Super Bowl Preview

The unofficial holiday is here. Two weeks removed from the Conference championships and I don't believe I've watched any news pertaining to the Super Bowl. Pittsburgh in white jerseys and Arizona in red jerseys. The AFC and NFC switch off every year in regards to which team gets to wear the home jersey. Not a lot of story lines here...two newer coaches, two previous Super Bowl winning quarterbacks, two teams that relatively flew under the radar this year. For the Steelers, this season was business as usual, inconsistent offense that has big play potential and bone crushing, physical, yet speedy defense. For Arizona, finally a division championship in the NFC West, then unbelievable run in the playoffs that shocked the world. What's interesting is the Cardinals have gone this far with the running game and defense. We always knew they could throw, but we didn't know they could play D and run the ball too!

The obvious interesting matchup is the Cardinals offense against the Steelers defense. I don't believe the Steelers secondary matches up all that well against the Cards receivers...then again what secondary does? The key for the Steelers defense is going to be pressuring Kurt Warner and stuffing the run, and keeping the Cards receivers in front of them...don't give up the big play! The key for the Cardinals offense will be balance and picking up the Steelers blitzing. The Steelers don't rely on their defensive line to get pressure, they rely heavily on their speedy outside linebackers, James Harrison and Lamar Woodley to apply pressure. The Cardinals must keep pressure off of Warner! Everyone thinks Troy Palomalu is the key to the Steelers defense. Though he is a play maker, the real key to the defense is the 4 linebackers. Harrison and Woodley on the outside and Farrior and Foote on the inside.

The Steelers offense has at times been inconsistent. The offensive line was awful early in the year but has since stepped it up and jelled well. The Steelers are going to attempt to play ball control, run, run, run, short pass...then, boom! down the field to Santonio Holmes! The Cardinals have a young but talented defense that has stepped it up in the playoffs. No team has been able to consistently run the ball on the Cardinals in the playoffs. Run defense and taking away the deep threat is the key for the Cards defense, while ball control and pass protection will be the key for the Steelers offense.

My heart says Arizona but my head says Pittsburgh. The Cardinals were hot but the two week lay off puts an end to that. The Steelers are more battle tested, the game is on the east coast (not typically a good thing for Zona, plus Steeler fans travel well). I think the big game experience, plus Pittsburgh's defense are the advantages in favor of the Steelers, in fact, I think Pittsburgh will more than cover the spread.