Also, in addition to the head coach having a funny name, their defensive coordinator's name is Clancy Pendergast. Two outrageously funny names in the Superbowl?* Amazing. Whisenhunt and Pendergast. It sounds like a law firm. Or something from a Dr. Seuss book. Pendergast. That sounds like how the Eagles' defense was feeling after Kurt Warner's 4th touchdown.
Speaking of Kurt Warner, Second and One affords Kurt Warner, JJ Arrington, and Larry Fitzgerald the Single Best Play of the Postseason award. At the beginning of the 2nd quarter, Warner pitched to Arrington, who was seemingly covered on all sides. Arrington ran outside, and heaved it back to Warner, who then connected with Fitzgerald on the deep route for 62 yards and the touchdown. This was, of course, continuing the extremely enjoyable Warner/Fitzgerald show, which resulted in one of the greatest accumulations of fantasy points I have ever seen for any given QB and WR (70 or thereabouts).
The obvious question to ask here is "What happened to the Eagles?"; my answer is that I think they were dead on arrival. Despite sparks of brilliance in the third quarter, McNabb had chemistry issues with receivers, often simply not connecting. Of course, it doesn't help Philly's cause that Arizona's D looked none too shabby, mixing up their jumpy, swampy zone coverage with solid man-to-man defense. And Arizona had the momentum. These guys have not won a championship game since before my father was born. Heck, coming from Chicago, even they were probably feeling residuals of the Cubs' legendary curse. And one could tell it; this Cardinal team is so unbelievably stoked about winning a trip to the Big One. Contrarily, for the Steelers, this is almost par for the course to the point where they didn't even have the thirty tons of confetti at Heinz Field. I could imagine someone in the Steelers organization saying in an uptight British accent "Ah yes, we've won another one, haven't we?" as compared to the Cardinals' fans, reduced to tears and unintelligible screams of glee.
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The AFC Championship game was honestly to be expected. Joe Flacco is a rookie, and rookies make rookie mistakes. Baltimore committed several tactical errors, including punting on 4th down past midfield, in a championship game, when down by 13. This game also had several notable casualties, including Hines Ward and the very talented Willis McGahee.
I've watched a lot of football, and it is my opinion that some teams, as a whole, have very sophisticated offenses (In college, people will sometimes refer to such offenses as "West Coast-ish" or "SEC-style"). Same goes for the NFL. There are teams that are bright on offense and teams that just aren't. The Giants (despite the Earth, Wind, and Fire hullaballoo and all of their magnetic razzle-dazzle), in my opinion, did not have a sophisticated offense this year. Instead, most of their offensive effort became focused on "aw, #$*&%, how do we convert yet another unlikely third down with Eli Manning?"-type scenarios." The Chicago Bears' offense also isn't particularly brilliant, consisting of a) running Matt Forte repeatedly into the line, and b) chucking it 6o yards downfield and hoping that they either hit someone on their team or draw a pass interference flag. The Baltimore ravens did not have a sophisticated offense, just a sophisticated defense. And absolutely nothing about Detroit was sophisticated.
By contrast, Miami had a pretty sophisticated offense, interspersing their routine with wacky wildcat formations that seemed ripped right out of Friday Night Lights. They simply sputtered in their execution. Now the Steelers. There is a sophisticated offense. I can't help but notice that the Steelers have some very interesting offensive formations. One of my favorites is the 3 tight end set (There is an excellent analysis of this formation c/o Dagger over at Post Game Heroes, despite it being a little dated; Jerame Tuman is a Cardinal now). For those who don't wish to read the whole thing in its glossy, full-color glory, there are many uses for three tight ends. Two tight ends can be lined up to make a super strong side** whilst a third lines up at fullback, etc. But one of the best is for massive fakeouts that appear to be best for critical short-yardage situations.
One lines up two tight ends, you know, where tight ends usually line up, and sticks a third several yards back; a handoff is faked to a running back while all three TEs initially attempt to throw blocks. Then, one of the ends on the line begins to sneak outside. As the defense becomes spread out, defenders realize "Aw shucks, this ain't a running play!" and begin chasing everyone, predominantly the outside end, thinking this is where the ball is going to end up. Meanwhile, the third, back-set TE (who initially served to draw defenders away from the RB and the other TE) takes off and gets enough real estate that the QB can find him. I'm sure it's maddening to try and defend against.
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Anyway, will the betting on the Cards result in a win? Stay tuned for more analysis. And remember kids: if at first you don't succeed, running back punts is not for you.
*As a general rule, coaches with funny names are never in the Superbowl. Thinking back, in recent memory, we've had Dungy, Smith, Coughlin, Belicheck, Gruden, etc. Tomlin fits in there nicely, but Whisenhunt?
** Clarifications for those who don't know; in those more traditional (i.e., non-Steeleresque) offensive formations, the "strong side" of the line refers to the side with the TE.
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