After last year's Super Bowl, I made a case for it being the
greatest
ever. Now I'm hearing some people argue that last night's was
even better, but I don't think so. To be sure, the game had a lot
of great plays (James Harrison's 100-yard interception return,
Larry Fitzgerald's touchdowns, and Santonio Holmes' winning
catch). The fourth quarter got really exciting. But what tainted
the experience for me was the amount of penalties. I'm not
faulting the refs for this, because the Cardinals made some
absolutely bone-headed mistakes, ending up with 11 penalties that
added up to a Super Bowl record 106 yards (Pittsburgh had 7 for
56 yards). Even though I didn't have a dog in this fight, I found
it incredibly frustrating as a viewer, because there was a
stretch when it seemed like every play resulted in a flag. You
just hate to see that in a game like this. So, overall, it was a
lot of fun to watch, but I think it loses some points because of
the sloppy play.
