very well, but it made plays at critical times; the int by Harrison, the strip on the final meaningful play of the game. The Cardinals offense certainly helped with penalty after penalty. It would have been a much different game had Arizona been able to minimize that. You can't kill yourself when you play a defense like the Steelers'.

I think I'm going to take a bit of a hiatus now. There's two months until Opening Day. Peter, I'm sure, will keep you up to date on all the spring training news. I, for one, can only be entertained by that stuff for so long. There's always a big let down for me when football is over. Perhaps I can do something constructive with my Sundays now.

4 comments:

Dennis said...

Pitchers and catchers report in less than 2 weeks.

Dan said...

That doesn't mean a ton to me to be honest. Unless there's a trade or an injury, I really think spring training is a non-event. I can't get interested until the games start.

Dennis said...

I think it is a bit boring for Red Sox and Yankees fans because the entire team is pretty much set. The only unknown is the set-up guys, and that will not be sorted until August anyway.

As a Giants fan, my team has three young guys fighting for 1B, three more young guys fighting for 2B, 5 OFs for 3 spots, and a $15 million pitcher battling 2 rookies for the number 5 spot in the rotation.

Peter said...

Oh I think its interesting. Granted we don't have all of the little subplots and battles for positions going on, but in the case of the Yankees, we get to see all the new toys we bought this off-season come out of their packages.

It will fun to see Teixeira, Sabathia and Burnett play with an NY on their hats for the first time. Hell, it might be the only time we get to see it with Burnett.