TAMPA, Fla. -- With the Arizona Cardinals leading and time running out on Steelers fans' dream of a sixth Super Bowl title, Tricia Elder glanced at her 12-year-old son, Michael, seated next to her high in Section 207 of Raymond James Stadium.

"My heart was sinking," she said. "Everything was gloom and doom. And when I was looking at his little face ... I was already thinking of what I was going to say [to console him]."

But such platitudes as "Be proud to have come this far," and "There aren't many kids your age who get to come to a game like this," fall so flat when they plummet from such lofty expectations.

And then ... it happened.

Ben Roethlisberger led the Steelers to a come-from-behind, last-minute touchdown to secure a victory that came perilously close to slipping away.

"When Ben Roethlisberger goes into the Hall of Fame, they're going to show that drive as the reason why," said Steelers fan Dan Winters, 39, of Philadelphia, who attended the game with his brother, Doug.

This wasn't the first Super Bowl for the Winters brothers. They were in Detroit when the Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks.

"I thought that it couldn't be any better than that," Dan Winters said. "But it was. It was."

Jeff Grove, 50, of Tucson, Ariz., was seated near the end zone where the Steelers scored their winning touchdown. Watching his Steelers beat the Cardinals with his son, Jason, 30, was an experience he vowed to never forget.

"We hate Phoenix," said Jeff Grove, who grew up in Lincoln Place and played quarterback for Taylor-Allderdice High School. He moved to Arizona in 1979, but as his son said, "Once a Steelers fan, always a Steelers fan."

The comeback, ripping the hearts out of Cardinals fans sitting around him, was particularly pleasing to Jeff Grove.

"We really wanted to beat them," he said. "Their fans are a bunch of bandwagon-jumpers, and to give it to them was freaking awesome. And seeing the Boss at halftime. I tell you, if I die tomorrow, I don't care."

"This was the most intense experience I've ever witnessed," Jason Grove said. "I couldn't sleep the past few nights, I was so excited."

Tom Adamek, 45, of Harrison City, attended the game with his son, Tommy, 16. When things looked bleakest, Tom Adamek began pondering when they should leave.

"I was starting to ask myself if I really wanted to stay after the game and watch them hand the trophy to the Cardinals," he said.

John Evan, 43, and his wife, Nurit, 40, made the trip to the Super Bowl from Youngstown, Ohio. They left their six kids with relatives in Florida and went to the game, their second after having been at the game in Detroit.

"This one was so much better," John Evan said. "It's not even close. What a nail-biter. I must have had three attacks."

But John Evan said he was still confident. Nervous, sure, but still confident.

"[The Cardinals] scored too early," he said. "They gave Ben too much time. He was clutch. Like they say, 'In Ben we trust.' Ben may not be one of the NFL's elite quarterbacks, but the one thing he does is win."