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Super Bowl XLIII was a game
of inches and sleights of hand. It wasn't
just the tiptoes of Santonio Holmes
or the inches forward Kurt Warner's
arm failed to take, though.
It was the three inches
Ben Roethlisberger didn't get on a
first-quarter dive and the inches
James Harrison did get with
no time left at the end of the half. It was
the step backward by an offensive lineman
that nearly tripped Warner on what ended up
being his first touchdown pass, and the step
that Justin Hartwig
didn't take quickly enough that led to a
game-changing safety.
It was the glance and the
pump fake that sent Troy Polamalu careening
toward a decoy route and left Larry
Fitzgerald with the ball and a glorious
expanse in front of him. The divot -- very
possibly a leftover from the halftime show
-- that Aaron Francisco slipped on that set
up the winning play. The extra step Adrian
Wilson took at the end of a field goal
attempt that ended up giving the Steelers
three more plays and took two minutes off a
clock that eventually bled the Cardinals
dry. The yard that
Anquan Boldin failed to get the play before
Harrison picked Warner off on the goal line.
The Steelers defeat the Cardinals
27-23 in one of the most memorable
Super Bowls ever.
In the end, we just remember the most
important inches -- we forget the ball
Holmes failed to grasp on first-and-goal and
remember the brilliant catch on second down
-- because time fades all the other plays.
Without those inches going exactly the way
they had, though, the opportunity for
Holmes' huge play would not have existed.
Of course, labels have
been shaken off as well. Roethlisberger
washed the stench of Super Bowl XL off of
his reputation as a clutch quarterback,
while Holmes laid the memories of his
suspension for possessing marijuana earlier
this year to rest. |
