The Steelers have maintained a tradition of excellence and prosperity for 40 years. In stark contrast, to their opponent, the Arizona Cardinals surprising ascension to Super Bowl participants after burrowing through decades of mediocrity should serve as a blueprint for the hopeless Lions franchise.
"They are who we thought they were!" and "If you want to crown them, then crown their ****". This was the fateful quote which signaled the end of Dennis Green's tenure as Arizona head coach, laying down the red carpet for a young offensive coordinator from Pittsburgh to step in. If the Cardinals can win Super Bowl, Denny Green's clairvoyance should land him his own psychic sports hotline or at least an interview under the Miss Cleo Mandate(part of the psychic worlds response to the NFL's Rooney rule to infuse diversity into the mystic realm). He may have been vague, but reading between the lines, he was clearly channeling the future and referring to his team potentially clinching NFL championship in the near future. Sometimes the future is a little murky.
However, the '08 Cardinals have not been a harmonic orchestra performing in unity. Occasionally they've played out of tune and the players have tooted their horns at expressed anger at the front office brass. Upset that his counterpart Fitzgerald inked a $40 million extension, Anquan Boldin spurned off-season training camps, in pursuit of a lucrative contract. In spite of the unresolved contract saga Boldin has since commited to play out his 3 year, $12 million contract through gritted teeth, before outsourcing his services to another franchise. As a result of a competitive training camp position battle, the Matt Leinart era was interrupted when Whisenhunt ruled in favor of a grizzly Jurassic period quarterback named Kurt Warner.
Despite a season of strife from within, the discord continued into the week of their Wild Card contest against the Falcons. Another athlete who once spurned his original team over a contract dispute, Edgerrin James expressed his intentions not to return after the season, in frustrated over his lack of carries. And everybody knows Edgerrrin James don't like expressin' himself. On a pivotal drive of the NFC Championship Game Boldin sparked a media uproar after expressed himself in a different manner during a sideline confrontation with Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley.
Defensively, the lone c hink in the Steeler's armor has been their secondary, however, they compensate with the two most physical safeties in the league. Troy Palomalu, whose hair garnered it's own press pool on Media Day has regrettably overshadowed the other great safeties in the media buildup to the game though in recent years Bulls forward Joakim Noah has staged a challenge for most outrageous mane in sports. Matt Hasselbeck sends his regards.
Defensively, the lone c hink in the Steeler's armor has been their secondary, however, they compensate with the two most physical safeties in the league. Troy Palomalu, whose hair garnered it's own press pool on Media Day has regrettably overshadowed the other great safeties in the media buildup to the game though in recent years Bulls forward Joakim Noah has staged a challenge for most outrageous mane in sports. Matt Hasselbeck sends his regards.
Safety Ryan Clark is the little dynamite who pulverized Willis McGahee in the closing minutes of the AFC title game.
The Cardinals defense is captained by Adrian Wilson, who has been immortalized in a YouTube video displaying his leaping prowess. Wilson is also the last remaining Cardinal who played alongside Pat Tillman which is fortuitous considering it was Tillman's positon on the field that Wilson now occupies.
The Cardinals defense is captained by Adrian Wilson, who has been immortalized in a YouTube video displaying his leaping prowess. Wilson is also the last remaining Cardinal who played alongside Pat Tillman which is fortuitous considering it was Tillman's positon on the field that Wilson now occupies.
Last week against the Ravens, Palomalu augmented his own highlight reel. On 4th and inches, the Ravens lined up in a short yardage formation. Joe Flacco took the handoff and under center and immediately dove forward into the pile. The outcome was still up for grabs until Palomalu dashed into the center of the pileup, leaped over the congestion and seized Flacco's helmet like a lion devouring his prey and stuffed Joe Flacco's sneak well behind the 1st down marker. In the waning moments of the game, with the Steelers ahead, 16-14 and the Ravens driving Palomalu plucked Flacco's sailing football out thin air and glided into the endzone behind a wall of blockers.
Two summers ago, Palomalu's omnipresent defensive presence actually cut Adrian Wilson's vacation short.
The Arizona Cardinals Pro Bowl safety was poolside sipping pina coladas at a Caribbean resort in June 2007, recouping from another physically demanding season when news of Troy Polamalu's five year $33 million extension came to his attention. Wilson's response was to immediately pack his bags, fly home and resume his off-season preparation.
The Arizona Cardinals Pro Bowl safety was poolside sipping pina coladas at a Caribbean resort in June 2007, recouping from another physically demanding season when news of Troy Polamalu's five year $33 million extension came to his attention. Wilson's response was to immediately pack his bags, fly home and resume his off-season preparation.
Wilson has gone largerly unnoticed in the Arizona desert despite earning 2 Pro Bowl invitations in in his 8 year career. In 2000, Wilson actually captured the single seasson record for sacks by a defensive back and should become just a handful of players to collect 20 interceptions as well as 20 sacks in his career. After the season, Wilson's contract expires giving him carte blanche to demand market value on his next contract and a Super Bowl victory over Palomalu's Steelers would surely be an incentive to line his pockets comfortably. See it all comes full circle.
Each Super Bowl is a convergence of history, prompting experts to churn out a bevy of "best ever"/ "best since" as well as "first time" monikers and rankings lists. Larry Fitzgerald can put a cap on the best post season by a wide receiver in the modern era, Mike Tomlin would become the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl and the Steelers organization could stake it's claim as the most successful NFL franchise since the NFL/AFL championship game was named in honor of a popular '60's childrens toy.
During Mike Tomlin's two year tenure, the Steelers have led the NFL in points allowed, but this season, like a carpenter building stairs, they took that extra step. For the Steelers' the Cardinals potent air attack will be the final test for arguably the most physically imposing defense of this decade. Heavy emphasis on arguably. I had no intention of harping on semantics until I received an earful of analyst after analyst casually stirring up the phrase.
So let's set it straight. The Steelers did not embark on an 11 game winning streak on the wingtips of a defense weighed down by a miserable offense as Baltimore did in 2000. Amidst their 11-game winning streak, Baltimore allowed seven or fewer points in eight of those games. In fact former Ravens coordinator Marvin Lewis eventually set out to change the losing culture that Dick Labeau was unsuccessful at altering. The Ravens pitched 4 shutouts in the regular season allowed just one offensive touchdown in 4 playoff games. The 2002 Bucs defense scored 3 touchdowns in the Super Bowl, as they allowed in the post-season as a whole .
The majority of the focus, this Sunday will revolve around the two quarterbacks, Big Ben and Kurt Warner. Aside from being a clash of marquee quarterbacks at the most celebrated position, this Super Bowl presents the first pair of starting quarterbacks to square off in 24 years when the L.A. Raiders' Jim Plunkett out dueled Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann.
Ben Roethlisberger's unique style has earned him a plethora of battle scars, more surgical incisions than an unsuspecting patient of Dr. Hannibal Lecter and should serve as a case study in the great Tim Tebow debate for scouts who question the limits of abuse the body of a starting quarterback can absorb in the NFL.(Sidenote: I actually believe Tebow could be a rich mans Roethlisberger. The difference is Tebow can heal the sick... including himself).
For the Steelers offense to chug along Roethlisberger has to avoid comitting his usual racket of mental mistakes including his propensity for holding the ball until his Cialis wears off , looking down at the ground when he takes off running and losing massive chunks of yardage when he's sacked.
But it's no surprise the Steelers have a history of inflating the resume of their signal callers in a reverse affect the Bengals have had on their quarterbacks(Ken Anderson, Boomer Esiason, Carson Palmer). The Steelers are commensurate to a typical supermodel that gets attracted to overweight losers. She [the Steelers] is completely out of her league yet nobody ever understands how they look so happy together. That's not to say their all losers(Bradshaw, Roethlisberger) but under the surface he's not the ideal man observers make him out to be. (i.e. the premise of Oprah and Steadman or Mariah Carey marrying Nick Cannon, , Neil O'Donnell, Kordell Stewart, Tommy Maddox)
Since his rookie year in 2004, Roethlisberger has surrendered 192 sacks in addition to a litany of bone rattling hits under pressure.
With measurements of 6'5, 241 lb.s Roethlisberger is the least nimble scrambling quarterback in the NFL and possesses half the foot speed of a one-legged tap dancing penguin. Roethlisberger uses his unique improv skills to pedal backwards and laterally outside the pocket to buy time for his receivers to create separation down field or dump it off for the receiver to gain yards after the catch. The Steelers have a wide enough assortment of bootlegs designed for Big Berger(his new nickname just came to me as I was typing), to fill a Wal-Mart sized flea market.
For Kurt Warner his previous 6 seasons of intermittent success, were preceded by 3 fairy tale campaigns. His last hurrah with the Cardinals has strengthened his Hall of Fame credentials from anemic to acceptance speech preparation status.
From this perspective, Kurt Warner is the NFL's direct equivalent to Steve Nash, or Jason Giambi if innovative offensive systems were his illegal steroid. Neither Nash or Warner are the "product" of up-tempo ,high scoring offenses rather than being perfectly suited to direct them. Just as Warner was the Igor to Mike Martz' mad experiments, Nash was as much a guinea pig in Mike D'Antonio's "7 Seconds or Less" hardwood trials.
In hindsight inauspicious circumstances have hindered fans from truly appreciating Kurt Warner as a unigue NFL great. Warner's first training camp in 1994, dealt him an unfortunate hand resting at the bottom of a depth chart behind Brett Favre, Mark Brunell, and Ty Detmer.
It is ironic that a regular season that was defined by one polarizing gray-haired legend with a stubble will conclude in a championship game cementing the legend of a bearded 37 year old, graying quarterback who wasn't highly regarded enough to survive training camp 15 years ago as his practice QB.
There was a time in the recent past after his MVP's when Kurt Warner's career was in a visibly perpetual downward spiral as a result of succumbing to numerous concussions and various injuries depleting his trademark pitcher's velocity.
After bouncing around with the Giants as Eli Manning's caretaker(guiding the Giants to a 5-4 start before being benched in favor of Manning who went 1-6 as the starter), Warner swooped down into the desert where he soon seemed destined to serve as the last buffer between Matt Leinart's path to NFL greatness.
On Draft Day 2006, Leinart mimicked the Aaron Rodgers stare of disbelief to a tee but with swirling speculation about the rapidly increasing likelihood of a lenghty extension for Warner, Leinart is on track to reprise his role in "The Benchwarmer".
After bouncing around with the Giants as Eli Manning's caretaker(guiding the Giants to a 5-4 start before being benched in favor of Manning who went 1-6 as the starter), Warner swooped down into the desert where he soon seemed destined to serve as the last buffer between Matt Leinart's path to NFL greatness.
On Draft Day 2006, Leinart mimicked the Aaron Rodgers stare of disbelief to a tee but with swirling speculation about the rapidly increasing likelihood of a lenghty extension for Warner, Leinart is on track to reprise his role in "The Benchwarmer".
As it stands now the highly touted Draft Class of 2006, can at best hope to become a collection of late bloomers because currently, their smelling like duds. Reggie Bush's has been relegated to a situational back and short yardage receiver. Meanwhile, Matt Leinart and Vince Young were unseated by two past their prime signal callers who garnered MVP consideration at various points, pranced into the post-season and likely gathered contract extensions beyond this season along the way.
As he will be enshrined as the 21st century's "Great Dome Quarterback", Warner won numerous Arena Football Championships before migrating indoors with the St. Louis Rams to headline the Greatest Show on Turf. Warner has posted an absurd 103 rating indoors compared to a "down to earth" 83 rating outdoors.
As he will be enshrined as the 21st century's "Great Dome Quarterback", Warner won numerous Arena Football Championships before migrating indoors with the St. Louis Rams to headline the Greatest Show on Turf. Warner has posted an absurd 103 rating indoors compared to a "down to earth" 83 rating outdoors.
Steelers defensive coordinator Dick Labeau is often regarded as one in a mile long succession of ill-fated Bengals coaches however, football scholars(that's rare, every university or graduate school I've heard of doesn't offer this as a major)" recognize Labeau as the father of the zone blitz.
Stories say that "Dick Labeau's blitz packages could penetrate Nazi-Germany in frigid temperatures at the height of World War II."
The Blitzburgh Steelers vaunted blitzing schemes have been well documented as a deterrent for the Cardinals' potent passing attack. Linebackers LaMarr Woodley and James Harrison, the reigning defensive player of the year combined to lasso in 27.5 quarterback sacks. Warner should be especially prescient of Harrison's presence, who forced an NFL-best 7 fumbles.
A classic pocket passer with minimal mobility, Warner is surprisingly immune to the blitz which expose holes underneath the coverage. Roethlisberger isn't so fortunate.
A classic pocket passer with minimal mobility, Warner is surprisingly immune to the blitz which expose holes underneath the coverage. Roethlisberger isn't so fortunate.
Against the blitz in 2008, Warner completed 64.4 % of his attempts, was sacked just once every 29.7 blitz attempts and was the NFL's highest rated quarterback against the blitz with a 103.1 passers rating. His counterpart for the Steelers[Roethlisberger] registered a pedestrian 70.6 on the passer's rating scale under pressure, completed just over 50% of his attempts [52.9] and went down once every 6.2 blitz attempts(also worst in the NFL).
If the field were a street, pass rushing defenders would be drag racing Mazerati's and Ben Roethlisberger is a kid with a cast trying to cross the intersection on his tricycle. Unfortunately as we've come to learn Roethlisberger doesn't have the best of luck on wheels.
If the field were a street, pass rushing defenders would be drag racing Mazerati's and Ben Roethlisberger is a kid with a cast trying to cross the intersection on his tricycle. Unfortunately as we've come to learn Roethlisberger doesn't have the best of luck on wheels.
In the regular season fans may have honestly mistaken Roethlisberger for a crash test dummy in lieu of his NFL-high 46 sacks, twice as often as Kurt Warner's 26 sacks though he dropped back to pass on 129 more occasions) and forced to exit more than his fair share of games which is why the Steelers invested in two other injury prone porcelain backups in Byron Leftwich and rookie Dennis Dixon. 
Warner's targets enable Warner to get the ball out his hands in a hurry by quickly creating separation. Lost in the hoopla over Fitzgerald's post season performance has been the impact of Anquan Boldin. Having already established a reputation as arguably the best slot receiver in the NFL, Boldin recorded 89 receptions for nearly 1,100 yards despite missing four weeks due to a jaw injury.
Warner's targets enable Warner to get the ball out his hands in a hurry by quickly creating separation. Lost in the hoopla over Fitzgerald's post season performance has been the impact of Anquan Boldin. Having already established a reputation as arguably the best slot receiver in the NFL, Boldin recorded 89 receptions for nearly 1,100 yards despite missing four weeks due to a jaw injury.
With all the game planning focusing on Boldin and Fitzgerald, the Cardinals 3rd receiver Steve Breaston could emerge as an unlikely hero. Drafted out of Michigan inthe 5th round in 2007, Breaston's name has barely been uttered making him the Cardinals equivalent to the third Olsen twin. En route to becoming the third Cardinals receiver in 2008 to eclipse 1,000 yards the Cardinals became only the fifth team in NFL history to accomplish the feat.
The Cardinals coaching staff's familiarity with the intricasies of nearly of every aspect of the Steelers organization, includig Ken Whisenhunt's former duties as Roethlisberger's offensive gure presents them an advantage.
Final Score Prediction: Steelers, 24- Cardinals 31. Kurt Warner, marches the Cardinals down the field on a miraculous game winning drive, is voted Super Bowl MVP, invites Tim Tebow onto the podium. However, instead of receiving a slick new, custom made Cadillac Escalade, a white smokestack emerges from the stadium as confused Cardinals from the Vatican in town to watch the game accidently elect Kurt Warner pope.
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