Celizic: XLII Greatest Super Bowl of Them All

[alleyallen]

Do we define defensive battles as boring? I kinda thought that's what made for a good game, kinda like a 40-point scoring-fest by both teams would do the same, only at the other end of the spectrum.

Think low-scoring games are boring? Then go watch the NBA, MLS, World Cup, NHL .... uh, college football!

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Montana throwing the pass to win against Cincy on the final drive is still #1.

Bull****.

Montana knew he had OT in the back pocket.

agree 100 percent. eli's drive, down four with less time left, was more impressive in every way than montana's. against a better defense, too.

Be a touch more impressive if Little Brother hadn't thrown three interceptions on it.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Montana throwing the pass to win against Cincy on the final drive is still #1.

Bull****.

Montana knew he had OT in the back pocket.

agree 100 percent. eli's drive, down four with less time left, was more impressive in every way than montana's. against a better defense, too.

Be a touch more impressive if Little Brother hadn't thrown three interceptions on it.

And Montana threw one in Billups' breadbasket in the end zone that would kept the final drive from ever happening.

And Eli didn't come even close to three INTs on the drive. Just one.

Just when I think you might float above pure flamework. ...

 

[D-Backs Hack]

Someone who made the point about this being subjective is spot on. It's all a matter of what you like from a game.

It's interesting, though, that people who accept the (partly knee-jerk, in my opinion) contention that this is the greatest Super Bowl so quickly dismiss opinions that the first three quarters shouldn't count.

Just because it was decided in the final minute doesn't make it the best ever. So was Super Bowl V, and I don't see that one on many lists.

(For the record, Sunday's game had its share of mistakes in the first three quarters, just like the 49ers-Bengals in XXIII. However, as I said before, the dominance of the Giants defense made this one a better game than XXIII.)

For my money, the best game was Steelers-Rams in XIV. If you're laughing at that because of the 31-19 final score, you didn't watch or don't remember the game. And the 1979 Rams were a bigger early-season mess, and were given even less of a chance to win, than the Giants.)

But that's just one opinion.

 

[alleyallen]

Joe, I personally didn't discount the first three quarters...for all of us at the party, that was definitely part of the equation. Nip and tuck all the way through. While it may not have been high-flying exciting, it was smash and give an inch exciting.

 

[Write-brained]

I don't know if it was the best ever - my first-hand knowledge only goes back to about the time the Eagles got beat by the Raiders - but it was definitely an amazing game. The most fun to watch since the Rams, Titans in my opinion.

 

[93Devil]

NE always seemed one play away, a bomb to Moss or a bad throw by Eli, from taking the lead or having a two-score lead.

I never felt like NY had the game won and in hand until the final knee. Even when NE was basically throwing Hail Marys down the sideline to Moss, I was still expecting a flag or an impossible catch.

From the first snap to the last, that tenseness never left for me

 

[JR]

I thought it was a great football game but "greatest ever" is one of those debates you start over your third pint of Guinness.

The people who thought it was boring probably prefer a 8-6 slugfest in baseball or a 6-4 hockey game.

Nothing wrong there, but I'll take a 2-1 pitcher's duel or a 1-0 goalie battle every time.

 

[Ace]

Another thing that diluted it somewhat for me is that on the last two touchdown passes, the receivers were wide open in the end zone. A middle school QB could have made those passes.

DBs slipping and allow the receiver to run free don't make for awe inspiring finishes.

 

[Editude]

That is some ungood writing. Let's hope (for MSNBC's sake) that the recent hires make this site worth going to.

 

[Blitz]

Another thing that diluted it somewhat for me is that on the last two touchdown passes, the receivers were wide open in the end zone. A middle school QB could have made those passes.
DBs slipping and allow the receiver to run free don't make for awe inspiring finishes.

Puh-leese
The throw to Tyree in the back of the EZ was between two people and it was as if a needle had been threaded.
Fantastic throw there.
The next one was for sure, much easier.

 

[Oz]

Another thing that diluted it somewhat for me is that on the last two touchdown passes, the receivers were wide open in the end zone. A middle school QB could have made those passes.

DBs slipping and allow the receiver to run free don't make for awe inspiring finishes.

Still better than watching a Super Bowl decided by a missed field goal (Giants-Bills) or a made field goal (Patriots playing only to get in Vinatieri's range on his two game-winners).

 

[heyabbott]

Another thing that diluted it somewhat for me is that on the last two touchdown passes, the receivers were wide open in the end zone. A middle school QB could have made those passes.
DBs slipping and allow the receiver to run free don't make for awe inspiring finishes.

Puh-leese
The throw to Tyree in the back of the EZ was between two people and it was as if a needle had been threaded.
Fantastic throw there.
The next one was for sure, much easier.

Webster slipped on the Moss TD, but Hobbs bit on the inside fake and Plax left him in the turf.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Another thing that diluted it somewhat for me is that on the last two touchdown passes, the receivers were wide open in the end zone. A middle school QB could have made those passes.

DBs slipping and allow the receiver to run free don't make for awe inspiring finishes.

Still better than watching a Super Bowl decided by a missed field goal (Giants-Bills) or a made field goal (Patriots playing only to get in Vinatieri's range on his two game-winners).

Could you imagine if Gostkowski had been on that first Brady title team?.... Belichick would have had to go for it with 7 seconds left.

 

[Write-brained]

Another thing that diluted it somewhat for me is that on the last two touchdown passes, the receivers were wide open in the end zone. A middle school QB could have made those passes.

DBs slipping and allow the receiver to run free don't make for awe inspiring finishes.

Still better than watching a Super Bowl decided by a missed field goal (Giants-Bills) or a made field goal (Patriots playing only to get in Vinatieri's range on his two game-winners).

Could you imagine if Gostkowski had been on that first Brady title team?.... Belichick would have had to go for it with 7 seconds left.

When did he become unreliable? I thought he was money ...

 

[Oz]

Dr. Z believes this one is the best of all-time ...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/dr_z/02/05/super/index.html?eref=T1

Unbelievable plays made by unlikely people. David Tyree, a fourth receiver, a special teamer, making one of the great catches in the history of the Super Bowl. I heard some people say, "Well it was dull for three quarters." Not for me it wasn't. Dull and low-scoring are not synonymous. Some of us find defense interesting, too. I like games in which nothing comes cheaply, in which everything is dearly won. I don't like those 41-38 airshows in which the ball just gets an airmail stamp.

And besides, I find that when contests with a lot riding on them start off dull, they invariably become thrilling at the end. The Steelers' Immaculate Reception game, for instance, was deadly dull for more than three quarters. Then all hell broke loose. Practically the entire fourth quarter of Giants-Patriots was played under excruciating pressure, right up to the time when Jay Alford broke through and nailed Brady for a 10-yard loss with 19 seconds left.

For me the game had everything, courage, incredible effort, sustained level of pressure by the Giant defense. Football doesn't get much better.

 

[alleyallen]

Amen, Dr. Z! Amen!

This line says it all for me....

"I like a game in which nothing comes cheaply, in which everything is dearly won."

Beautiful...

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Dr. Z believes this one is the best of all-time ...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/dr_z/02/05/super/index.html?eref=T1

XXXVII (1994) Cowboys 30, Bills 13 -- For the fourth straight year, I picked Buffalo. SI's preview issue had on its cover, "Cheer up, Cowboys, Dr. Z Picks Bills." Worst of all, I was never informed. Nothing like a little loyalty from your employer. Let's call this one a C-minus.

That was XXVIII.

No. 6 (the last of the A-'s) XXV (1991) Giants 20, Bills 19 -- Scott Norwood and wide right. Bill Parcells defeats the K-gun by leaving his big linebackers on the field and punishing the receivers. O. J. Anderson's 102 yards rushing are about to earn him the MVP when there's a commotion caused by one of the selectors, who is shouting, "Thurman Thomas! It's got to be Thomas!" (15 carries for 135 yards, 190 total yards, single-handedly brought the Bills back at the end). "Can't pick a guy from a losing team," he is told. "Like hell! Chuck Howley won it in '72." The screamer was yours truly. O.J. was selected. And I was booted forever as a selector.

Howley was 1971.

No. 5, XXXIV (2000) Rams 23, Titans 16 -- The Greatest Show holds off Steve McNair's courageous final drive, as Mike Jones tackles Kevin Dyson at the one. My theme is that Ram coordinator Mike Martz made a strategic error by scoring so quickly at the end that an exhausted defense had to go back out and try to stop the fired up Titans. Which they did. But just barely. In the locker room, my thesis was scorned by the offensive guys, heavily supported by the defensive ones.

If he really believes that garbage, his criticism should have been of Bruce for not taking a knee at the Titans' 1.

In a tie game, you take a touchdown whenever you can.

No. 4, XXIII (1989) 49ers 20, Bengals 16 -- Montana at his brilliant best, the 11-play, 92-yard drive that began with, "Hey, check it out... John Candy's over there." Montana hyperventilates, almost chokes, finally hits John Taylor for the winner. The first last-second victory since Jim O'Brien in '72.

Jim O'Brien was 1971.

There was brilliance on both sides of the ball on Super Sunday. My MVP vote would have gone to... sorry, Giant fans... the Patriots' Wes Welker.

Has he ever written something so dumb? Welker catches a bunch of dumpoff patterns, pretty elementary stuff, and a couple of gut-checkers across the middle, with no scoring catches... and he deserves it over Manning, or Umenyiora or Tuck?

Idiotic.

I now have a bad feeling that Z may have been behind the Hall Of Fame debacle on Saturday. No evidence... except for a few whacko comments in this piece.

 

[Blitz]

Good analysis of the piece, Simon.
Most all of it has merit.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

I'm sorry, but this sentence...

"Has he ever wrote a dumber thing?"

...has to be preserved in the Irony Hall Of Fame.