Super Bowl XLIV in numbers

New Orleans Saints 31 Indianapolis Colts 17

The Super Bowl remains the most-watched single annual sports event in the world, and in a country whose major sports are all stat-lovers' wet dreams, it boasts more statistics than any other event on earth. For instance, four million Americans bought new TVs to watch last night’s game, during which a 30-second commercial would have set you back an eye-popping $2.8m (£1.8m). Meanwhile, approximately 4,000 tonnes of popcorn and 11 million pounds of potato chips were consumed during the action. And so on, and so on.

As a small doff of the cap to what sometimes feels like a thinly-veiled excuse to hold the world’s biggest numbers game, here is a potted summary of Super Bowl XLIV, told in statistics.

1 - This was the Saints' first trip to a Super Bowl - a big enough achievement in itself for a franchise historically known as the 'Aints'.

44 – Last night was the 44th Super Bowl. It is also the shirt number worn by Indianapolis tight end Dallas Clark, who was the game’s leading receiver with 7 catches for 86 yards. (Incidentally, Barack Obama is also the 44th President of the USA.)

22 – Multiples of this number seem to represent pivotal cultural moments in Super Bowls. Last night’s game was cheered on as a victory for Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. Super Bowl XXII was the first to feature a black starting quarterback, the Washington Redskins’ Doug Williams.

10 – New Orleans tied a Super Bowl record for the greatest deficit overcome to win the game. Like the Redskins in the aforementioned Super Bowl XXII, the Saints trailed 10-0 at the end of the first quarter.

96 – Yards covered on Indianapolis’s first touchdown drive (a 19-yard pass from Peyton Manning to Pierre Garcon), a Super Bowl record.

12 – The longest drive of the game covered 71 yards in 12 plays, and resulted in no points as the Colts stopped the Saints on a fourth down play on their own one-yard line late in the first half.

0 – The number of onside kicks attempted during the first three quarters of all 43 previous Super Bowls, until the Saints executed one with the second half kickoff, recovered it, and marched downfield to their first touchdown – and lead – of the game.

18 – Consecutive points scored by New Orleans, overturning a 17-13 third quarter deficit.

47 – The number of turnovers (including postseason) forced by the Saints in their 18 games this season prior to the Super Bowl.

1 – The number of turnovers forced by the Saints last night. But what a big one it was, with Tracy Porter returning a Manning pass 74 yards for a touchdown, just as the Colts were driving towards the tying score with three minutes remaining. Porter’s pick-six effectively clinched the game.

38 – In yards, the longest field goal successfully made by Saints’ kicker Garrett Hartley during the 2009 regular season. Last night, he was successful from 46, 44 and 47 yards, becoming the first man ever to kick more than two field goals from 40 yards or more in a single Super Bowl and raising his postseason record to a perfect five from five.

1- The total number of sacks in a game which featured a dizzying 85 passing plays. It was recorded by the Colts’ Dwight Freeney, despite struggling throughout with an ankle injury which required heavy strapping.

30 – The measly number of rushing yards gained by the Saints’ leading runner on the night, Pierre Thomas. (The Colts’ Joseph Addai accumulated a more respectable 77.) It is also the overall percentage of plays called which were runs (37 out of a total of 122). Be in no doubt, the NFL is very much a pass-oriented league these days.

0.500 – The distinctly average postseason win percentage of Peyton Manning, widely regarded as one of the NFL’s best-ever quarterbacks. Nine wins, nine losses.

82.1% - The percentage of passes completed by New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees (32 of 39), eclipsing his 2009 regular season average of 70.6%, in itself an NFL single season record. Two of his seven incompletions were a deliberate spike to stop the clock and a routine catch which was dropped by the receiver. Seriously impressive.

1 – The number of Super Bowl-winning teams led by a quarterback born in Texas, the second-largest and second most populous state in the US with 25 million inhabitants. That would be Drew Brees.

66.7% - The percentage of Super Bowls won by the winner of the NFL International Series game at Wembley since its inception. The New York Giants won the Super Bowl after the inaugural match in 2007, while the Saints won at Wembley in 2008. (As a San Francisco 49ers' fan, this gives me double cause to celebrate their participation in this year's Wembley showpiece on October 31st.)

5 - The total number of postseason game victories in the Saints' 43-year history - three of which have come this season, culminating in Super Bowl triumph.

And finally …

4 – This was the first Super Bowl to be represented in Roman numerals by four different characters. The first Super Bowl to require five different numerals will be number 144.

Hey, I’m allowed one utterly trivial statistic, aren’t I?

Beyond these bare numbers lies the full story of a closely-fought game - the third straight Super Bowl to feature a lead change in the fourth quarter - which started on a low simmer and built gradually to a grand climax. If, like me, you stayed up until nearly 3am (UK time) to witness the denouement, it was a richly rewarding spectacle. If you didn't, well, there's always next year.

After all, the numbers don't lie.

Is defeat a blessing in disguise for the Colts?

With just one week remaining in the NFL regular season, the '72 Miami Dolphins can breathe easy and - as has become traditional for the surviving members of the league's sole 'perfect' team at the fall of the last unbeaten side every season - pop the celebratory champagne corks.

At least as far as 2009 is concerned, nobody's perfect any more. But, for the Indianapolis Colts, that may turn out to be a good thing.

Until a week ago, the tantalising prospect of not one but two unbeaten teams duking it out in the Super Bowl - in, of all places, Miami - on February 7 remained very much a possibility. But then the New Orleans Saints stumbled to a 24-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, and followed that up last night with a 20-17 defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who recorded only their third win all season.

So now 13-0 has turned into 13-2 for the Saints. And what was shaping up to be a marquee season - and potentially a first-ever trip to the Super Bowl - led by the NFL's most potent offense is now plagued by doubt. Are the Saints losing form as we approach the business end of the season? Will the pressure of carrying the hopes of a city still struggling from the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina prove too great?

The same question marks cannot be said to hang over Indianapolis. Even if last night's 29-15 defeat to the New York Jets - who scored the game's last 19 points in erasing a 15-10 third quarter deficit - dashed any hopes of a perfect season, the result raises no major doubts about the Colts' momentum, coming as it did with quarterback Peyton Manning and other key starters sitting out the second half.

After all, the primary objective remains the Super Bowl, and with home field advantage in the playoffs already secured, there was little left to play for other than the mythical 19-0 season and the sometimes-voiced notion that a winning team should never let up.

But what if Manning or, say, running back Joseph Addai had been injured in what was effectively a meaningless game? Is the quest for perfection really worth the risk?

And, I would argue, a single defeat can even be healthy for the soul. It is a reminder that nothing can be taken for granted, and it also relieves the additional pressure of striving for the perfect season (as if pursuing a Super Bowl win isn't enough already).

Just ask the New England Patriots, who marched through the 2007 season with a 16-0 record, and from there to a Super Bowl against the New York Giants which many considered to be not so much a competitive game as a coronation. It was a game in which the Giants played out of their skins and the much vaunted Patriots coughed, spluttered and were eventually defeated, as if choking under the weight of expectation, both their own and that of a live audience of hundreds of millions.

There are many reasons why the Patriots lost that game. The pressure of emulating the '72 Dolphins was almost certainly a contributing factor. But so too was a dilution of focus. Instead of conserving their effort at the end of the regular season, they poured considerable energy into pursuing individual records for quarterback Tom Brady and wide receiver Randy Moss, which went right down to the final regular season game - against, of all teams, the Giants. In pursuing individual and team glory, did the Patriots show too much of their gameplan to the Giants, an act of vanity which would later cost them in the Super Bowl? It's hard to tell, but it certainly wouldn't have helped their cause.

Interestingly, there is a possibility that the Jets will face the Colts in the playoffs. Unlike the Giants against the Patriots, they will have learned very little about Indianapolis last night.

So, the Colts are not chasing the end of the rainbow any more. They won't care about sacrificing the perfect season if it means they win the Super Bowl. It's a lesson which New England learned the hard way; Indianapolis may well benefit from maintaining their tunnel vision and playing the long game. Only time will tell.

There are many reasons why the Indianapolis Colts may fail to convert near-perfection into a Super Bowl win (not least the fact they have statistically the least productive running game in the entire NFL). But the vainglorious pursuit of the perfect 19-0 season will not be one of them.

Wembley is not the pot of gold at the end of the NFL’s rainbow

Even on a day when the unbeaten New Orleans Saints overcame a 24-3 second quarter deficit in Miami and the San Francisco 49ers fell just three points short of reeling in Houston’s 21-0 halftime advantage, the odds of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers recovering from the 21-point head-start they gave the New England Patriots at Wembley Stadium yesterday never looked good.

This was the third year in a row that Wembley has hosted an NFL regular season game, but the novelty does not seem to have worn off, at least not among the die-hard American football community, nearly 85,000 of whom descended on north-west London yesterday. For while this was always likely to be a competitive fixture in name only – the Patriots are among the Super Bowl favourites, while the Bucs came to London winless after six games – it was enough that the NFL was just here.

The expectation of a one-sided contest was underlined when Brandon Merriweather intercepted Tampa quarterback Josh Johnson’s second pass of the day and returned it down the sideline for the opening score, and further reinforced when Merriweather picked off Johnson again on the Bucs’ next possession.

In truth, quarterback Tom Brady - who is to the NFL what David Beckham is to football - and the high-octane Patriots’ offense coughed and spluttered through much of the first half. Brady uncharacteristically threw two early interceptions - as many as in the previous six games in total - but when the Pats clicked it was to ruthless effect. First Brady hit Wes Welker across the middle with a short pass which the diminutive wide receiver took in for a 14-yard score, and then Sam Aiken slipped a tackle en route to a 54-yard touchdown to give the Patriots a 21-0 advantage.

The Bucs rallied briefly before halftime, with Johnson finding Antonio Bryant with 18 and 33-yard passes, the latter for a touchdown, but it was never likely to be more than a death rattle.

And so it was. The Patriots cranked it up a gear in the second half (without ever appearing to be running flat out), embarking on a pair of soul-destroying six-minute drives covering 73 and 89 yards at the start of the third and fourth quarters, culminating in, respectively, a 35-yard touchdown catch by Ben Watson and Laurence Maroney’s one-yard run. At 35-7, the game was up, and it was left to both teams’ backups to run out the clock on the remaining nine minutes.

After his nervy start, Brady settled into a deceptively easy rhythm, finishing with 308 yards passing and three TDs. (It says much for people’s elevated expectations that this felt like a relatively subdued performance.) Of his two primary receiving threats, Randy Moss had an unspectacular game by his standards (5 catches for 69 yards), while it was Welker who did most of the damage, repeatedly running free underneath the Bucs’ coverage to finish with 10 receptions. Too often the Bucs defense seemed uncertain whether to stick or twist: on the one hand, too often unwilling to press the short passing game for fear of giving up the deep ball, then unable to cope in man-to-man coverage when they did try to apply pressure. By contrast, the Pats patiently absorbed everything Tampa had to offer offensively, occasionally conceding ground and then finding big plays when they needed them to stop the young Bucs in their tracks.

But then that was no more than was expected from a match which pitted a confident team packed full of experience and star names against a winless side of relatively callow youngsters. The final 35-7 margin was neither unrepresentative nor unexpected, and is indicative of the difference between a team whose year will end quietly in Tampa, Florida when the regular season ends on January 3rd and one who has a very realistic chance of going all the way to the Super Bowl 300 miles south in Miami, Florida on February 7th.

Shades of Wembley 2007?

In the first ever NFL regular season game at Wembley two years ago, the New York Giants defeated the Miami Dolphins 13-10 in a truly awful game. The Dolphins flew home winless and would finish the season 1-15; the Giants went on to win Super Bowl XLII, their third overall.

So, will history repeat itself in 2009? Are the Bucs destined for an NFL-worst record this year? And can the Pats go one better than the Giants and notch up a fourth Super Bowl win?

The Patriots are ranked in the league’s top six in both offense and defense, a sure sign of a potent, well-balanced team. After a sluggish start, they are beginning to look like the real deal again, having outscored their last two (admittedly winless) opponents 94-7. With Brady returning to somewhere near his best form they are an awesome threat through the air, their ground offense is decent enough and the defense remains tough and steeped in experience. Super Bowl winners? Maybe. Serious playoff contenders? Definitely.

The Bucs, on the other hand, remain one of only three winless teams, and are ranked in the league’s bottom six in both offense and defense. With a young quarterback and a relatively inexperienced supporting cast, they will continue to struggle for consistency, but there is enough potential in a running game which boasts a decent twin threat in Cadillac Williams and Derrick Ward to build around. However, their schedule from here on is not the easiest, including home and away matchups against the undefeated Saints. They will probably not follow the 2008 Detroit Lions in going 0-16, but in all likelihood they will struggle to win more than a couple of games. At best, they are most optimistically described as a work in progress; at worst, they may just be the poorest team in the NFL in 2009.

Where next for the NFL in the UK?

After the success of the last three years, it is hoped that the UK will be granted two games next season, with the aim of hosting as many as four per season from 2012. The former seems highly possible (though by no means a given); the latter a worthy aspiration but probably no more than a pipe dream, as the NFL will undoubtedly look first to extend its reach into other lucrative TV markets where the sport will be welcomed with open arms. Germany is an obvious target, with Japan and ultimately China also likely to feature highly on the league’s hit-list.

Certainly any talk that London might one day be granted its own NFL franchise or the rights to host a Super Bowl is both premature and wide of the mark. For now, the NFL is certainly a successful and loyally-supported minority sport in the UK – and, for those of us who grew up watching the sport on a strict diet of one-hour weekly highlights programmes and scouring the box scores in the international version of USA Today during the pre-internet 80s, the level of coverage we get today is miraculous by comparison – but the UK represents no more than a stepping stone in the NFL’s wider global plans.

Personally, I doubt we will ever see the Super Bowl played at a stadium outside the US, but if it ever did, my money would not be on Wembley hosting it. I strongly suspect that, at the end of the rainbow, the pot of gold can be found in the heart of Beijing. Impressive though Wembley is, I can think of no more spectacular place to host the NFL’s showpiece event than the Bird’s Nest stadium.

Now that really would be a Super Bowl.

Defining moments 2: No ordinary Joe

An occasional series looking at the defining moments which explain why sport captivates us so much ...

The image is as clear in my mind today as it was 20 years ago. On a field of giants stands a comparatively slight figure in red and gold, his arms held aloft in simple celebration, as if he was just an ordinary Joe celebrating a touchdown in a pick-up game of football in the park.

But this was no ordinary game; no ordinary touchdown. And it was certainly no ordinary Joe.

Super Bowl XXIII - Joe Robbie Stadium, Miami, January 1989

The NFL’s annual showpiece between the San Francisco 49ers and the Cincinnati Bengals kicks off in the sunny warmth of a late Miami afternoon. Like many other Super Bowls before and since, it takes a while to get going. A lethargic first half finishes 3-3, punctuated by two lengthy delays while Cincinnati’s Tim Krumrie and San Francisco’s Steve Wallace are stretchered off with broken legs. It’s not until the closing moments of the third quarter that the game suddenly explodes into life, the Bengals’ Stanford Jennings returning a kickoff for the game’s first touchdown to put Cincinnati ahead 13-6. The 49ers are stung into action, quickly restoring parity as 49ers’ quarterback Joe Montana tosses a touchdown pass to Jerry Rice.

But then the tempo drops again. A feint; a parry. Rice catches a long pass, but Mike Cofer misses the subsequent field goal attempt. Cincinnati then embark on a laborious drive that seems to encapsulate the mood of the entire match: slow, tentative, slightly fearful. It’s like watching a boxer who refuses to open up and go for the knockout blow. After five and a half minutes of cautious jabbing, Jim Breech’s field goal makes it 16-13.

The game is now finishing under floodlights, and the spotlight is very much on Joe Montana. It’s the point of no return – down by three, just over three minutes remaining - and the task is clear: orchestrate a touchdown to win, or at least a field goal to force overtime. As if this isn’t a big enough ask, the Niners must start from under the shadow of their own goalposts: on their own eight-yard line, with 92 yards to go.

No problem.

The San Francisco offense huddles in the endzone waiting to start their drive, with the eyes of a 75,000 crowd and a global television audience upon them. The pressure is almost unbearable. They know a critical moment will come at some point; they’re not sure they can handle it.

This is a time when you look to a team’s leader to deliver passionate and motivational words, something in a Churchillian vein perhaps. Not Joe Montana. He takes in the surroundings and points out a familiar face in the stands – “Hey, check it out, that’s John Candy” – to break the tension. He’s not nicknamed ‘Joe Cool’ for nothing. Then it’s down to business, the full extent of his final pep talk being, “Let’s go, be tough.”

The 49ers go to work. With the calmness of a surgeon, Montana starts to dissect the Bengals’ defense with precise cuts into its underbelly. A mix of runs and short passes moves the 49ers to the Cincinnati 35 with nearly a minute and a half left. It all seems so calm, so inevitable. Montana is the man at the eye of the hurricane, making the near impossible appear simply routine. But behind the façade, the stress and pressure are troubling even Montana. He’s hyperventilating as he shouts out the play to his teammates over the noise of the crowd, and as he drops back he feels wobbly, his vision blurring, so he deliberately throws his pass away high over the sideline. No harm done, but it’s a wasted play, and a penalty immediately afterwards leaves the 49ers in a nasty situation: second-and-20, the equivalent of being stuck in a green-side bunker.

This, then, is the singular moment everyone’s been waiting for. Do or die. Roll those dice, Joe.

Montana dismisses the crisis casually. With the team around him functioning smoothly – and, more importantly, believing – he waves his magic wand, conjures up a long range completion to Rice and, hey presto, secures another first down.

Now victory is within touching distance. Another pass moves the 49ers to the Cincinnati 10, and with 39 ticks remaining on the clock they call a timeout. One final pause, as much a chance for the crowd to catch their breath as it is for the players.

Montana makes the call, and the eleven offensive players break the huddle and line up opposite their defensive counterparts: lineman against lineman; cornerback on wide receiver; man to man. A moment’s stillness, and then the ball is snapped, initiating the customary violent ballet.

Tick. A series of crunching thuds as linemen’s shoulder pads and helmets crash against each other, the perpetual battle in the trenches between irresistible force and immovable object.

Tick. A blur of speeding motion around the fringes, as defensive flashes of white track the choreographed movements of red and gold: the languid, flowing grace of Jerry Rice, the slashing, high-stepping strides of Roger Craig, the bullish power of Tom Rathman.

Tick. The conductor, Montana, at the centre of it all. Ball in hand, dropping back, surveying everything being played out in front of him. His eye is drawn to wide receiver John Taylor (who has not caught a single pass all day) as he slips unguarded into a soft spot in Cincinnati’s coverage. It’s a small window of opportunity, open for only an instant, but Montana spies it immediately and delivers the perfect pass.

Tick. Taylor makes the catch, and the official at the goalline raises both arms above his head to signal the score. Montana does the same, a simple, routine celebration in circumstances which are neither. The crowd in the stadium is somewhat more demonstrative, however, erupting in a cacophony of pure noise.

Tick. The clock stops at 34 seconds. San Francisco 20, Cincinnati 16.

In what little time remains, the Bengals are unable to mount a response, and the 49ers win Super Bowl XXIII after one of the most exciting finishes ever seen in a championship game.

A miracle? No, it’s just another day at the office for an extraordinary Joe.

The legend of Joe Montana

Super Bowl XXIII was the crowning glory of the Joe Montana legend, but it was hardly the first time he had overcome apparently insurmountable odds.

A late bloomer at both high school (Ringgold High, Pennsylvania) and college (Notre Dame), he gained a reputation for unlikely come-from-behind victories, the most dramatic in his final game as a collegian, the 1979 Cotton Bowl against the University of Houston. It was so cold that Montana – who grew up accustomed to freezing Pennsylvania winters – suffered from hypothermia and had to sit out most of the third quarter while he was fed soup in an effort to raise his temperature. However, he was red hot when he returned, overcoming a 34-12 deficit in the final 7:37 of the game and throwing the winning touchdown as time expired.

And it was no different when Montana graduated to the NFL. In 1980, his second pro season, Montana inspired San Francisco to the biggest regular season comeback in NFL history at the time, overcoming a 35-7 deficit to defeat the New Orleans Saints.

The following year, Montana led the 49ers to their first Super Bowl with a dramatic comeback against the Dallas Cowboys, marching his team from their own 11-yard line late in the game and culminating in a scrambling run and throw to receiver Dwight Clark, who leapt and stretched with every inch of his six-foot-four frame to haul in what 49ers’ fans refer to simply as ‘The Catch’.

Montana didn’t just specialise in on-the-field comebacks either. In 1986, he underwent major surgery after suffering a ruptured disc in his back. The doctors recommended retirement; Montana was back playing – and winning - within eight weeks. And after injuries had forced him to miss nearly two whole years, he returned in the final game of the 1992 season, winning in his final appearance as a 49er and looking like a quarterback who had been out of the game for barely 23 minutes, let alone 23 months.

And even in that triumphant Super Bowl XXIII-winning season, Montana had had to overcome his doubters. In pre-season, experts were declaring him past the peak and suggesting it might be time to hand over to his highly-rated backup, Steve Young. Injuries and inconsistent performances fuelled a quarterback controversy that was not resolved until Montana led a four-game winning streak to clinch the division title. No one ever questioned whether Montana should give way to his Young pretender again.

Joe Montana never understood the concept of “giving up”. That’s the thing about legends: as much as they love the sweet scent of victory, they despise the bitter taste of defeat even more.

How good was Montana as a player? Well, no less an authority than John Madden – former player, Super Bowl-winning coach and long-time television commentator – has said, “I say with no disclaimers, ‘This guy [Montana] is the greatest quarterback who ever played.’”

Joe Montana could never claim to have the strongest arm, or the quickest feet, or the most durable body; indeed, there are many quarterbacks in the history of the NFL who were quantitatively better athletes than Joe Montana. However, when it came to the vital, intangible qualities that turn a good athlete into a great player – vision, leadership, poise, heart and the ability to galvanise a team and make the impossible happen – these he possessed in abundance. In street clothes, Joe Montana looked no better than any other player in the NFL; once the helmet and pads were on, he was without equal.

And while it is true that there are lies, damned lies and statistics, just consider these two facts. Joe Montana played in four Super Bowls, and won all four. In those four games, in the most pressurised atmosphere in the sport, he threw 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions. Two simple statistics: 4-0 and 11-0. One great man. When the heat was on, the player everyone could rely on was Joe Cool.

Randy Cross, a long-time teammate, encapsulated the essence of Montana perfectly when he said, "If every game was a Super Bowl, Joe Montana would be undefeated."

Joe Montana’s career left NFL fans with many great memories; Super Bowl XXIII is the one most will think of as his defining moment.

Fairy tales aren’t meant to end like this

If he was watching, Yogi Berra would no doubt have said it was like déjà vu all over again.

Last year, Super Bowl XLII was decided when the New York Giants – a blue collar, run-biased team with a hard-hitting defense - came from behind to win on a touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress in the corner of the end zone with 35 seconds remaining.

Last night, Super Bowl XLIII was decided when the Pittsburgh Steelers – a blue collar, run-biased team with a hard-hitting defense - came from behind to win on a touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Santonio Holmes in the corner of the end zone … with 35 seconds remaining.

Or, as Bon Jovi so aptly put it on Wanted Dead or Alive: “It’s all the same / Only the names will change.”

Like many other sports, the NFL is full of oft-spoken aphorisms. Two in particular spring to mind: offense wins games, but defense wins championships; Super Bowl winners always have an effective running game.

In many respects, Super Bowl XLIII followed the form book. Pittsburgh had finished 12-4 in the regular season despite a brutal schedule, and boasted the NFL’s top-ranked defense to boot. The Arizona Cardinals were the rank outsiders, having finished with a 9-7 record – just 3-7 against opponents outside their division – and carrying the league’s worst rushing attack (albeit one which had improved markedly during their playoffs run).

In others, however, conventional wisdom was defied. For sure, Pittsburgh had the number one-ranked defense, but in the final analysis it was their offense which won this match in the closing moments. And at no stage last night did they ever establish a credible running game – 58 yards at an anaemic 2.2 yards per carry was not atypical of an attack which ranked just 23rd out of 32 teams in rushing yards (and 29th in yards per carry) during the regular season.

The game did, however, obey one of my own personal laws of the Super Bowl: no matter how ordinary the game may appear, do not go to bed early or you are bound to miss something big.

As so it proved to be.

The first three quarters of the game had been pretty ordinary fare, with the flow being disrupted by frequent penalties - 18 in all - and video reviews of marginal plays. The Steelers had grounded the Cardinals’ high-flying pass offense and eked out an apparently decisive 20-7 lead – no team has ever won a Super Bowl after trailing by more than ten points – largely off the back of the game’s one spectacular play, a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown by linebacker James Harrison as time expired in the first half.

But then, in the final 12 minutes, the game exploded.

First Kurt Warner, seeking to become the first quarterback to win Super Bowls with two different teams, completed eight consecutive passes against the NFL’s best defense to bring the Cardinals to within 14-20.

After an exchange of punts, Pittsburgh found themselves pinned back on their one-yard line. On third-and-10, an apparently successful pass play was negated by a holding penalty in the end zone, resulting in a safety. 16-20.

Arizona received the ensuing kickoff and Warner required only two plays to fire a 64-yard scoring pass straight down the middle of the field to star receiver Larry Fitzgerald. With 2:37 remaining, the underdog Cardinals had their first lead of the game, 23-20.

Cue Roethlisberger. A Super Bowl winner with Pittsburgh in only his second NFL season (2005), the Steelers had won that match in spite of rather than because of him: ‘Big Ben’ had ended the game with the worst passer rating of any winning quarterback in Super Bowl history. That was emphatically not the case this time. Facing the sudden and unexpected prospect of defeat, Roethlisberger worked the field and the clock, even overcoming a dropped pass by Holmes in the end zone before hitting the same receiver on the other side of the field on the very next play for what proved to be the decisive score.

Down by four and needing a touchdown, Warner was able to drive the Cardinals past midfield in the limited time remaining, only to suffer the ignominy of being stripped of the ball as he tried to buy time for one final, desperate heave into the end zone.

It was a sad way to end the game for the league’s Cinderella Man: the former NFL Europe and Arena football player who went from bag-packing in a grocery store to leading the St Louis Rams to their only Super Bowl triumph after the 1999 season; the washed-up veteran who led Arizona to their first Super Bowl. If, as he has hinted, Warner opts to retire rather than subject his battered 37-year old body to another campaign, it’s not the fairy tale ending he or the Cardinals’ long-suffering fans – the franchise, which has become synonymous with futility, has now gone 62 years since its last NFL championship - would have hoped for.

Regardless, Warner can at least lay claim to the three highest passing yardage totals – two in a losing cause - in Super Bowl history. As seems to happen every year, this was just one of a number of Super Bowl records to fall: in addition to Harrison’s 100-yard play, Pittsburgh became the first team to win six Super Bowls, and, at 36, head coach Mike Tomlin became the youngest man ever to lead a championship-winning side.

The defeat will have had an added edge for his Arizona counterpart, Ken Whisenhunt, who was the Steelers’ offensive coordinator in their previous Super Bowl win and was passed over for the head coaching job two years ago … in favour of Tomlin.

But, like Warner, Whisenhunt’s fairy tale had a sting in the tail rather than a happy ending.

Exercises in futility

On different sides of the Atlantic, but within 24 hours of each other, two of sport’s more ignominious reigns have ended today.

Firstly, Paul Jewell resigned as manager of Derby County, drawing to a close a 13-month spell at the club in which he oversaw the Rams’ relegation from the Premier League with a record low total of points (11), having managed just one win all season (equalling a 108-year old league record) and conceded five or more goals in six of their 38 matches. They were also the first team ever to be relegated from the top division in March, perhaps the most telling indication of just how poor they were relative to their peers.

And it is not as if things have improved significantly this season. Despite Jewell’s promise of gaining immediate promotion back to the Premier League and a complete re-tooling of his squad, Derby currently lie 18th in the division, a perilous five points above the relegation zone, having won just seven of 26 games so far, and having in September narrowly escaped completing a full calendar year without a win: the streak ended at 364 days.

Notwithstanding the current vogue in football for firing managers at the first sign of trouble, there is little doubt that Jewell had to go sooner rather than later. In fact, it’s a credit to Derby that they have shown so much loyalty and patience to a manager with a decent history who has simply got it terribly wrong here.

At least Jewell walked before he was pushed. Detroit Lions’ head coach Rod Marinelli was fired, a move which brings new certainty to the word ‘inevitable’.

At the mid-point of the 2007 season, things had been looking rosy for then-second year coach Marinelli. The Lions were 6-2 and one of the NFL’s most enduringly unsuccessful and futile franchises – just one win in a playoff game since their last NFL championship-winning year of 1957 - was suddenly looking like a contender.

By season’s end, however, normal service had been resumed. A six game skid saw them finish 7-9, posting their seventh straight losing record.

And if the 1-7 record in the second half of 2007 wasn’t bad enough, the Lions went 0-8 through the first half of the 2008 regular season, and then completed a full and unique set when last night’s 21-31 defeat to Green Bay condemned them to the first 0-16 record in NFL history, and only the second winless season in the Super Bowl era (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers went 0-14 in 1976, their first year of existence).

Even if they had won at Green Bay – and the Lions were still in with a sniff deep into the fourth quarter - Detroit would have joined a select band of just eight teams who have compiled 1-15 records in the 31 seasons since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule. (And they would still have held the dubious honour of being the only NFL team to start a season 0-15.)

Nonetheless - ifs, buts and maybes aside - the facts are damning. In three seasons, Marinelli had a 10-38 record as a head coach, including 1-23 in his final year and a half. In 2008, the Lions conceded 551 points (while scoring just 281), the second-worst total in NFL history. The squad is woefully short of decent players, let alone good ones - wide receiver Calvin Johnson (78 catches and 12 TDs, joint-highest in the NFL) and kicker Jason Hanson (21 of 22 field goals) are arguably the only two Lions who would be coveted by other teams.

With the regular season over, even if the Lions were to win their 2009 season opener, it means they will go at least 20½ months between wins.

Derby fans: eat your heart out.

In a league which actively promotes parity between its teams, 20½ months is as good as a lifetime. But there is hope. Only last season, the New England Patriots completed the regular season 16-0 (although they subsequently lost the Super Bowl), while their division rivals, the Miami Dolphins, limped to 1-15. In 2008, however, the Patriots have missed out on the playoffs altogether, while the Dolphins have brought about the most dramatic single-season turnaround in NFL history, improving to 11-5 and winning their division.

So there is hope for the Lions, if not for the hapless Marinelli, in 2009. I wouldn’t count on it, though.

When the Saints came marching in

What a difference a year makes.

This time last year, having just returned from the first NFL regular season game to be played in the UK, I wrote: As games went, it was a bit of a stinker, the NFL’s equivalent of a dreary nil-nil draw.

Yesterday’s game between the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers, however, couldn’t have been more different. As games went, it was a roaring success, the NFL’s equivalent of a 4-3 goal-fest.

It wasn’t just the scoreline – 37-32 to the Saints, incidentally – that was in stark contrast to last year. It helped that we didn’t have last year’s torrential downpour, which hampered both teams and destroyed the Wembley turf – although the pitch still looked greasy and heavy underfoot, it was no worse than you might expect to see in, say, Green Bay at this time of year. And the NFL also made a wise choice in selecting two teams with explosive offenses, not something which could be said about either the New York Giants or Miami Dolphins last year.

It was also clear that other important lessons had been learned from last year’s experience. Instead of flying in a couple of days before the game, both teams arrived early in the week, allowing greater scope for both acclimatisation and PR opportunities. (Although what the four Saints’ cheerleaders who appeared on Saturday’s Soccer AM made of one of the quirkier sports shows around is anyone’s guess.) And whereas the crowd last year was largely a mix of interested neutrals, this year there was much more effort to create the feel of a Saints’ home game, with a pre-game tailgate party serving Cajun food and free Saints flags distributed to all seats. As a result, the noise level generated in key third down and goalline situations was considerable; not at Louisiana Superdome levels, but sufficient to discomfit the San Diego offense enough to be a contributing factor to a number of San Diego’s fourteen penalties.

What else? It was nice to have an honorary team captain (Rebecca Adlington, wearing her two gold medals) for the coin toss who was applauded rather than booed (John Terry last year), even if the role involves little else than strolling onto the field in a Saints shirt, waving to the crowd and then sauntering off again. And we clearly had a better class of anthem-singer this year too – Ne-Yo and Joss Stone, rather than Paul Potts, winner of Britain’s Got Talent. (Whatever happened to him? And does anyone care?)

And, of course, the game itself was a considerable improvement on last year, as it was always likely to be between two evenly-matched sides with extremely strong offenses (New Orleans lead the league in total offense, San Diego are second in points scored) and iffy defenses (both rank in the bottom ten in total defense). By halftime, the Saints had as many points (23) as the Giants and Dolphins amassed between them in the whole game last year. Both teams topped 400 yards in offense, both quarterbacks – Drew Brees for the Saints, Philip Rivers for the Chargers – threw for three touchdowns and exceeded 300 yards passing, and we had our fair share of spectacular plays.

For the purist, it was a bit too much like basketball at times, with both teams marching up and down the field and seemingly scoring at will – combining for five touchdowns in the second quarter alone – and offering little in the way of defensive spectacle (no sacks, one turnover, only a handful of big hits) but that’s just nit-picking. The NFL would have been hoping for a close, action-packed game to win over the neutrals, and they certainly achieved that.

Did we see – as we did with the Giants last year – a potential Super Bowl champion yesterday? I doubt it. At this, the mid-point of the season, neither team flies home above .500 – the Saints are 4-4, the Chargers 3-5 – but more than that, while both will always score freely, neither appears to have enough defensive steel. As the old NFL truism goes: offense wins games, defense wins championships.

Mind you, I doubt anyone leaving Wembley last year would have bet on the Giants (6-2 at the time) achieving anything more than perhaps an early playoff exit, so poor was their performance that day, especially on offense. (They did, however, have the defense which managed to shut down the all-conquering New England offense in the Super Bowl. Like I said: defense wins championships.) So we shall see, but I’m not hurrying out to Ladbrokes to back either the Saints or the Chargers any time soon.

One final note. Since that initial Giants/Dolphins game last year, we have seen Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore vilified for his proposed ‘39th game’ international expansion. The NFL (and also the NBA) has managed to make this a reality with a plan which requires one team (New Orleans this year, Miami last) to give up one-eighth of its home fixtures and, despite the cost – estimated at £5m - and logistical complexity of staging the game, will generate significant revenues for all 32 teams, not just the two involved. This year’s game was broadcast live by both Sky Sports and the BBC; in the case of the latter, this is the first time it has provided full coverage of a non-Super Bowl NFL game. And both Sky’s TV ratings and participation in the sport in the UK are up significantly since last year, demonstrating the positive effect that even a one-off international game can have.

Where the Premier League has been castigated for its single-minded focus on revenue generation and has (for the moment) failed in expanding the football experience to a global audience, the NFL, with its ‘one-for-all, all-for one’ collective commercial mentality – equal sharing of commercial revenues, a salary cap, and an annual ‘draft’ which gives the worst teams first choice of the best young players - is gradually creating a successful bridgehead in key international markets.

Yes, I know big sports are big businesses these days, and no amount of dewy-eyed, rose-tinted wistfulness is going to change that. But here’s a controversial thought: maybe money – or at least the pursuit of it – isn’t everything, or even the most important thing, in sport. Maybe sport is the most important thing in sport. Get that right first and the money will surely follow.

Just a thought.

Imperfect

Q: When is a record of 18 wins in 19 games not good enough?
A: When the one you don’t win is the one that really matters.

In a recent blog, I said the following: ‘Don't be surprised if the Giants … produce their own fairy tale ending. Many of the previous 41 Super Bowls have been disappointingly one-sided games - I have a sneaky feeling this one won't be.’

On Sunday night, Super Bowl XLII was neither disappointing nor one-sided, producing one of the greatest upsets ever as the New York Giants – 13-point underdogs with some bookmakers - beat the undefeated New England Patriots 17-14 in a game which was every bit as close as the scoreline suggests. The winning touchdown came on an Eli Manning pass to Plaxico Burress with just 35 ticks left on the clock.

It was a great game; not a high-scoring one, but great nonetheless. Yardage and points truly had to be earned the hard way, and both teams traded spectacular catches and bone-jarring hits in equal measure. And, of course, hanging over the proceedings like a fog, was the Patriots’ drive to become only the second team after the 1972 Miami Dolphins to complete a ‘perfect’ undefeated, untied season.

Several images stick in the memory. The Giants’ defense regularly battering Tom Brady, the New England quarterback, to the tune of five sacks and a dozen more knockdowns. Wes Welker, the Patriots’ tiny wide receiver, darting about like a dragonfly in a field of (literally) Giants, fighting for every possible yard. Eli Manning's miraculous escape from a nailed-on sack on a critical third-and-5; this, the same Manning who has been criticised throughout his career for his tendency to panic under a heavy rush. The resultant soaring, tumbling, overhead catch by David Tyree to set up Burress’s winning score. And, finally, Jay Alford’s crushing sack on Brady on the Patriots’ final desperation drive, a waist-high hit so powerful it seemed to almost slice the quarterback in two.

When all was said and done, the lead had changed hands three times in the fourth quarter, the first time this has ever happened in a Super Bowl. And, against all odds, it was the Giants who rendered the Patriots’ season ultimately imperfect.

In terms of unpredictability, excitement and tension, you can’t ask for more than that.

In the final analysis, the best team in the NFL, the one who set records left, right and centre in the regular season, were only the second-best team in the Super Bowl.

Although Eli Manning was named as MVP (following in brother Peyton’s footsteps), the real stars of the show were the Giants’ defense. For one night, they made Tom Brady, the NFL’s best quarterback, look distinctly ordinary. And, by maintaining constant pressure on Brady, they found a way to stop the supposedly unstoppable New England offense, which had set new NFL benchmarks for total points (nearly 37 per game), touchdown passes (Brady) and touchdown catches (Randy Moss). Uncompromising, physical, smash-mouth defense: this truly was prototypical Giants football.

So the Patriots will return home licking their wounds, having missed out on the chance to achieve the perfect season. Other opportunities are definitely gone forever. Before the game Tom Brady was being talked about as possibly the greatest quarterback of all time, on the brink of matching Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana as the only quarterbacks to go 4-0 in Super Bowls. Now that’s not to say he won’t return and record his fourth victory, but his record will be forever imperfect, never four-and-oh.

As for the Giants, they are virtually unrecognisable from the team who splashed their way to an unconvincing 13-10 over the Miami Dolphins – the NFL’s worst team in 2007 - at a soggy, muddy Wembley in October. And it’s equally hard to believe that the Eli Manning who marshalled his team so effectively in the playoffs is the same quarterback who threw 20 regular season interceptions (joint worst in the NFL) and ranked a lowly 25th in passer rating. Maybe, just maybe, we will now see the Eli Manning we all expected when he was selected with the first overall pick of the 2004 draft.

Of course, Super Bowl success does not automatically elevate a quarterback to the status of greatness – Baltimore’s Trent Dilfer springs readily to mind here – but Eli Manning has shown throughout the playoffs, not just on Sunday, that, at long last, he has the potential to be more than merely good. Which Manning shows up at the start of next season – Regular Season Eli or Super Bowl Eli – will go a long way to determining the Giants’ chances of defending their title.

As 70,000-odd people trudged away from Wembley last October, nobody would have suspected that we had just watched the Super Bowl champions-elect. So roll on the New Orleans Saints versus the San Diego Chargers on October 26th. Make a date: maybe Wembley might just play host to the eventual Super Bowl champions for the second year running. Now wouldn’t that be something?

Arm's reach of desire

The corporate behemoth which is Coca-Cola once expressed its vision as 'arm's reach of desire', but it is a slogan which could apply equally to either of Super Bowl XLII's participants, the New England Patriots and the New York Giants.

The Patriots showed uncharacteristic vulnerability in last Sunday's stumbling 21-12 AFC Conference Championship victory over the San Diego Chargers, but they nonetheless punched their ticket for the big show in two weeks' time, and in doing so recorded the first 18-win season in NFL history. Not only do they stand one win away from completing the first 'perfect' season since the NFL moved to a 16-game schedule (and only the second ever), but victory over the Giants in Arizona will mark their fourth Super Bowl win in seven years, elevating them to the level of the great Pittsburgh and San Francisco teams of the 70s and 80s.

But New England's ascension to the pantheon of the NFL elite is by no means a foregone conclusion. The Giants will have taken comfort from watching the Patriots' star-studded offense huff and puff against the Chargers. Tom Brady threw just eight interceptions throughout the regular season; on Sunday alone he tossed three. Randy Moss caught 98 passes for an NFL record 23 touchdowns in the regular season; in two postseason games he has just 2 catches and no TDs. And no team has scored as many points against New England this season as the Giants did in a thrilling 38-35 loss in week 17.

The battle-hardened Giants will certainly be no pushovers. They are a far cry from the team who UK fans watched labour to a 13-10 win over the 1-15 Miami Dolphins at a sodden Wembley back in October. In successive weeks, they have won on the road against the NFC's number one and two seeds, first dispatching the Dallas Cowboys - to whom they had lost twice during the regular season - and then, even more impressively, beating the Green Bay Packers in the third coldest game in NFL history (minus-18 degrees C, with a wind chill of minus-31). All this without their biggest offensive weapon, tight end Jeremy Shockey.

For Giants' quarterback Eli Manning, he is now within arm's reach of his deepest desire: to escape from the shadow of his elder brother, Peyton. Both were selected with the first overall pick of the draft (Peyton in 1998, Eli in 2004), with all the weight of expectation which goes with that. But whereas Peyton quickly established himself as one of the NFL's top quarterbacks, even though it took him nine seasons to reach (and win) his first Super Bowl last year, Eli has struggled to excel and has been much maligned throughout his four years in the league. 20 interceptions and middling reviews during the 2007 season have done little to alter the perception of Manning Jr as a passer who is merely competent rather than great: more Carrie Bradshaw than Terry Bradshaw.

However, in the postseason, Eli has been outstanding, completing 62% of his passes and throwing for four touchdowns without interception - stats which compare favourably with the more illustrious Brady. Against all expectations - mine included - he has looked every inch a Super Bowl quarterback, and perhaps for the first time has started to justify his status as a number one overall pick. Now, winning the Super Bowl will not suddenly transform Eli Manning from an ugly duckling into a swan, but it will certainly allow him to hold his head up high and elevate him into the exclusive club of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks. That's not bad for starters.

Come February 3rd, the Patriots will enter Super Bowl XLII as overwhelming favourites to complete their perfect season. But don't be surprised if the Giants have failed to read the script and produce their own fairy tale ending. Many of the previous 41 Super Bowls have been disappointingly one-sided games - I have a sneaky feeling this one won't be.

Not perfect yet

Although the 2007 season has ended for the majority of the NFL's 32 teams, for the New England Patroits the reality is that it is only just starting.

Such is the pressure and weight of expectation when you have just completed only the fourth 'perfect' (undefeated and untied) regular season in the 78-year history of the NFL, and the first ever to do so over a 16-game schedule.

The Patriots can certainly present a compelling case for themselves as the NFL's best-ever team, having won three of the past six Super Bowls in a league which is specifically structured to encourage parity between teams, with its salary cap, its annual draft which gives the poorest teams priority in selecting the best college players, and a system which penalises stronger clubs by giving them tougher schedules the following season. The 2007 Patriots feature the NFL's fourth-ranked defense, providing the platform for the league's number one offense, which set a new scoring record with 589 points. Quarterback Tom Brady and wide receiver Randy Moss both set new NFL single season marks, with 50 touchdown passes and 23 TD receptions respectively, while Wes Welker snared 112 catches, joint highest for the year. And they have already defeated both the defending Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts (their most likely opponent in the AFC Championship Game) as well as the top-ranked NFC team, the Dallas Cowboys, this season.

(As an aside, things could have been very different for Welker, who had started just three games in the previous three seasons with the Miami Dolphins. While the organisation marked the 35th anniversary of the 'perfect' 1972 squad, the current team embarked on a near-imperfect season, losing their first 13 games and avoiding total ignominy only by virtue of an overtime victory against the Baltimore Ravens.)

Of course, the campaign as a whole will only be considered truly perfect if the Patriots go on to win the Super Bowl on February 3rd and be officially crowned as champions of the NFL, which can by no means be taken for granted. Of the three previous teams to boast a 100% record, only one, the '72 Miami Dolphins, saw the job through to its conclusion. The Chicago Bears twice (1934 and 1942) managed perfect regular seasons, only to come up short in the NFL Championship Game (as it was known in the pre-Super Bowl era).

So it's no small challenge which faces the Patriots over the next few weeks. Now that the regular season has ended, 16-0 no longer counts for anything. And while winning all 16 games so far has been a phenomenal and unique achievement, the pressure of knowing there are still three all-or-nothing games standing between them and sporting immortality must be suffocating. They're not perfect yet, and the biggest struggles are yet to come.

For the next week or so, however, the Patriots can still be regarded as perfection-in-waiting. And the eyes of the sporting world will be waiting eagerly for the story to unfold.

Who says lightning doesn't strike twice?

It’s always a privilege to watch a game in which a new record is set. But to see one which features two record-breakers is a rare gem indeed.

On a day where the NFL and the headline writers were focussed on the irresistible-force-meets-immovable-object battle between the league’s last two unbeaten teams, the New England Patriots and reigning Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts, it was the earlier game between the San Diego Chargers and Minnesota Vikings which will go down in the record books.

It was fitting that lightning should strike twice in a game featuring the Chargers, the team whose logo is a thunderbolt, and whose running back LaDainian Tomlinson set NFL single-season records for both rushing (28) and total (31) touchdowns only last season.

But it wasn’t Tomlinson who set the record books alight last night.

That privilege fell first to team-mate Antonio Cromartie, who fielded a missed field goal at the back of his own end zone as time expired in the first half. He then ran it back, untouched, for a 109-yard touchdown which was the longest play in NFL history. Furthermore, as it is not possible for a play to cover more than 109 yards, Cromartie’s record is one which may be equalled in the future, but never beaten.

If that wasn’t enough already, an apparently innocuous three-yard run on the penultimate play of the game by the Vikings’ rookie running back Adrian Peterson was enough to break one of the NFL’s most revered records, the single-game mark for rushing yards once held by the late, legendary Walter Payton. That final carry was enough to move Peterson’s total to 296 yards, beating Jamal Lewis’s previous record by a solitary yard.

As is the nature of these things, Peterson’s record may not stand for long: last night was the third time this particular mark had been broken since 2000. But given that he also currently leads the NFL in rushing yards, total yards from scrimmage and rushing touchdowns, there is every chance he will go on to set more records in the weeks and years to come. This is no one-week wonder: it will be worth remembering his name.

For the record, the result was almost incidental in the midst of all that excitement, but Minnesota won 35-17.