Super Bowl LIII’s first half had its moments, including Tony Romo’s microphone going out and several big defensive plays, but it didn’t have a lot of scoring. The New England Patriots wound up taking just a 3-0 lead into the half, and as Jim Nantz noted on the CBS broadcast, that was the smallest halftime score since Chuck Noll’s Pittsburgh Steelers led Bud Grant’s Minnesota Vikings 2-0 at the half in Super Bowl IX 44 years ago in 1975. That’s a pretty remarkable feat considering how much offense has improved over the years, and it also led to a whole lot of comparisons between Rams’ DC Wade Phillips’ arms-up celebration at the end of the first half and former Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer’s famed arms-up celebration with the score tied 0-0 at the end of regulation against Wake Forest in November 2014:
Good job, you guys. This made me laugh. @MarkEnnis @adamamin @RivalsDave pic.twitter.com/2ObJGc2ybC
— Dagwood Edge (@bdub_502) February 4, 2019
— SB Nation (@SBNation) February 4, 2019
https://twitter.com/JoshDMixon/status/1092225026009583617
Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be easily-accessible photos of Noll celebrating a 2-0 halftime lead in 1975, or those could be worked into the memes as well. But it worked out better for Noll’s Steelers (who shut out the Vikings in the third quarter as well and went on to win 16-6) than it did for Beamer’s Hokies (who lost 6-3 in overtime). We’ll see how this one ends up.
