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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 Super Bowl 43
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.
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