Week Of February 23, 2004
Knights Arena
Super Bowl Mania Comes to SA
Peter Galan
The Lance
Super Bowl XXXVIII.
The longest name in the Super
Bowl since they started using
Roman numerals, and the longest
that it will be until Super Bowl
LXXXVIII. How appropriate that
this Super Bowl was almost the
longest game ever, almost the first
ever Super Bowl to go to over
time. Almost. Place-kicker Adam
Vinatieri and the New England
Patriots had something to say
about that, as they defeated the
Carolina Panthers, 32-29 on a
game-ending 41-yard field goal by
the Pats’ ice-veined Vinatieri.
By Super Bowl standards, the first
quarter and a half was ugly.
Boring and ugly. The Patriots set
the tone early, with a strong
aggressive drive that showed the
world why they had won 14 games
in a row coming in. Tom Brady,
the Michigan stud (over whom the
women are now swooning across
the nation), displayed the precision
and strength that made him Most
Valuable Player of the Super Bowl
two years prior. However, his
efforts went for naught, as the nor
mally accurate Vinatieri missed a
31-yard field goal. This game, in
fact, was the first time in which
the Patriots failed to score on their
first offensive possession in their
last six games.
Fast forward to the middle
of the 2nd quarter. Nothing signif
icant happened anyways; defense
was the name of the game.
Neither offense did much worth
mentioning in the way of moving
the ball. Football is a game of
making mistakes. Usually, scores
come off of mistakes by the other
team, whether it is bad defense or
a turnover deep in their own terri
tory (which leads to a short field
with which the offense has to
work). Carolina committed one of
the seven deadly sins (in football,
at least), by making the first mis
take. The teams had traded punts
for a while and through the natural
progression of the game, Carolina
happened to be deep in their own
territory. On third and twelve at
their own 28-yard line, Jake
Delhomme was hit by Unebacker
Mike Vrabel, causing a fumble that
was recovered by defensive end
Richard Seymour at the Carolina
20. It then took Tom Brady and
the Patriots only four plays to put
the ball in the end zone, as Brady
hit Deon Branch with a play-action
pass for a touchdown from the 5-
yard line, making the score 7-0.
Worth noting was the fact that the
first touchdown was scored with
3:05 left in the 2nd quarter; 26:55
being the most time it has ever
taken to score a point in Super
Bowl history.
After 26:55 of boredom,
the game decidedly picked up.
Faced with having negative
yardage for the first half (-7 yards
at 3:05 left in the half), Delhomme
drove the Panthers 95 yards with
1:58 left, culminating with a 39-
yard touchdown pass to Steve
Smith. The only problem with this
was the fact that there was a good
amount of time left on the clock
(59 seconds), and anyone who
watched the Super Bowl XXXVl
two years ago knows that is
enough time for Brady to score.
He did, running the two-minute
offense just like he did in Super
Bowl XXXVI, driving 78-yards in
49 seconds. David Givens caught,
once again, a 5-yard play-action
pass for a touchdown to make the
score 14-7. But wait. The scoring
wasn’t over for the half! The Pats
made a minor mistake, squibbing
the ensuing kickoff to the 46-yard
line of the Panthers and then
allowing Stephen Davis to run 21
yards to the New England 33 with
12 seconds left. John Kasay. ;
capped the first-half scoring at 14-
10, splitting the uprights with a
50-yard field goal.
Hey. Yo! The game is
back on. Yes, that was Janet
Jackson’s nipple on national TV.
But you know what? Who cares?
There was a football game to be
played.
But apparently someone
forgot to tell the teams involved in
said game, as the second half was
a replay of the first. For nearly the
entire third quarter, the teams trad
ed blows without scoring points.
At the end of the quarter, however.
New England started to move.
Brady started to pick his spots, hit
ting his wide receivers with preci
sion passes, and running backs
Antowain Smith and Kevin Faulk
started to chew up yardage. That
led to the Carolina defense being
worried about the run, so Brady
was able to complete a 33-yard
pass of the play-action variety,
going from the Carolina 41 to the
8. Smith closed the drive with a 2
yard run up the middle on the sec
ond play of the 4th quarter, mak
ing the score 21-10.
The game was in danger of
getting out of control for the
Panthers, so they did the only
thing they could: went to the
hurry-up offense, getting the
offense to the line quickly and try
ing to catch the defense off guard.
It worked, as Delhomme looked
like the quarterback that led the
Panthers to 3 straight playoff wins
and a division crown, making the
throws that needed to be made at
the times they needed to be made.
And just when they had the
Patriots back on their heels,
expecting pass, Delhomme handed
off on a draw play to DeShaun
Foster. He got into the secondary
and ran for a crucial 33-yard
touchdown. Even more crucial
was the play afterwards.
Remember how I said the
Panthers were desperate? Head
coach John Fox made a controver
sial decision to go for 2, down 21-
16, to try to pull them to 3 points,
even though there was plenty of
time left in the game. They failed,
and the score remained 21-16.
Remember those points.
Remember how it could have been
21-17.
Speaking of remembering,
remember how I said football was
a game of mistakes? Tom Brady
and the Patriots hadn’t made too
many as of 7:48 left in the 4th
quarter, but that changed with one
play. On third-and-goal from the
Carolina 9, Brady made a bad
decision: he threw off his back
foot into double coverage. For
those who don’t watch football,
that is like not studying for your
test and showing up 45 minutes
late (in a 50 minute class): really
really stupid. Reggie Howard
intercepted Brady’s ill-advised
pass and returned it to the Carolina
12, giving the Panthers new life
for real. Instead of being down
28-16, 24-16 at the least, it was
still 21-16 with plenty of time left
on the clock. Carolina took full
advantage of the opportunity, and
in quick fashion, as Delhomme
nailed a streaking Muhsin
Muhammad up the sideline for an
85-yard touchdown pass on the
third play of the drive. The
Panthers once again went for two,
and once again failed, making the
score 22-21. Remember that point
and the point that would have gone
on this score if Carolina made the
safe play.
We knew New England
was a dominating team. They had
won 14 games in a row coming
into the Bowl, and while not in
overpowering fashion, they won
and won and won. In fact, at 6:53
of the 4th quarter, the Patriots
were trailing for the first time in
over 8 full games! It was the first
time they had trailed since
November 23, in that same stadi
um, against the Houston Texans.
If you have a long memory (as
sports fans are wont to do), you
will remember that the Pats came
back to win that game.
So, working from an unfa-
mihar position, Brady, being the
scientist he is, went to work. He
put the team in a spread offense,
running 4 and 5 wide receivers out
at a time. With the space and time
he was given, he was able to pick
the Carolina secondary apart. On
a dominating 11 play, 68 yard
drive that took 4:02 off the clock,
Brady went 5-8 for 57 yards, cul
minating with (gasp!) a play action
pass to special-duties linebacker
Mike Vrabel, playing one of his
first offensive snaps of the season.
Vrabel caught the 1-yard touch
down pass with 2:51 left, and the
Pats then went for and succeeded
in getting a two point conversion,
running Kevin Faulk up the middle
to make the score 29-22.
Remember those
points
As the Panthers’ next drive
started, I thought to myself, “The
Panthers have to score a touch
down, but they can’t do it too fast.
They can’t give Brady too much
time to work with at the end of the
game to get another game-winning
field goal set up.” Guess what
they did. Delhomme ran the
hurry-up to.perfection, converting
5 of 6 passes and running the ball
in chunks when needed. When he
found Ricky Proehl in the end
zone for a 12-yard touchdown and
converted the point-after-attempt
to knot the score at 29,1 looked at
the clock. It said 1:08. I said,
“Uh-oh.” (Are you remembering
those points that should have been
scored???)
1 know this is a really long
article, and I have given you a lot
to remember, but again 1 say, foot
ball is a game of making mistakes.
And on the final kick-off, John
Kasay made the unforgivable mis
take of kicking the ball out of
bounds. To prevent teams from
doing that every time and pinning
their opponent deep in their own
end of the field, the NFL instituted
a rule that says the receiving team
gets the ball on their own 40-yard
line if the kickoff goes out of
bounds. So, with a tie game, and
1:08 on the clock, the Patriots and
their poster-child of success QB
Tom Brady had 1:08 to move the
ball approximately 35 yards, to get
in the comfort zone of Vinatieri.
The first play was run to perfec
tion, as Brady found a wide-open
Troy Brown for 13 yards, putting
the ball at the Carolina 47. The
Patriots were called for offensive
pass interference on the next play,
setting them up at their own 43.
Brady made up for his teammate’s
•See Bowl, Page 5