If the Real NFL was Like Football Video Games, Part 2Aug 23 '09 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line The Cardinals won the Super Bowl! Note: This article will be better understood if read in conjunction with the first part, which can't be here because Epinions now apparently has a policy against writers using links to their other reviews. The country has reached the end of another great season of NFL football, with a result no one expected during this era of salary caps: A Super Bowl mirror match between the two teams that faced each other in the previous season's Super Bowl, which hasn't been seen since the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills in the 1993 Super Bowl before beating them again the very next season. This Super Bowl was a rematch between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals from last year. There were of course vast personel differences, but what else can be expected in the cap era? The most important personel differences were the people behind the benches, microphones in ears, shouting orders. The mysterious and legendary coaching legend Baron Samedi of course unretired to coach the Cardinals to their first title since their days in Chicago's Comiskey Park. Behind Steelers bench was Mike Tomlin, the first-year Steelers coach who was thrust into his job upon Bill Cowher's fearful retirement - which came when he received word that Samedi was returning. "There's just no point anymore," was his widely-quoted comment after hearing the news. The last coach of the Cardinals was Ken Wisenhunt, who was fortunate enough to remain with Arizona this season when Samedi decided he was still the perfect guy to coordinate the offense. Samedi had glowing praise for Wisenhunt's work. "Kenny was brilliant this year," he said. "I had a good feeling about him when I hired him after watching the Cardinals last season. But he's the best offensive coordinator I've ever worked with. I think he excelled because without having to perform all the duties as coach, he was freed up enough to concentrate on his speciality, which is offense. Plus the prospect of going up against Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl again gave him a chip on his shoulder. He really wanted to prove himself." Wisenhunt admitted "I was smiling when I heard we would be facing the Steelers again. I couldn't wait to get back at them." During the season, Samedi rose above and beyond his massive hype thanks in large part to Wisenhunt's offensive genius. Samedi's legendary "Blue Stampede" offenses with the Buffalo Bills ran scores up to such a point that Samedi has an average victory margin of over 30 points. When Samedi unretired to coach in Arizona, people were expecting him to win his seventh Super Bowl title. No one was expecting him to reach the lofty records his big-play, no-huddle, dominating Bills offenses. But Samedi not only reached them, he demolished them. While Samedi's Cardinals team never attained a cool, fierce nickname, that may have been because people were too intimidated to give them one. The Cardinals swarmed opponents, swamping them with a staggering total of 1210 points, with 9263 total offensive yards - 5549 in the air and another 3714 on the ground. News starting quarterback Tom Brady threw for 4430 yards and 60 touchdowns in just 13 games before getting injured. Running back Corey Dillon, an old favorite of Samedi's, rushed for 2902 yards and 59 touchdowns. Margins of victory surpassing 50, 60, and sometimes even 70 points were common for the Arizona Cardinals, with the incredible point output topping out in a 91-3 crushing of the Detroit Lions. Things got so out of hand that Samedi laid off his coaching accelerator during the last four weeks, with his top score in those weeks reaching "only" 63 against the Rams. Fears that Samedi would be feeling sentimental during the Cardinals/Bills game proved to be unfounded when Arizona beat Buffalo 70-0. Arizona's lowest point total of the season was 42. Samedi reached an untouchable fourth perfect season as head coach. This isn't to leave out the work of the Arizona defense. Led by another longtime Samedi favorite, Ray Lewis, The Cardinals only allowed a handful of touchdowns, and only allowed 314 yards of rushing against them even after Lewis was injured in week 12. Even Samedi's short passing defense schemes, his only real weakness, managed to shine. The Cardinals never allowed more than nine points until the Super Bowl, where Pittsburgh was able to roll up 20. It didn't give the Steelers a whole lot except bragging rights about how they were able to reach a double-digit score against a Baron Samedi team; the Cardinals won anyway by slamming Pittsburgh with 70 points. Pittsburgh managed to put up as best a fight as they could. They were stubborn and moved the ball well, while on defense they terrorized the passing lanes so much that the Cardinals resorted almost strictly to running. Samedi admitted the lopsided 70-20 score made the game look like more of a blowout than it was. "I was terrified going into this game," said Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. "People just can't beat this guy. But I wasn't about to admit defeat just because of his .950 career winning percentage. I wanted my guys to fight and not be intimidated, and they weren't. Samedi got some lucky breaks, and if I keep improving as a coach, I might be able to join that elite club that has beaten Baron Samedi someday." The big question now is where Samedi will go from here. He made light comedy of his apparent inability to stay retired. "I'm not going to retire anymore from now on," he said. "I'm just going to take personal off seasons. Lord knows I don't want to become like Brett Favre or Roger Clemens. Like them, you won't be able to trust me to stay retired because I'm still very young and I love football and I love coaching it. I hate to sound cliche, but for me it really isn't about ego. It's about love of football. I was blessed with a gift when I went to coach the Buffalo Bills. I got paid to partake in a sport I love, and it took a retirement for me to figure that out. So I may hate my job every now and then and think about retirement every now and then. But this time, I don't plan to do it until I'm well past my prime and can't tell you what a hail mary pass is." The rest of the coaches in the NFL can't wait for him to actually go. But as Samedi is only entering his prime, it's going to be a long wait.  |
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