Steelers-Cardinals for all the Marbles

My favorite phrase of the last two weeks that has been said 8000 times: Ben Roethlisberger, the youngest QB ever to win the Superbowl. Let us not forget the Big Fraud’s performance in the biggest game of his career. 9-21. 123 yards, no touchdown passes and 2 interceptions. Absent a few fishy calls, namely the phantom offensive pass interference on Seattle’s early touchdown and the Big Fraud is a goat of Neil O’Donnell proportions. But he was rescued in large part because one of his receivers happened to be a more accurate thrower than the BF, with Randle El throwing the Steelers’ only touchdown.

This was one of the single worst performances in Superbowl history and certainly the worst ever performance by a winning QB. Absent Gannon’s five interception disaster, the BF would stand alone holding the honor for single worst ever QB performance in the big game. Do people not remember this when they fawn all over BF, Brett Favre style?

Let’s also not forget that league MVP that year, Gannon, was facing his former coach. Much the same way BF is facing his former offensive coordinator. Think there is any other coach anywhere that might know more about the BF than Ken does? Not bloody likely. The Big Fraud continues to be the most overrated QB in NFL history and now the world will watch as he gets his second shot at the big game.

But none of this stops the media love affair with the BF. An under fifty percent dud two weeks ago against the Ravens when two of the three big plays BF made easily could have been interceptions. He does indeed lead a charmed life as he has for the entirety of his NFL career. Consistently backed by a top defense and running game, no one’s thrown less passes than BF in his early years. And he racks up huge Yards Per Pass stats over his career against nine men in the box defenses stacked up to stop the run. While I give BF all the credit for his agility, strength and ability to avoid the pass rush and extend the play, it does not change one simple fact. He is often not very accurate, the most important trait for a QB. An accurate QB would have blown out the Ravens two weeks ago as evidenced by wide open receivers missed time and time again.

Now BF faces a suddenly energized and ball hawking Cardinals defense that get no respect. Never underestimate the value of being the team no one respects or thinks can win. Ask last year’s Giants and Patriots. Ask Kurt Warner about his Superbowl experience against the Patriots. NFL films put together a wonderful half hour on last year’s Superbowl and there is some telling footage of Strahan pumping up his team before kick off. Ranting about facing the QB that cannot ever be hit. The QB no one can stop. Football is an emotional game and the Cardinals have the emotional edge. They will also have every neutral fan cheering for them, while being greatly out-numbered in the number of fans that have traveled, so they will likely be playing on at worst a neutral field. Don’t be surprised to see this crowd leaning the Cardinals way.

Rod Woodson made clear that this is the worst possible match up for the Steelers’ defense. He essentially said that the way you beat a dominant 3-4 defense is to spread them out and attack the seams. Precisely what the Cardinals do best. Add in a QB who reads defenses and makes decision as quickly as anyone ever has, with his quick release, and the Steelers’ defense might not be so dominant. Warner has also greatly improved his ball security, which will be essential. He will have Harrison and Woodley in his face at times, and his ball security will be imperative to a Cardinal victory. Polamalu is not going to be the mad man around the line of scrimmage that he usually is because the Steelers are terrified of Larry Fitzgerald. As they should be. No receiver has ever put together a more dominant three game playoff run.

A dominant receiver in the zone, clicking with his QB, can be unstoppable. Look at Randy Moss last year and in his 15-1 Minnesota season. Jerry Rice for years. T.O. in his prime. It can be nearly impossible to stop a dominant receiver. Don’t think the Steelers can out tough the Cardinals either. The Cardinals are lead by their QB and WR’s who are three of the toughest players in the league. Boldin playing mere weeks after having his face crushed, Warner always getting back up after every huge hit, standing in there til the last second. And Larry Fitzgerald never shies away from the ball, and why should he, he’s bigger than everyone out there trying to take him down.

The Steelers will be able to limit Fitzgerald to an extent, but he will still make some plays. The Steelers will consistently have both Ike Taylor and Polamalu on Fitzgerald, and at times a third defender. Larry will still make some plays because he cannot be stopped, but this is going to be Boldin’s coming out party. No one has a bigger chip on his shoulder coming into this game than Anquan Boldin. In his mind, he is every bit the receiver that Larry is, with none of the accolades. And he has been bashed by just about every talking head, sports writer and blogger from coast to coast. He’s selfish, he’s a cancer, he’s a bad teammate. All Anquan Boldin did in the Eagles game was have an emotional reaction, in an emotional sport, to not being on the field in the biggest game of his life. For shame Anquan Boldin, what an unforgivable crime. There has not been one iota of conversation about Boldin’s skills in comparison to all the chatter about his sideline argument with offensive coordinator, Haley.

Larry’s absurd three game performance mandates extreme measures will be put in place to stop him by the Steelers, which will open it up for Breaston and Boldin. His hammy should be mostly healed up, and if so, Boldin is a top ten receiver and this is his chance to go from the selfish guy who yelled at his coach in the championship game, to hero. I am predicting Anquan Boldin with a monster game and the MVP trophy in a tough call over Warner. 150 yards and 2 TD’s.

The Steelers will get their points and they will eat the clock as the Cardinals bend but don’t break. Ben will take chances on plays when he breaks the pocket and Adrian Wilson will come up with a big interception. Whisenhunt knows the Big Fraud as well as anyone and there will never be a better prepared defense to face him. The key to stopping the BF is to know that you must never drop your coverage, no matter how long it has been. A number of big plays that the BF has made in his career are due to the DB losing sight of the WR by looking back to Ben because they cannot believe the ball has not been thrown yet. You keep your coverage and look for the ball when the receiver does. If this had happened on the Holmes TD last week, it was an interception. But instead, the DB, who could not believe the play was still going on, looked back at Ben and lost his footing just as he was throwing the ball.

The BF is overrated because he is often inaccurate. And that is a killer for his position. You never see Tom Brady or Peyton Manning consistently miss wide open receivers, but you see it from the Fraud all the time. He will miss some passes because that is what he does. He will break containment and extend some plays with his feet. There will be plays where the coverage breaks down because you can only cover for so long, but the Cardinals will be able to limit these. The Steelers are going to score and there is no getting around that. This game comes down to the Cardinals defense making enough plays to slow the Steelers down, and getting the big turnover. Which they will. The BF’s inaccuracy and consistent habit of throwing to covered receivers as he extends the play, all while facing the offensive coordinator who mentored him, will be too much. The BF will prove everything I have ever written about him and he will still be beloved. It will all be an anomaly due to Whisenhunt’s inside knowledge. He ain’t that good, he never was.

The Cardinals can and will win this game because they have a Hall of Fame QB going against the league’s best defense. This has become a league where the offensives are ahead of the defenses because more scoring equals more excitement and more viewers, at least from the NFL’s perspective. The only way the Steelers win this game is if they are allowed to mug Cardinal receivers on every play, the way the Patriots did a few years ago to the Colts on their way to Superbowl number 2, I believe.

Now, I live in New England where Bill Polian is about as revered as Satan and it is blasphemy to say this, but there is no getting around the fact that the year before the refs started actually calling illegal contact, holding and interference, that the Patriots consistently mugged the Colts receivers on play after play in that playoff game. Belichick quickly realized with the new enforcement of the rules that you could construct an unstoppable offense, which he did. And if the Patriots had not been so arrogant in game planning to attack the Giants’ safeties with down the field passes and instead had relied on short passes, they would have won. But, they were arrogant. They did not believe anyone could apply pressure to Brady. And you can’t really blame them, because no one had. What you can blame them for and it has to be a mark against the single best coach ever, is that Belichick took far too long to make the adjustment to the underneath throws. He continued to try to attack the safeties as Brady was tenderized by the Giants’ front four.

The Cardinals will not make the same mistake as they know that Warner will be under pressure and they will be ready to make the quick read and release. This Steelers defense, which is great and is better than last year’s, still has a fundamental flaw. You can exploit them by spreading them out and attacking with quick passes if you have the QB and weapons to do so. The Cardinals have exactly that. Just like the Patriots did last year to the tune of 4 TD passes and 399 passing yards in a 34-13 drubbing of the Steelers. Again, I grant you that this is a better defense, but it can still be exploited with the right pieces. Which it will be.

Cardinals 31-27. MVP Boldin. From the only person anywhere who picked the Cardinals to win each and every playoff week. One more to go and they will not be stopped.