Wild ride in Pittsburgh sports

By Joe Starkey, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Steelers receiver Santonio Holmes makes the game-winning touchdown catch in Super Bowl XLIII.

Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review


Time out!

Drop the nachos. Lose the clicker. Fold your hands in praise. Thank the sports gods, Pittsburgh, for they have been very, very good to you.

This might feel awkward in the wake of Pitt's crushing NCAA Tournament loss to Villanova. But if you follow Pittsburgh sports, know this: These are the good old days.

We have, of late, been treated to nothing but one high-stakes, heart-stopping game after another.

Nearly all of our teams not named the Pirates are winning.

Duquesne basketball is winning.

Sure, the 1970s netted four Super Bowl rings, two World Series titles and a college football national championship. That was the golden era, spawning the nickname "City of Champions."

But did it ever produce so many epic games in such a short period of time?

We're talking a year-and-a-half here — sixteen months, actually. It all began Dec. 1, 2007, the day Pitt left the entire state of West Virginia in a Backyard Pall.

Rich Rodriguez will take the final score to his grave:

Pitt 13, West Virginia 9.

Since then, all we get are unforgettable games, even if Pittsburgh doesn't always win.

A month after 13-9, the Steelers nearly pulled off the greatest fourth-quarter comeback in playoff history, erasing an 18-point deficit against Jacksonville only to lose by a point (surely, two quarterback runs from that game are burned into your psyche: Big Ben around left end; David Garrard up the middle).

Two months after that, the Pitt basketball team executed a mind-blowing reversal to win the Big East Tournament. The Panthers dropped four of their final seven regular-season games, then beat Cincinnati, Louisville, Marquette and Georgetown on successive nights and cut the nets at Madison Square Garden.

This season, the Steelers won five regular-season games in the final two minutes or overtime. They put a dagger in the Dallas Cowboys and won the AFC North on a surreal drive and a disputed catch in Baltimore.

The Pitt basketball team beat No. 1 UConn twice. The Pitt football team roared back from a 17-3 third-quarter deficit to win in four overtimes at Notre Dame.

Did we mention the Penguins? All they've done for much of the past few seasons is play pulsating games. Memorable ones, too, including a 6-0 demolition of the hated Philadelphia Flyers to clinch last season's Eastern Conference title

And guess what? None of the aforementioned games, save for 13-9, has a prayer of cracking this man's top five.

That's how incredible a 16-month span it's been.

Steelers safety Troy Polamalu scores a touchdown on an interception return against the Ravens during the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship Game at Heinz Field.

Christopher Horner/Tribune-Review

The envelope, please:

5. AFC Championship Game, Jan. 18, 2009, Heinz Field: Steelers 23, Ravens 14 — Would it be a stretch to call this one of the more brutal conference title games ever played? (Not for Willis McGahee it wouldn't).

Ravens players kept coming back, like Monty Python characters, after sustaining seemingly grievous injuries. It hurt to watch this game, which finally was decided on Troy Polamalu's fabulous 40-yard interception return.

If you love football the way Vince Lombardi loved it, the way Jack Lambert loved it, then you will always hold a special place for Steelers 23, Ravens 14.

4. Backyard Brawl, Dec. 1, 2007, Mountaineer Field: Pitt 13, West Virginia 9 — Easily the most stunning result of any sporting event I have attended. The tensest atmosphere, too, as an entire college football world looked on to see if West Virginia, a 28-point favorite, would earn a spot in the national championship game.

The post-game images are what stand out, particularly this one: Rodriguez delivering the most tortured news conference in the history of organized sports amid the sound of Pitt's players whooping it up in the background. Their locker room was just behind the wall where Rodriguez stood.

3. Elite Eight, NCAA Tournament, March 28, 2009, TD Banknorth Garden: Villanova 78, Pitt 76 — Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis called it "one of the great games in NCAA Tournament history." I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I know this: I couldn't sit down for the final 10 minutes — and I was in my living room.

People will always wonder about Pitt's alignment on Scottie Reynolds' game-winning play (it was clearly flawed), but the bottom line is that every quarter century or so, Villanova flirts with perfection in a big game.

Back in 1985, they were almost perfect from the field in a title-game shocker over Georgetown. On Saturday night, they shot 95.7 percent from the line (22 of 23) — nearly the finest performance in NCAA Tournament history. That, more than anything, decided the outcome.

2. Game 5, Stanley Cup Final, June 2-3, 2008, Joe Louis Arena: Penguins 4, Red Wings 3 (4OT) — It's funny what you'll remember from a classic event. For this reporter, on this night, it was colleague Rob Rossi angrily storming the hallways in the bowels of Joe Louis Arena, once he realized deadline had been crushed like Ryan Malone by a Niklas Kronwall check.

Also, I'd never walked into a post-game locker room like the Penguins' that night. It looked like a M*A*S*H* unit. The first player I saw was Malone. Blood dripped from his nose, which had been mangled by a teammate's shot.

"Could you even breathe?" a reporter wondered.

"Out of my mouth," Malone said. "That's good enough."

1. Super Bowl XLIII, Feb. 1, 2009, Raymond James Stadium: Steelers 27, Cardinals 23 — An obvious choice, having produced two of the greatest plays and perhaps the greatest ending in Super Bowl history.

I was watching at home, on our quiet street in Green Tree. As soon as the game ended, my wife said, "Turn down the sound and listen."

Horns were blaring. People were shouting in glee.

It got me to thinking about how lucky we are to live in a sports town like this. I also wondered what it must have been like the night Bill Mazeroski beat the mighty New York Yankees and about whether the Pirates will ever again prompt a city-wide celebration.

If not, I'm guessing we'll have plenty to keep us entertained.