Monday, February 02, 2009

Super Bowl 43 -- Steelers vs Cardinals

Sooo... as I finish up Puppy Bowl V, my excitement for the Super Bowl starts to build and build...

Before it starts, I am going to admit that I would much prefer the Cardinals win since I sort of root for them during the year... but they always let me down.

I have been following them for years -- especially Larry Fitzgerald who made my Scarlet Knights look silly sometimes...

My wife and I are armed with a score sheet from Spotbowl.com and I intend to rate the commercials as well as I can... Last year... I rated them as... Stupid... Average ... and Noteworthy (Not really... but that was a year ago and this is what I have decided will be the way I will rate them this year... siince I honestly don't remember what I did last year.)

Official Coverage Begins

So the coverage officially kicks off at 6:00 and Faith Hill is singing th thme song as she has all season... and yet... I treat it as a new thing in my mind... I wish she didn't sing country... because she has a great set of pipes...

John Madden (blech) and Al Michaels arrive and they are probably going to annoy me the whole night... but alas... I digress...

The Steelers seem to be the team that the critics are picking and they ar a 7 point favorite... I am happy to see that the Steelers DO have an ex-Rutgers player on their team... Go Darnell Stapleton! They enter the field...and the Terrible Towels start swinging...

The Cardinals haven't been here in 47 years or so and no one predicts them to do well, but Kurt Warner is the story... so if he wins... he punches a ticket to the Hall of Fame... They enter the field with much tougher music and make me giddy on the inside.

Kurt Warner kicks off... hopefully a night of winning ways... to be named as the Waltr Payton Man of the Year... He donated over 1 million dollars to Habitat for Humanity... That's cool.

Some songs are sung... and Jennifer Hudson finishes the National Anthem OVER the OVER/UNDER of two minuts and 5 seconds... you can bet on everything.

Coin Toss time... wow... The NFC has won 11 straight tosses... that's a cool statistic. Pittsburgh calls tails and they lose the toss... 12 straight tosss... fascinating... and Pittsburgh will get the ball first.

First Half

Let's focus on something important as names are read and Darnell Stapleton from Rutgrs says his name... My Super Bowl boxes... I have two boxes... 1. Steelers 4 and Cardinals 7 and 2. Steelers 9 and Cardinals 8.

Pittsburgh scores first... or do they... the TD is reversed... so they kick a field goal instead. Good reverse... but there is no way that the human eye could catch that on the field. That's what instant replay is really for.

The first quarter ends 3-0 and then the Steelers quickly score a TD after that to bring the game to 10-0.

Hey... fun fact... this is the same stadium that Rutgers made their statement against South Florida on my birthday weekend.

The Cardinals score and make it a game again... it was starting to feel like the Steelers were going to run away with this thing.

I also think it was funny on SNL's Weekend Update when Seth said something like... Super Bowl 43 features the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals opening for a guy named Bruce Springsteen.

The end of the first half gets exciting as Arizona threatens to score a TD... when Warner is picked off and the big goofy Pittsburgh defender Harrison returns the ball 100 yards for a TD... that is reviewed... and it counts! That was a crazy ending of the half and interesting...

Also... there are a whole bunch of people yelling at the tv about the boxes... that was a HUGE turn around...

Bridgestone Halftime Show

Aka... someone named Bruce is singing and I am not sure who that is...
He seems like an energtic guy and the crowd likes him... so he must be someone that people know.
Hey! It's the guy from The Sopranos...
Hey! It's the guy from the Conan O'Brien Show!
I know this song... Born to Run...
Working on a Dream(?)
Glory Days...

Sooo... I have now seen Bruce live... and I have to say... He isn't capable of singing... he's a yeller... not a singer. (Discuss and throw your venom right at me.)

Third Quarter

For what it's worth... this game was moving along incredibly fast... but the stupid halftime show got in the way... It actually got exciting at the end where I almost had my numbers come up twice. Dammit Big Ben... dammit.

The quarter ends... 20-7 and I am not sure if it matter right now...

Fourth Quarter

It.... was more fun to watch than to write about... the safety ruined any possible chance that I had for any win in the box pools... argh.

Holmes and Fitzgerald are amazing... or should I also say... Roethlisberger and Warner are amazing... ?

Great ending to a pretty bad starting game... Pittsburgh wins 27-23... and loses in Las Vegas.

My favorite commercial was the overambitious kid commercial... from cars.com.

Noteworthy
Cars.com "Overachiever Kid"
Coke Zero Polamalu Too Tall Jones Commercial Throwback
Priceline "Speak Like Me"

Memorable
Audi Stratharn Chase Scene
Bridgestone Jacked Tires
Bridgestone Mr. Potato Head
Budweiser Dating Horses
Cheetos "Pigeons"
Coke Insects
Denny's Mafia "Seriously"
Doritos Crystal Ball
Doritos Wishes
GE Ocean Wind in a Jar
Hulu.com
Hyundai "Car of the Year"
Monsters.com Deer Head
Pepsi MacGruber
Pepsi Max "I'm Good"
Teleflora Insulting Box of Flowers

Average
Acura TL Precision
Ax Men
AXA Gorilla
Bud Lite Conan O'Brien
Budweiser Ideas Meeting (Guy thrown out window)
Budweiser Fetching Horse
Budweiser Scottish Horse
Careerbuilder.com "It's Time"
Castrol Edge Grease Monkeys
Coke Cartoons
E*Trade Two Babies... singing
Frosted Flakes "Fields"
GE Wizard of Oz
NBC Shows LMAO Syndrome
Nextel Roadies
Pepsi Forever Young
Taco Bell "Call Me Sometime"
Universal Studios Inner Kid
Vizio "Smart Decision"

Stupid
Angels & Demons Movie Trailer
Bud Light Skiing Drinkability
Cash 4 Gold
Fast and the Furious Movie Trailer
Ford Edge "Jeter"
Gatorade G Commercial (These just plain stink.)
Go Daddy Danica Patrick
H&R Block "Death"
Heineken John Torturro
Honda Accord "Simple"
Hyundai Return Policy
Land of the Lost Movie Trailer
Monsters vs Aliens Movie Trailer
Overstock.com
Pedigree Wild Pets
Race to Witch Mountain
Sobe Ballet and Dancing Lizards
Star Trek Movie Trailer
Toyota Eli "You Traded Me"
Toyota Tundra Hauling
Toyota Venza
Transformers 2
Up Movie Trailer
Year One Movie Trailer

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So I had stepped away from the TV (I know, blasphemy) and only caught the tail end of the careerbuilder commercial. I pushed the tivo 7-second rewind button a few tunes to click back to the beginning and I thought it was malfunctioning because 3 times I saw that lady screaming in her car.

Anonymous said...

I actually think that Faith Hill is tragically boring when singing anything BUT country.

-Shari

The Paperboy said...

Wouldn't it make more since if it was Doritos Magic 8 Ball...not Doritos Crystal Ball?

Anonymous said...

Conan and LMAO both made me laugh.

But, I thought the commercials, as a group were pretty lousy.

Odd, when you think about it. Usually the hype for the game overshadows the lousy game and the commercials save the day. This year, if not for the game, there would have been almost nothing.