Did the better team win? Most certainly.
Did they win it the way I would have liked? Maybe, maybe not, depending on your stress tolerance.
But did the right team win? Hell yes.
"Steeler football is 60 minutes. It's never going to be pretty. Throw style points out the window. But these guys will fight to the end." – Mike Tomlin
And fight they did. I was not surprised by the success Arizona had in the second half, though, because it was pretty obvious that the underneath passes were the price the Steelers were willing to pay to stop Fitzgerald and Boldin from torching them. What did surprise me was the shoddy tackling from Polamalu and the rest of the secondary. I counted at least two, maybe three, times when Troy had a receiver lined up and totally whiffed on the tackle.
All week I was telling everyone who'd listen that the Cardinals could easily win the game, because the Steelers had emphasized pressure on the quarterback over insanely tight coverage on receivers. The plan seemed to be "If we knock out the quarterback's teeth, we'll dislocate receivers' jaws instead." That's not a bad strategy -- obviously -- but when you can't get to the QB enough, and you can't tackle the receivers ... well, that's a recipe to allow a team to stay in the game, or even win.
Having said that, I think the gentleman (ahem) whose lungs are collapsed here could have been the MVP had he not sucker-punched a blocker on that last Arizona punt. That was just classless, and it really devalued him in my eyes.
Does a 100 yard interception return for a touchdown -- the longest play in Super Bowl history -- negate it? Not really. It's a violent game, but throwing punches like that is really bush league.
That's just too weird for words.
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