Well last Sunday night was another classic “Super Bowl”, as the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Arizona Cardinals 27-23, in a game that was not decided until the end. The first half Pittsburgh jumped out to a ten-point lead, and it looked like a blowout. But, Arizona came back with a touchdown to make it a ballgame. To end the first half James Harrison intercepted a Kurt Warner pass and ran it back 100 yards for a touchdown. This was the longest play in Super Bowl history. The third quarter saw a defense battle with only a Pittsburgh field goal to give them a 20 to 7 lead and it looked like it was over. But, Arizona can back in the fourth quarter with a 1-yard touchdown to make it 20 to 14. Then we had a rare safety 2 pointer, this made it 20 to 16 Pittsburgh. This is when it gets crazy; Arizona scored a touchdown with a picture perfect 64-yard pass from Warner to Larry Fitzgerald right up the middle of the field to make it 23 to 20, Arizona led for the first time. Then Pittsburgh drove down the field for the game-wining touchdown: Ben Roethlisberger 6-yard pass to Santonio Holmes in the corner of the endzone. My keys to the game was the play of Pittsburgh’s defense, and the fact that Arizona had 106 yards in penalties, the most in Super Bowl history. What a game!!
Lets me give my grades for the NBC broadcast of the event. Lets start with the pre game show, like I said last time it was a cast of thousands or about 25. I liked how they had Keith Olbermann and Jerome Bettis in the Pittsburgh locker room and Dan Patrick and Tiki Barber in the Arizona locker room before the teams got there. This was when Jerome and Tiki were at their best telling us what their experiences were like playing in the Super Bowl. I liked how they had Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, with Tony Dungy, Mike Holmgrem, and Matt Millen on the main set inside Raymond James Stadium and Keith, Dan and the rest, round and about on other sets outside the stadium. Cris Collinsworth proved that he is the best analyst in the business; his knowledge and passion for the game really shine through. Tony was ok; Mike was much better because he gave us great insight about the game and every thing that goes in the Super Bowl. Matt Millen was very good; he can be very useful to NBC next year. They need to get rid of Tiki and hire Matt! Rodney Harrison has a future in TV after his playing days are over. The two segments that I did not like were the “Super Suite” hosted by Al Roker; this was the celebrity part of the show. It was just a way to promote NBC Universal TV shows and movies, and was just awful and took away for the game. The other segment that was no good was the “Cook-off” It just had too many cooks in the kitchen. The game telecast was great; John Madden and Al Michaels are the best team. Al can print picture with words and John has a great passion for football. Alex Flanagan was the big surprise of the show. This was her first big assignment for NBC Sports and you could tell she was very nevious at the start of the day, but as the day went on you could see potential in her. It does help that she’s easy on the eyes, if you know what I mean. The Boss was the Boss at halftime. The best part was Bruce doing the knee slide right into the camera, classic stuff. Post game was ok: nice to see Dan Patrick getting the Trophy presentation, it’s a hard job but he handed it with grace.
Overall I give NBC an A-. The “Super Suite” and the “Cook-off” segments brought them down a bit but overall great show. I think NBC has set the “blueprint” of how to do Super Bowl Sunday programming, lets see what CBS can do next year.
See you next week, if not before.
Jamie Lazaroff
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