ShareThisDefense wins championships.
It was a cliche. But it also was more than that. It was a fact of football life, a gridiron maxim.
But it's not true any more.
Not after what happened in the Super Bowl Sunday night. Not after what happened last year in Super Bowl XLII.
Remember what happened in the final minutes of the fourth quarter a year ago in Arizona?
For three-and-half quarters, the New York Giants had shut down the prolific offense of the New England Patriots. After scoring an NFL-record 589 points while going undefeated during the regular season, the Pats had put up only seven and were trailing, 10-7, with 7:54 remaining. Tom Brady, who'd thrown a record-breaking 50 touchdowns during the regular season, was struggling under constant pressure from a relentless pass rush and, with time running out, found his team 80 yards away from the end zone.
Twelve plays later, the Patriots were in the end zone, arriving via a 6-yard pass from Brady to Randy Moss. The Giants had sacked him four times earlier in the game, but didn't get to him even once in the drive, as Brady completed 8 of 11 passes for 71 yards.
When the Patriots proceed to pin the Giants at their 17 on the ensuing kickoff, New York was 83 yards away and four points behind with 2:39 left in the game. All the Pats had to do to preserve a perfect season was stop them from scoring a touchdown.
They couldn't do it.
Fast-forward to Sunday night. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Steelers, heirs to the tradition of the famous, and practically impenetrable, Steel Curtain defense, are clearly in command, holding a 20-7 lead -- in large part due to an all-time highlight film interception and 100-yard touchdown return by linebacker James Harrison, the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year.
But the Pittsburgh defense couldn't clamp down on the Cardinals, who scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns, driving 87 yards in eight plays for the first one, then getting a big play from wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who split the Steelers' secondary on a 64-yard pass-and-run that put Arizona on top, 21-20, with just 2:47 remaining.
When the Steelers were called for holding on their first play following the kickoff, putting them back at their own 12 with 2:24 to go, the Cards should have been able to lock up their first title in 61 years.
Instead, Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes combined to win a record sixth Super Bowl for the Steelers.
So what's going on here? Why can't defenses stop anybody any more?
"Things have changed, haven't they?" said Andre Tippett, whose dominating defensive play as a pass-rushing linebacker for the Patriots earned him a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Tippett didn't hesitate yesterday when asked whether he'd rather see a low-scoring Super Bowl -- a 10-7 score, say -- or a Super Bowl shootout.
"I like 10-7, myself," he said, not surprisingly.
That's Old School, not New Age. And it's not what most fans want to see. Most people prefer to see the scoreboard lit up like a pinball machine, rather than watch a punting contest.
And the NFL is, after all, in the entertainment business.
The days of the Steel Curtain, Minnesota's Purple People Eaters, Dallas' Doomsday Defense, the Chicago Bears' fearsome "46" defense are long gone. It's all about offense now.
"I was watching the game (Sunday) night with my son," Tippett said, "and he was laughing at me, because I kept shouting at the Cardinals: 'How can you lose containment? You can't lose containment! You've got to hit that big boy! You can't let him run around like that!'"
That "big boy" was Roethlisberger, the Pittsburgh quarterback. Not only did the Cardinals struggle to bring down "Big Ben," but they also had problems even keeping him in the pocket, allowing him instead to run around long enough to find open receivers.
But the Steelers' defense had problems, too.
"Everybody keeps something under their hat for an emergency," Tippett said. "They don't show everything they've got right away. They hold something back for when they really need it. They see something, then they wait, wait, wait, 'til the time is right."
Tippett believes the Cardinals had noticed that, in certain situations when the Steelers played a "Cover-Two," with two safeties deep, those safeties would roll toward the outside receivers on some routes. That left the middle wide open for Fitzgerald in the slot, if he could beat his man.
Giving credit where it's due, the game-winning catch by Holmes in the closing seconds was a fantastic play -- first by Roethlisberger, who checked off two other receivers before throwing a high pass over three defenders that only Holmes could bring down; and then, of course, by Holmes, for not only catching the ball, but also keeping both feet in bounds.
"That was a more difficult catch," Tippett said, "than the ball he'd let go through his hands in the end zone the play before."
Tippett feels that sometimes, particularly late in the game, defenders feel everything's okay as long as the play takes place in front of them -- that, as long as nobody gets behind them, everything's under control. The result is that good passers can pick their way down the field.
"It's like whoever has the ball last wins," Tippett said, a hint of sadness in his voice, because it's evident it's offense that wins championships now.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The Providence Journal
