Because I’m feeling a little under the weather I’m not going to attempt the detailed 5,500 word breakdown of Super Bowl 43 scheduled to kickoff today, II/I/IX. Instead, I’ll just say that the Steelers are going to win 34-14 and give you three points as to why I think this.
1) Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley is hot head coaching property right now and he will most likely have a head coach position offered to him tomorrow (all reports say the Chiefs are the team). Combine this with the two week layoff in between the NFC Championship game and today and you have got a guy whose head can’t help but drift away thinking of his first head coaching gig. Coordinators on playoff teams who are sought after for new jobs once the season is done is typically bad voodoo and, considering that Haley was a complete unknown before the playoffs started, I wouldn’t be surprised if the pressure of the SB and the pressure of a big future job equals a badly-called game on his part.
2) All 4 members of Pittsburgh’s secondary have been together for 4 years. What usually makes Super Bowl winning teams complete is that their secondary has gelled together over the course of 18 games to the point that they aren’t easily fooled by double moves and, most importantly, the corners know exactly when they will have help over the top by the safeties. In Pittsburgh’s case, their secondary has gelled together over roughly 70 games which, I think, gives them a distinct advantage in handling Arizona’s WRs. Add to this that Arizona hasn’t faced a defense like this all year and I think they will start calling desperation routes (i.e.—bomb-like throws) and the Steelers will have the personnel on the field to combat this.
3) I just can’t shake the feeling that this Cardinals team is like the ’77 Broncos team that came out of nowhere (they finally got over the hump and beat the hated Raiders in the regular season and playoffs) with a veteran QB that everyone thought was washed up (if Warner hadn’t had previous SB success, he and Craig Morton would be pretty similar) and then completely ran out of gas in the Super Bowl and was handled easily by the Cowboys. Granted, Warner isn’t hurt like Morton was and the ’77 Broncos didn’t have the WR depth that the Cardinals do but the Cardinals played in the NFC West and this year the West was deplorable. Yes, I know Arizona wasn’t supposed to win against the Falcons, Panthers, and Eagles but in all 3 cases those teams coaches had stretches of calling really awful games (i.e.-the Falcons decided to abandon their #2 rushing game for some reason; the Panthers forgot to double-cover Fitzgerald, just like teams forgot to double-cover Steve Smith when they almost made their ’05 SB run; the Eagles… the Eagles are coached by Andy Reid and that’s everything you need to know) and I just can’t see the Steelers coaching staff (especially LeBeau) not being prepared for the game.
And, of course, if I’m wrong about this I’ll just delete this post and pretend it never happened.