TAMPA, Fla. – Incredible.
Is there any other way to describe and define what transpired last night at Raymond James Stadium?
In a game that defied explanation and a fourth quarter that might never be duplicated, the Steelers used a 6-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Santonio Holmes with 35 seconds remaining to gain a breathtaking 27-23 victory over the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII.
This came moments after Kurt Warner hit Larry Fitzgerald on a 64-yard touchdown pass with 2:37 left to allow the Cardinals to erase a 13-point fourth quarter deficit to take a 23-20 lead on the strength of 16 consecutive points.
The Fitzgerald score put the ball in Roethlisberger’s hands with 2:30 remaining. He started from his own 22-yard line and quickly moved back to the 12-yard line after a holding penalty. That’s when Big Ben and Holmes played pitch and catch and thrust their way into football immorality.
“I said ‘It’s now or never,’ ” Roethlisberger said. “I told the guys, ‘All the film study you put in doesn’t matter unless we do it now.’ ”
They did it, in front of a crowd of 70,774, mostly Terrible Towel-waving Steelers fanatics. The Steelers went 78 yards in eight plays, with Holmes catching four passes, the big one a 40-yard burst as safety Aaron Francisco fell down and Holmes scooted to the 6-yard line.
On the next play, Roethlisberger threw into coverage, with three defenders crowded into the right corner of the end zone. Somehow, Holmes came down with the ball and got both feet in the end zone to trigger a Black and Gold celebration that dwarfed a Cardinals outburst that barely had subsided.
“I said to [Roethlisberger] that I wanted to be the guy to make the plays for this team,” said Holmes, who caught nine passes for 131 yards to earn game’s the Most Valuable Player award.
The Giants secured an upset for the ages last year when Eli Manning, with 35 seconds left, hit Plaxico Burress to stun the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. One year later, with the same 35 seconds to go, history repeated itself, but this time an upset was denied.
“Some said we could not top last year’s Super Bowl, but the Steelers and Cardinals did that tonight,” commissioner Roger Goodell said at the Lombardi Trophy presentation ceremony.
Before the rousing finale, the Cardinals, spurred by the right arm of the irrepressible Warner (31 of 43, 377 yards, three touchdowns, one interception), had fashioned the largest comeback in Super Bowl history, now resigned to a footnote of a wild game in which there were 23 points scored in the fourth quarter and countless hearts broken and repaired.
“We got the fortunes to change and gave ourselves a chance,” Warner said. “It is tough when you are in a game like this. You have the lead late . . . your emotions are so high. You know you are two minutes away from being World Champions.”
In the end, the Dynasty defeated the perennial Doormats and vaulted the Steelers into rarefied air, now with a record six Super Bowl victories, one more than the Cowboys and 49ers.
The game was often inelegant and the two teams took turns showing their flaws, committing costly penalties (11 for 106 yards by the Cardinals), but also making remarkable plays.
None of those was bigger than the one that transpired when the Cardinals, trailing 10-7, were braced to take the lead with first-and-goal at the 1 with 18 seconds left before halftime.
Warner looked for Anquan Boldin on a quick slant, but was outfoxed by linebacker James Harrison, who made a move as if he was coming on a blitz, then stepped back in coverage. Harrison darted into the passing lane, stepping in front of Boldin for the interception on the goal line. The reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year began running and never stopped on a 100-yard return for a touchdown – the longest play in Super Bowl history – with no time remaining in the first half, allowing the Steelers to gallop in at halftime leading 17-7.
“I’m not going to lie, it was a quarter tank,” Harrison said of the energy he had left on the coast-to-coast jaunt. “But I ended up making it.”
It was 20-7 in the fourth quarter before Warner went 8-for-8 and passed for all 83 yards on a drive capped by a lob to Fitzgerald. The Cardinals receiver leaped over Ike Taylor in the end zone for the touchdown catch that closed the deficit to 20-14 with 7:33 left.
Now surging, the Arizona defense cashed in with points when Steelers center Justin Hartwig was called for holding in the end zone for a safety. It was 20-16 with 2:58 remaining. Twenty-one seconds later, Warner fired a dart to Fitzgerald. He grabbed it and raced 64 yards the touchdown.
“It probably took a couple of years off my life,” safety Troy Polamalu said of the play.
The Cardinals led for the first time, 23-20, and were only 2:37 away from claiming the grand prize.
Big Ben and Holmes grabbed it instead.
“That’s what Ben does,” said Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt, the Steelers’ offensive coordinator when they won Super Bowl XL. “That’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Steelers 27 Cardinals 23
