There was a lot of noise surrounding the Suns and the trade deadline. It turned out that the Suns did nothing player-wise and stayed put, but lost Amare anyways to an eye surgery. The trade deadline was a big snooze-fest as none of the big names around the league changed addresses. Just when the team and the fans thought Amare was all set to be a productive Sun the rest of the season, he is out with an unexpected eye surgery. This guy has impeccable timing as far as his injuries and surgeries go. He signed a multi-year deal a few years back and had a knee surgery before he played the first game of the very next season. This year he was part of all kinds of trade speculation and just a day or two after the deadline, he is done for the season. Now Suns are in a bigger hole than ever as far as this season goes.
The Amare speculation was all over the place, but the most intriguing trade rumor was Shaq going to C-town. Wow! As much as I like the Suns to do well and come out of any trade with value on their side, I wouldn't have had a problem seeing Shaq alongside the King even if it meant the Suns had to take back garbage. That would have been awesome theater to say the least. He would have helped the King too given how good he has been this season. Shaq is in good shape and is doing fairly decent in the low post and on defense. In that half-court offense they run in C-town, he would have been a valuable piece for the stretch run. How ironic would it have been if he helped LeBron win a ring after having helped Kobe to 3 rings, and then gravy-trained Wade for one more? Thats three of the best wings in the game today and Shaq would have played, won and tried to steal the credit from all of them.
Kerr came out of the All-Star weekend and promptly fired Coach Terry Poter. I rarely support firing coaches after just 4 months, but this was one of those rare cases I guess. Porter didn't do much for this team and he had to go. Running selectively, or to be more precise, running randomly on a whim, and throwing the ball into Shaq on every half-court possession is not great coaching. May be Porter could have gotten away with it in 2001 when Shaq was Shaq. Plus the whole thing seems to have alienated Amare more than he would like to admit. So Kerr turned over the keys to the car to Alvin gentry and Gentry is driving it at full-speed again. The run-and-gun is back and the Suns have scored 140+ points in 3 straight games.
Of course these wins were against the Clippers (twice) and Thunder, but at least it shows that Gentry is indeed committed the to the run-and-gun and the Suns players are still alive and awake. This is no guarantee the Suns are going to be great again in the West. I mean even the Gonzaga bulldogs can probably drop 100 points on the paper-clips and the Thunder, but 140 points is still huge in the NBA and I was curious to see what happens to the Suns under the new-old regime the rest of the way. We may not get the answer we need this season because Amare is out for the rest of the season with that eye surgery. Typical Suns. One step forward, but two steps backwards.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Mediocrity in Phoenix
The mediocrity that surrounds the Phoenix Suns this season seem to have gotten to the All-Star Saturday today in Phoenix. I personally prefer the Saturday festivities to the game on Sunday, but this one was not all that. The 3-point shootout was weak and the slam-dunk contest had it's moments, but nothing more. I like that the guys are getting creative and are using all kinds of props from phone booths to all-green outfits that signify kryptonite, but the dunks themselves were not as good as last year.
There were a few good ones. I liked Nate Robinson's jump over Dwight Howard. That was incredible. I like the one where Howard dunked the ball off the edge of the side-board and didn't even need more than one attempt to nail that. The Rudy Fernandez dunk was also good, but he needed 200 attempts to make it work. The best part of that dunk was Kenny Smith's funny comments about Rudy's choice of Pau Gasol and J.R.Smith's choice of Sonny Weems to throw these passes. They are not exactly Steve Nash or CP3, though Pau Gasol did a decent job with those passes.
The rookie-Soph game happened yesterday night and I am glad I didn't watch even a second of it. That game should easily be the worst basketball game of the year. It's just like the All-Star game with no defense and everybody trying extra-hard to put on a show, but it's much worse because the talent, experience and the maturity level is ten times worse than that of the All-Stars. No wonder, tickets were available for 5 bucks each for this game on Stubhub. All that remains now is the All-Star game tomorrow. It has some potential to be interesting given how good LeBron, Kobe and Wade are playing and competing these days, but it's still just an All-Star game.
Phoenix is at the center of the NBA world right now for both the right and wrong reasons. It's hosting the All-Star game and is front-and-center in all trade deadline talk. Plus the Arizona Republic is reporting the Suns are going to fire the coach Terry Porter. I support that decision. He has not had any significant impact on the defense - may be he can't, given this Suns personnel. But the bottom-line is , this defense still sucks. So his only contribution has been confusing and derailing the offense. All Porter does is go to Shaq and Shaq has been decent, but this is not the Shaq of 2001. You got to have a better offense than just going to Shaq every time especially if you have talent like Nash, Amare, J-Rich and Barbosa. I hate coaches getting fired too soon, but I don't see an option in this case.
As for the trade deadline, there are a lot of rumors out there about Amare. It's funny how he is saying things like "I have no idea why the Suns would like to trade a super-star who is also still getting better". They want to trade you because you don't play defense, you don't rebound and you just disappear for long stretches of the game. This guy was an unstoppable monster a few years back, now I don't even think it's a bad idea to trade him away. He is the youngest asset the Suns have and I would hate for him to become a monster again somewhere else, but still it kinda makes sense the Suns are trading him. I like that the Suns seem to consider Nash untouchable, though I am a little surprised given his age and Amare's age. Amare still thinks Kerr is a good GM, but has accused the owner Robert Sarver of being money-minded.
Kerr should be a smooth-operator if he is still able to be in the good books of Amare and Shaq. But he has not distinguished himself as a GM yet. One bad decision after another starting with getting rid of Marion for an old Shaq. I was half hoping he would trade Amare to the Heat and get Marion back. But Marion has now ended up in Toronto with the Heat getting Jermaine O'Neal. That trade makes no sense for the Heat given O'Neal's track record of injuries. Pat Riley is saying he has cleared a lot of cap space for 2010 with this trade. For what, I don't know given that Wade is their own player and is one of the prized free agents of 2010. I guess at least he is trying to do something and if O'Neal is healthy, this could work. I think Toronto might trade Bosh next and I wouldn't mind swapping Amare for Bosh.
There were a few good ones. I liked Nate Robinson's jump over Dwight Howard. That was incredible. I like the one where Howard dunked the ball off the edge of the side-board and didn't even need more than one attempt to nail that. The Rudy Fernandez dunk was also good, but he needed 200 attempts to make it work. The best part of that dunk was Kenny Smith's funny comments about Rudy's choice of Pau Gasol and J.R.Smith's choice of Sonny Weems to throw these passes. They are not exactly Steve Nash or CP3, though Pau Gasol did a decent job with those passes.
The rookie-Soph game happened yesterday night and I am glad I didn't watch even a second of it. That game should easily be the worst basketball game of the year. It's just like the All-Star game with no defense and everybody trying extra-hard to put on a show, but it's much worse because the talent, experience and the maturity level is ten times worse than that of the All-Stars. No wonder, tickets were available for 5 bucks each for this game on Stubhub. All that remains now is the All-Star game tomorrow. It has some potential to be interesting given how good LeBron, Kobe and Wade are playing and competing these days, but it's still just an All-Star game.
Phoenix is at the center of the NBA world right now for both the right and wrong reasons. It's hosting the All-Star game and is front-and-center in all trade deadline talk. Plus the Arizona Republic is reporting the Suns are going to fire the coach Terry Porter. I support that decision. He has not had any significant impact on the defense - may be he can't, given this Suns personnel. But the bottom-line is , this defense still sucks. So his only contribution has been confusing and derailing the offense. All Porter does is go to Shaq and Shaq has been decent, but this is not the Shaq of 2001. You got to have a better offense than just going to Shaq every time especially if you have talent like Nash, Amare, J-Rich and Barbosa. I hate coaches getting fired too soon, but I don't see an option in this case.
As for the trade deadline, there are a lot of rumors out there about Amare. It's funny how he is saying things like "I have no idea why the Suns would like to trade a super-star who is also still getting better". They want to trade you because you don't play defense, you don't rebound and you just disappear for long stretches of the game. This guy was an unstoppable monster a few years back, now I don't even think it's a bad idea to trade him away. He is the youngest asset the Suns have and I would hate for him to become a monster again somewhere else, but still it kinda makes sense the Suns are trading him. I like that the Suns seem to consider Nash untouchable, though I am a little surprised given his age and Amare's age. Amare still thinks Kerr is a good GM, but has accused the owner Robert Sarver of being money-minded.
Kerr should be a smooth-operator if he is still able to be in the good books of Amare and Shaq. But he has not distinguished himself as a GM yet. One bad decision after another starting with getting rid of Marion for an old Shaq. I was half hoping he would trade Amare to the Heat and get Marion back. But Marion has now ended up in Toronto with the Heat getting Jermaine O'Neal. That trade makes no sense for the Heat given O'Neal's track record of injuries. Pat Riley is saying he has cleared a lot of cap space for 2010 with this trade. For what, I don't know given that Wade is their own player and is one of the prized free agents of 2010. I guess at least he is trying to do something and if O'Neal is healthy, this could work. I think Toronto might trade Bosh next and I wouldn't mind swapping Amare for Bosh.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
A-Fraud
It's funny that just few days into the whole "Joe Torre called A-Rod, A-Fraud in his book" controversy, A-Rod has indeed been exposed as a fraud. Sports Illustrated has broken the story that Alex Rodriguez was tested positive for not one, but two different steroids in 2003. This was when MLB was doing anonymous testing for God knows what. He was apparently one of 104 dudes who tested positive then and this was one of the reasons MLB and the union eventually adopted more comprehensive testing. It turns out the testing was not very anonymous after all. I am sure the other 103 players should be very happy knowing that. It was hidden from George Mitchell and his report too, but suddenly it's leaking like a sieve now.
This was the hottest sports news of the weekend because A-Rod is the biggest name in the sport of baseball. It's another blow to the credibility of this era and all the great numbers from this era. A-Rod has great numbers and MLB was hoping he would be the guy who leads MLB and it's records in to the new, supposedly cleaner era. But now, he is just another cheater and MLB has to live with him and his records for the next several years just like they did with Bonds and his tainted numbers. And of course, the inevitable "does he belong in the hall of fame?" question is already coming out. The only positive in all this for A-Rod is that, if he weathers the storm, he has many years to recover from this. He would really be in trouble legacy-wise if he retired in a year or two.
Am I surprised? Not really. I had no specific doubts or opinion on A-Rod and I always liked him as a player. But are any of us stupid enough to trust anybody in this game anymore? I always had a problem when experts like Peter Gammons came out and said things like "clean" players like Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey want more testing because they don't want to be looked at as cheaters. My reaction was always why use any names? How do you know those are "clean" players? They will say they want more testing, but how does Gammons know they are not lying? For all we know, they could be the biggest "roiders" ever. Same with A-Rod or any other name you want to insert in that Gammons comment. It turns out A-Rod is not clean after all though many people assumed he was and he is done now.
If A-Rod thought he had issues with the fans and was already called A-Fraud for no apparent reason, I can't imagine what he has to endure the next couple of years. Of course, he has refused to comment on the controversy as of now and that pretty much means he is guilty in my book. Now he can deny it all or come clean and for some reason, America likes the guys who come clean. I don't understand the psychology of it, but thats been the history so far with Jason Giambi and Andy Pettite and Giambi wouldn't even tell us what he was apologizing for! Now A-Rod has to face the music and he is going to get killed until he wins a championship. But I think he minimizes the damage by accepting it, apologizing for it and claiming he stopped roiding up in 2003 and has never done it again. Lets see how this thing plays out.
Now I want to know the other 103 names. That will make this more fun.
This was the hottest sports news of the weekend because A-Rod is the biggest name in the sport of baseball. It's another blow to the credibility of this era and all the great numbers from this era. A-Rod has great numbers and MLB was hoping he would be the guy who leads MLB and it's records in to the new, supposedly cleaner era. But now, he is just another cheater and MLB has to live with him and his records for the next several years just like they did with Bonds and his tainted numbers. And of course, the inevitable "does he belong in the hall of fame?" question is already coming out. The only positive in all this for A-Rod is that, if he weathers the storm, he has many years to recover from this. He would really be in trouble legacy-wise if he retired in a year or two.
Am I surprised? Not really. I had no specific doubts or opinion on A-Rod and I always liked him as a player. But are any of us stupid enough to trust anybody in this game anymore? I always had a problem when experts like Peter Gammons came out and said things like "clean" players like Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey want more testing because they don't want to be looked at as cheaters. My reaction was always why use any names? How do you know those are "clean" players? They will say they want more testing, but how does Gammons know they are not lying? For all we know, they could be the biggest "roiders" ever. Same with A-Rod or any other name you want to insert in that Gammons comment. It turns out A-Rod is not clean after all though many people assumed he was and he is done now.
If A-Rod thought he had issues with the fans and was already called A-Fraud for no apparent reason, I can't imagine what he has to endure the next couple of years. Of course, he has refused to comment on the controversy as of now and that pretty much means he is guilty in my book. Now he can deny it all or come clean and for some reason, America likes the guys who come clean. I don't understand the psychology of it, but thats been the history so far with Jason Giambi and Andy Pettite and Giambi wouldn't even tell us what he was apologizing for! Now A-Rod has to face the music and he is going to get killed until he wins a championship. But I think he minimizes the damage by accepting it, apologizing for it and claiming he stopped roiding up in 2003 and has never done it again. Lets see how this thing plays out.
Now I want to know the other 103 names. That will make this more fun.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
MSG is home sweet home
Madison Square Garden has become home to anybody and everybody except the New York Knicks. The Knicks have been bad for a few years, but now with Mike D'Antoni coaching them, the defense is even worse and the pace is more up-tempo resulting in increased scoring and more fun for the visitors. Superstars always want to do well in MSG because it's New York and the arena has a lot of history and tradition and they want to leave their mark in the Big Apple. I think Michael Jordan set the precedent through his numerous performances against the Knicks at the garden. This week saw both Kobe and LeBron go into the Garden back to back and put on a show.
First Kobe went nuts and scored 61. It was an amazing performance as Kobe scored efficiently on not that many shots. Kobe even got MVP cheers on the road in NYC. The next game brought LeBron to the city and people were expecting big things from him even before the game because of what Kobe did 2 days back. These two are the best in this business and it's only natural for LeBron to try and outshine Kobe. But still I was very impressed by how LeBron stepped up tot he challenge. I was curious to see how he responds because in the past, he may not have had the drive to out-perform Kobe. But he is a different man these days. This game was another step in his evolution as a great superstar in this game.
LeBron not only almost matched Kobe, but he was even more impressive doing it his way. He scored 52 points, but played his usual complete floor game for a 52-10-11 night. Those are ridiculous numbers. Thats almost 72 points via the shots and assists combined. LeBron is the man! Great back-to-back games for the Knicks season ticket holders. It should have been a lot of fun watching Kobe and LeBron light up the scoreboard. New York welcomes the Celtics tomorrow and that will get ugly for the Knicks as well, especially since the Celtics lost to the Lakers today in a great game that went to overtime.
The season is heating up and the top 4 teams are the Lakers, Magic, Cavs and the Celtics in that order. The Andrew Bynum injury slows down the Lakers significantly. How significant it is, time will tell. His toughness and defense will be sorely missed. But the Celtics couldn't bully the Bynum-less Lakers in to a defeat today. There's a weird rumor out there that the Lakers might even be interested in getting Shaq in a trade. That would be big - no pun intended, because of all the history there. I can't believe Buss will pay Shaq so much money now since he refused to pay him back in the day when Shaq was actually good.
I wouldn't be surprised if it happens because Shaq is right now playing very well, he can fill in for Bynum, he can give them the toughness against the Celtics and his massive salary comes off the books next year. It could happen. If I was Kobe, I don't want him because he will get a lot of credit if they win the championship and Kobe would rather win one without Shaq to cement his legacy and stop Shaq from singing stupid lyrics like "Kobe couldn't do it without me!". This could be an interesting trade deadline with some big names moving. Keep an eye on Amare Stoudemire. Something is cooking with Amare and the Suns.
First Kobe went nuts and scored 61. It was an amazing performance as Kobe scored efficiently on not that many shots. Kobe even got MVP cheers on the road in NYC. The next game brought LeBron to the city and people were expecting big things from him even before the game because of what Kobe did 2 days back. These two are the best in this business and it's only natural for LeBron to try and outshine Kobe. But still I was very impressed by how LeBron stepped up tot he challenge. I was curious to see how he responds because in the past, he may not have had the drive to out-perform Kobe. But he is a different man these days. This game was another step in his evolution as a great superstar in this game.
LeBron not only almost matched Kobe, but he was even more impressive doing it his way. He scored 52 points, but played his usual complete floor game for a 52-10-11 night. Those are ridiculous numbers. Thats almost 72 points via the shots and assists combined. LeBron is the man! Great back-to-back games for the Knicks season ticket holders. It should have been a lot of fun watching Kobe and LeBron light up the scoreboard. New York welcomes the Celtics tomorrow and that will get ugly for the Knicks as well, especially since the Celtics lost to the Lakers today in a great game that went to overtime.
The season is heating up and the top 4 teams are the Lakers, Magic, Cavs and the Celtics in that order. The Andrew Bynum injury slows down the Lakers significantly. How significant it is, time will tell. His toughness and defense will be sorely missed. But the Celtics couldn't bully the Bynum-less Lakers in to a defeat today. There's a weird rumor out there that the Lakers might even be interested in getting Shaq in a trade. That would be big - no pun intended, because of all the history there. I can't believe Buss will pay Shaq so much money now since he refused to pay him back in the day when Shaq was actually good.
I wouldn't be surprised if it happens because Shaq is right now playing very well, he can fill in for Bynum, he can give them the toughness against the Celtics and his massive salary comes off the books next year. It could happen. If I was Kobe, I don't want him because he will get a lot of credit if they win the championship and Kobe would rather win one without Shaq to cement his legacy and stop Shaq from singing stupid lyrics like "Kobe couldn't do it without me!". This could be an interesting trade deadline with some big names moving. Keep an eye on Amare Stoudemire. Something is cooking with Amare and the Suns.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Super Game!
America is still celebrating the greatness of the game that was the Super Bowl. But was it the greatest Super Bowl ever? There's some argument over that and I have not seen all 43 Super Bowls to answer this definitively. My first question when the game ended was whether this game was even better than last year's Super Bowl. People forget that last year's game featured a great comeback and a huge upset. What has put this game ahead in a lot of people's eyes is that if featured 2 comebacks and 2 "game-winning" drives if thats even possible! Personally, I might also be looking at this game through the tinted lenses of a Cardinals fan. Classic games don't feel that great for the losing teams or their fans.
The game did have everything. The clutch execution, big plays in the late fourth quarter and the high-level of QB play made this a game for the ages. Kurt Warner was on fire the entire second half and Larry Fitzgerald went from one catch in the first half to 7 catches and 127 yards for the game. That 64 yard pass to Fitz with 2 minutes and change to go was a beauty. It was amazing to watch Fitz accelerate and just separate from the 3 guys who were chasing him. I have not seen the short-slant pass go the distance like that in a while, though this was not technically a slant. It was an incredibly exciting play and everybody thought that was the game winner.
Big Ben had other ideas as he started driving the Steelers on that last possession. Big Ben had not looked that good in the second half though the Cards didn't seem like they were capable of stopping him in the first half. I am not a Big Ben fan, but he definitely converted me with this performance. The Cads looked like they got to him many times, but he always escaped. The guy is so slippery and is so strong. A unique combination and a frustrating one if you were a Cards fan. His escapability and his ability to make plays was very much on display in this game. And that play to score the game-winning TD was just as incredible as the Warner-Fitz TD. Ben just missed Santonio Holmes on the other end of the end zone the previous play, but hit him perfectly the very next play. Only this time he put it at the right corner and above 3 defenders.
Holmes made a great catch and landed in-bounds to seal the deal. He also won the MVP that some people think should have gone to Ben. I thought either of them would have been a great choice. Poor Warner should have felt like Holmes stole his MVP trophy. Great day for Big Ben all around. We all knew he wanted to have a great game because he didn't feel too good about his first Super Bowl performance despite the ring he won. Not only did he get the opportunity to do something special in this game, he nailed it. He couldn't have written a better script for this game except that, for some reason, the wide recivers keep getting the MVP whenever he wins the Super Bowl. Many people think he still doesn't get the credit he deserves because he runs around like a chicken and doesn't look too smooth as a passer. There is some truth to that. Plus he is too big for a QB and doesn't put up huge numbers like a Peyton Manning or a Drew Brees. But he is an accurate passer and a great QB and hats off to Big Ben.
As for Warner, I did say he needs to win this one for a hall of fame spot, but not anymore. His 377 yards against this defense in this game and the great play in the fourth quarter puts him in the hall in my opinion. He is statistically one of the best Super Bowl QBs ever and his clutch play in this one was impressive. I sure hope he comes back next year to lead the Cards again. Not to sound like a broken record, you give him time in the pocket, he is one of the best QBs ever, period. But Warner might have also lost the game for the Cards with that interception at the end of the second quarter. It was a 14 point turnaround right there and you have to wonder how the game would have turned out if the Cards were leading 14-10 at the half instead of trailing 7-17. I personally thought that it was a big play, but it happened early enough in the game and I knew Warner can overcome it, that I was ready to accept it as just "part of the game".
This may sound like a boring simplification of a game this great, but the real reason the Cards lost this game was due to the penalties. As simple as that. Warner and Fitzgerald were the only reason that they could overcome the 106 penalty yards against a defense this good. The game was not free of controversies either. I am not sure why the last Warner fumble was not reviewed, though I think it was too close to call and I was fine with whatever was called. But Santonio Holmes used the football to do the LeBron James powder thing to celebrate his TD and that should have resulted in a 15 yard penalty. If Warner's fumble was reviewed and over-turned, and if you added another 15 yards for a steeler celebrating that fumble by removing his helmet, you are looking at Arizona with the ball at around the Pittsburgh 15 yard line. You are telling me you wouldn't want to see that one play with 5 seconds on the clock, 15 yards to go, Warner with the ball and Larry Fitzgerald in the end zone?
Well. one can only imagine.
The game did have everything. The clutch execution, big plays in the late fourth quarter and the high-level of QB play made this a game for the ages. Kurt Warner was on fire the entire second half and Larry Fitzgerald went from one catch in the first half to 7 catches and 127 yards for the game. That 64 yard pass to Fitz with 2 minutes and change to go was a beauty. It was amazing to watch Fitz accelerate and just separate from the 3 guys who were chasing him. I have not seen the short-slant pass go the distance like that in a while, though this was not technically a slant. It was an incredibly exciting play and everybody thought that was the game winner.
Big Ben had other ideas as he started driving the Steelers on that last possession. Big Ben had not looked that good in the second half though the Cards didn't seem like they were capable of stopping him in the first half. I am not a Big Ben fan, but he definitely converted me with this performance. The Cads looked like they got to him many times, but he always escaped. The guy is so slippery and is so strong. A unique combination and a frustrating one if you were a Cards fan. His escapability and his ability to make plays was very much on display in this game. And that play to score the game-winning TD was just as incredible as the Warner-Fitz TD. Ben just missed Santonio Holmes on the other end of the end zone the previous play, but hit him perfectly the very next play. Only this time he put it at the right corner and above 3 defenders.
Holmes made a great catch and landed in-bounds to seal the deal. He also won the MVP that some people think should have gone to Ben. I thought either of them would have been a great choice. Poor Warner should have felt like Holmes stole his MVP trophy. Great day for Big Ben all around. We all knew he wanted to have a great game because he didn't feel too good about his first Super Bowl performance despite the ring he won. Not only did he get the opportunity to do something special in this game, he nailed it. He couldn't have written a better script for this game except that, for some reason, the wide recivers keep getting the MVP whenever he wins the Super Bowl. Many people think he still doesn't get the credit he deserves because he runs around like a chicken and doesn't look too smooth as a passer. There is some truth to that. Plus he is too big for a QB and doesn't put up huge numbers like a Peyton Manning or a Drew Brees. But he is an accurate passer and a great QB and hats off to Big Ben.
As for Warner, I did say he needs to win this one for a hall of fame spot, but not anymore. His 377 yards against this defense in this game and the great play in the fourth quarter puts him in the hall in my opinion. He is statistically one of the best Super Bowl QBs ever and his clutch play in this one was impressive. I sure hope he comes back next year to lead the Cards again. Not to sound like a broken record, you give him time in the pocket, he is one of the best QBs ever, period. But Warner might have also lost the game for the Cards with that interception at the end of the second quarter. It was a 14 point turnaround right there and you have to wonder how the game would have turned out if the Cards were leading 14-10 at the half instead of trailing 7-17. I personally thought that it was a big play, but it happened early enough in the game and I knew Warner can overcome it, that I was ready to accept it as just "part of the game".
This may sound like a boring simplification of a game this great, but the real reason the Cards lost this game was due to the penalties. As simple as that. Warner and Fitzgerald were the only reason that they could overcome the 106 penalty yards against a defense this good. The game was not free of controversies either. I am not sure why the last Warner fumble was not reviewed, though I think it was too close to call and I was fine with whatever was called. But Santonio Holmes used the football to do the LeBron James powder thing to celebrate his TD and that should have resulted in a 15 yard penalty. If Warner's fumble was reviewed and over-turned, and if you added another 15 yards for a steeler celebrating that fumble by removing his helmet, you are looking at Arizona with the ball at around the Pittsburgh 15 yard line. You are telling me you wouldn't want to see that one play with 5 seconds on the clock, 15 yards to go, Warner with the ball and Larry Fitzgerald in the end zone?
Well. one can only imagine.
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