Super Bowl Countdown: On the Road to Tampa

[Editor's Note: With the Super Bowl only a few days away, SportsJudge continues it's daily coverage of the big game with a preview from Joe Romano, Editor-in-Chief of the SportsJudge Blog. Be sure to check back every day this week at 1pm for different perspectives from the SportsJudge community. Be sure to check out Mike Colligan's 31-17 Steelers prediction and Matt Cohen's 31-28 Cardinals prediction if you haven't already.]

Two teams playing out of two different cities will battle for league supremacy on Sunday, but this game will revolve around one, Pittsburgh. It is the home of the Terrible Towel, Primanti Bros., and Iron City Beer. It is where Ken Whisenhunt made his name, Larry Fitzgerald shined in college, and Steve Breaston was born and raised. However, the Woodland Hills product could be the key to the game for the Cardinals.

You have all heard about how great the Steelers’ defense is, and it really is great. We all know James Harrison can pressure the QB, Polamalu is arguably the best safety in the game, and Casey Hampton is ginormous, but what many may find out is how slow Deshea Townsend is. Unfortunately for the Steelers, he will draw coverage duty on the speedy Breaston in man coverage. This could be the match-up that kills the Steelers.

The Steelers have two solid corners in Ike Taylor and Bryant McFadden. Ike is a pure coverage guy and McFadden is a physical corner who will make Boldin work to get off the line, but Townsend as the nickel back against Breaston has to keep Dick Lebeau up at night. The key will be forcing third and long, allowing the Steelers to zone-blitz the Cardinals and giving support over top against Zona’s supremely talented trio of receivers. Pounding the Cardinals' receivers at the line won't hurt either. I am sure the Steelers won’t forget how Breaston burned them for a TD last year.

There are two keys to the game when the Steelers have the ball: locate Adrian Wilson and, more importantly, run the ball. Earlier this week, Mike Colligan called Adrian Wilson the best safety in the game. I won’t go that far, but he is the third best safety behind Polamalu and Reed and is a game changer. Roethlisberger must account for Wilson every play. If Roethlisberger is careless, Wilson could come up with a game changing interception or land a hit that will give Steelers’ receivers alligator arms.

The biggest key to the game will be the Steelers ground attack. The Steelers have made a name for themselves by running teams into submission and will need to do it again to beat Arizona. By successfully running the ball, the Steelers keep the dangerous Cardinals’ passing attack off the field. Arizona’s glaring weakness is in their run-stopping linebacker corp. Some will point to their success against the run so far in the playoffs, but that is supremely attributable to teams playing from behind. Dansby is a very good pass rusher, but overall, the linebacker corps is weak against the run.

By exploiting the run, the Steelers will also open up Heath Miller. Keeping the Cardinals thinking run first should open up some seams and zone pockets for Miller to exploit. We all saw Celek find great success for Philly, and he isn’t half the player that Heath is. However, it will be tough to establish Heath without the run. Again, the key for the Steelers offense will be to run the ball.

This game should be far closer and more entertaining than most are claiming it will be. Each team has super stars on each side of the ball, and we have a hard-hitting defense against an electrifying offense. In the end, defense wins championships.

Prediction: The Steelers return to Pittsburgh with their record setting sixth Super Bowl, 27-17.

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