I know you all must be tired of reading all the post-game analysis but I couldn’t help but think about the comaprison between SB XXXIII and SB XLII with respect to the final drives. Me being a niner fan would regard the SB XXIII drive as “The Drive” while the winning drive in SB XLII could be “The Drive II”.
In SB XXIII, “Cincinnati took a 16-13 lead on Jim Breech’s 40-yard field goal with 3:20 remaining. It was Breech’s third field goal of the day, following earlier successes from 34 and 43 yards.
The 49ers started their winning drive at their 8-yard line. Over the next 11 plays, San Francisco covered 92 yards with the decisive score coming on a 10-yard pass from quarterback Joe Montana to wide receiver John Taylor with 34 seconds remaining” (see ttp://www.nfl.com/superbowl/history/recap/sbxxiii)
In SB XLII, the Giants started “from (its) own 17 with 2:39 left, Manning hooked up twice with Amani Toomer, the second leaving the Giants facing a fourth-and-inches. After Brandon Jacobs plowed his way to a first down up the middle, Manning showed some surprising footwork by escaping the New England rush and scrambling for five yards.” (excerpted from: http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/story?id=09000d5d8067ea8a&template=with-vid...)
Then came Catch II (Catch I being Montana’s to Clark catch in the 1981 NFC Championship Game between the Niners and Cowboys) with 35 seconds remaining in the game.
good comparison these were two tremendous drives within two or three minutes remaining. I don’t recall the Niners drive having as dramatic a play like the Giants did on 3rd down when Manning was in the grasp, escaped and threw a hail Mary to David Tyree. (Still amazing in replays).
I remember watching SB XXIII and thinking get it to Rice! In the end, the hero was John Taylor.
– Freddie Footballer
Vivid Memories I do remember vividly that drive in SB XXIII. What was exciting about that drive was the fact Joe Montana took them to the end zone in what seemed like a scripted drive. He pretty much called his own plays. There wasn’t any single play that stood up like the big catch in XLII, other than the last throw to John Taylor. The other plays were short plays either to RB (Craig I think), TE (Jones) or Jerry Rice.
In contrast, the final drive XLII appeared to be more thrilling as it wasn’t as dominant, one couldn’t be sure if the Gmen were going to convert the 3rd and 4th downs. May be that made it more exciting!!
good comparison… Good comparison between the end of Super Bowl XXIII and Super Bowl XLII. Except the better comparison is between Montana’s game-winning drive and the drive that Brady led to give the Patriots a 14-10 lead with 2 minutes and change left the other night. Both of those drives were smooth and efficient and dominant, and as “illinialum” says, almost seemed scripted.
The Super Bowl winning drive that Eli Manning led was dramatic and thrilling and incredibly memorable, but not overly efficient or smooth. Every snap from O’Hara to Eli was low, Eli had to escape a few times, the Tyree catch was ridiculous, the Pats almost intercepted Eli twice and almost forced a fumble at least once.
Although the 3rd and 11 pass to Steve Smith and the TD to Burress were pretty darn smooth.