Despite 168 hours of constant scrutiny, dissection, and predictions from nearly every sports network, program and analyst last week, Sunday's Super Bowl between the Buccaneers and Raiders left many onlookers surprised not only by Tampa Bay's victory but by the convincing fashion in which it was achieved.
As a result, those of us who watched the game were left yesterday to discuss which commercial was our favorite and ponder how some of the Raiders fans in attendance passed through security and cleared the metal detectors outside the stadium. However, there was an athletic lesson to be learned
--or, to put it more appropriately, a lesson to bereminded of--from the greatest spectacle in American sports: Great defenses beat great offenses.
In the week leading up to the game, we all heard ad nauseam about how the match-up between the NFL's number one offense and the league's number one defense was the first of its kind in Super Bowl history. Many pundits believed that Oakland's unique style of offense with multiple receiving threats and short, timing patterns would do what its predecessors could not: simply outscore the team with the best defense in the league.
As is frequently the case, some maxims become clich
for a reason--because they are true. Despite what the Ravens and Patriots--not to mention many before them--had proven in recent memory, lots of prognosticators believed there was no defense that could slow down the Rich Gannon juggernaut. I must admit I was guilty of the same assumption--that the Bucs had not seen an offense like that of the Raiders all season. It seems I had it backwards--the Raiders had not seen a defense like that of the Bucs this year.
This season's national champion in the college pigskin ranks reminded us of this same fact. Ohio State's defense slowed down Miami's touted offensive arsenal of Dorsey, McGahee, Andre Johnson and Winslow II and let the Buckeyes hoist the Sears Trophy in the Fiesta Bowl.
Football is not the only sport subject to this truism. Take basketball, for example. The NBA Champions of the last 15 years--Pistons, Bulls, Rockets, Spurs, Lakers--all have had one thing in common: one of the league's top defensive units. The team with the best half-court and transition defense almost always advances in the post-season. Closer to home, Wahoo fans are well aware of this phenomenon. Any follower of the Cavalier men's basketball squad clamors not for more offense but for more defense and rebounding. The key, as many have already observed, for the Cavaliers the rest of this conference season will be shutting down the opponent on defense.
The clich
for America's pastime goes more like "good pitching beats good hitting," but it still has the same underlying implication--if the other team doesn't score, they won't win. The role of the pitcher, baseball's defensive leader, is so important that he is the only player actually credited with "wins" and "losses." Whereas Barry Bonds has no career win-loss record, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling almost single-handedly led the Diamondbacks to the promise-land in 2001. A team could have a great offense, but without at least two great starting pitchers, they are nothing more than summertime entertainment.
Just as pitchers are the only ones on record for winning or losing the game, goalies in hockey carry around the same burden of being "responsible" for a team's number of wins and losses. Whereas Jaromir Jagr keeps track of his goal and assist total, it is the goalie that is saddled with the "win-loss" differential. (In a surprise upset of its own kind, I can't believe hockey actually found its way into one of my columns.)
Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks and Co. reminded us all on Sunday of what we already knew: that when it comes down to a great defense versus a great offense, the great defense will lead its team to victory.
And now that that's out of the way, let me get to what was really controversial--the ads that debuted Sunday. My top three: 1: Visa commercial with Yao Ming and Yogi Berra; 2: Reebok's Terry Tate -- nothing like bone crushing hits on unsuspecting victims; and 3: Budweiser's Zebra commercial.
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