Offense Doesn't Win Championships, Yet

Offense Doesn't Win Championships, Yet
February 2
New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden

"More than any recent championship game, the pairing of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII posed a great matchup and a timeless question that went to the heart of football: Can a great high-yield offense defeat a great low-yield defense?

At the end of Sunday's hard-fought game, the answer was no.

But only by a hair.

In a second consecutive Super Bowl classic, Pittsburgh defeated Arizona, 27-23.

Arizona entered Sunday's game with the N.F.L.'s fourth-ranked offense and the highest-scoring offense in the postseason. Pittsburgh had the league's top-ranked defense and had allowed the fewest points in the league.

But on Sunday, there were none of the devastating Steelers hits that marked their route to Tampa. In fact, for most of the second half it was the Steelers' vaunted defense that took big hits from the Cardinals' high-octane offense.

At a time when passing offense is on the rise, new rules and the modification of old ones are being considered that will favor offense. Just as baseball owners famously encouraged home runs (at all cost) to bring back fans to the ball park, N.F.L. owners seem inclined to promote high-scoring, wide-open passing attacks to keep the turnstiles whizzing during an economic downturn.

Shut out and blanketed for most of the first half, Larry Fitzgerald, the Cardinals' outstanding receiver, broke out in the second half. Fitzgerald proved that at least half the equation wasn't accurate as even the great Pittsburgh great defense couldn't stop him.

Fitzgerald scored twice in the stretch of five minutes in the fourth quarter. His last touchdown, a 64-yard strike from Warner with 2 minutes 37 seconds left, completed a rousing comeback that gave Arizona a lead late in the fourth quarter.

As Mike Tomlin said after the game: "Steeler football is 60 minutes; it's never going to be pretty."

The Steelers' offense, hardly regarded in Arizona's class, began a game-winning drive that gave Pittsburgh a record sixth Super Bowl championship.

Receiver Santonio Holmes was named the most valuable player, but it was the Steelers' defense that made the play that set the tone for the victory.

Trailing by 10-7, Warner led the Cardinals' offense, battered and bottled up, to the Steelers 1 with 18 seconds left in the first half. In one back-breaking play, Steelers linebacker James Harrison illustrated how a great defense, a great defensive play and a great defender can turn the tide.

Harrison, the Associated Press defensive player of the year, intercepted a Warner pass and returned it 100 yards - for the longest play in Super Bowl history - diving into the end zone with no time left on the clock.

"I was just trying to get to the other side and score seven," he said. "It was very tiring."

Harrison added, "I was just thinking that I had to do whatever I could do to get into the end zone."

In the Cardinals' first pos
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