He might get over 250 if we blowout early and he gets garbage time throws.

I think they get one big play, and thats it. I really DONT see him slicing and dicing our defense and so far every “hot” QB that comes to play us has been stone-walled. See examples such as Matt Cassel Donovan McNabb Ignatius Rivers and Joe Flaccox3

This game won’t be easy- SuperBowls never are. IMHO the first quarter will determine the rest of the game, with the first 5 minutes of Cards offense the most telling. I think Warner and Fitz will have some early success. They might even score fast. Their first couple of series could even go extremely well for them.

 However- the thing I think will happen is this:

 1. The Cards come out highly emotional
 2. Their offense clicks on all cylinders early
 3. They move the ball easily, scoring on one, maybe two first drives
 4. The Cards build confidence, their sideline looks loose, laughing
 5. Their defense holds on the first 2-3 Steelers drives, big emotional high

 By the end of the first quarter it will look as if the Cardinals will dominate the Steelers. The AZ players will be highly emotional, talking high smack to Steelers players. They will be quickly convinced that the media is right and their offense is unstoppable. Riding an extreme emotional high, the Cardinals will enter the second quarter certain of the upset victory.

 BUT-

 That same emotional high that gave Arizona the first few big blows in the game will begin to wear off, sapping the strength of AZ’s spirit. A young, inexperienced AZ team, unfamiliar with playoff and SB intensity, will stutter late in the first half. After the Steelers defense lays hard into their WRs and RBs in the 2d quarter, the Cards start missing catches, their OL starts missing blocks. Pittsburgh defense begins sniffing out run plays and getting heavy pressure on Warner.

 By the time Warner finally gets sacked for the first time in the early 2d qtr, he will have been nearly beheaded 3-4 times. The first sack will be a big one, probably on a 3d and long, pushing AZ out of FG range. A bad punt will give the Steelers offense decent field position, and Ben leads a long, physical drive 80+ yards for a TD. After the KO, our D sacks Warner hard on the following 1st down, forces a 3-and-out, and our offense drives for a FG late in the 2d, just before halftime.

 After an extra-long halftime show, the Steelers, naturally a second-half team anyway, come out with all the right adjustments on both offense and defense. Despite their fast start and a 14-10 lead, momentum slowly but steadily shifts AWAY from an emotionally-drained and frustrated AZ offense and towards a Steelers defense that has figured out the protections and timing of pass-plays and is beginning to read Warner’s eyes like a second-grade storybook. A Townsend INT and long return sets up a Steelers TD early in the 3d qtr. and Pittsburgh executes a long, long drive after a Cards 3-and-out. That long drive culminates in another short TD pass to a suddenly-reinvigorated Hines Ward(his 3rd of the day) and seasls the fate of the now-exhausted Cardinals team.

 With the score at 24-14, Pittsburgh and AZ trade 3-n-outs a couple times before a James Harrison sack forces a Warner fumble, scooped up and returned for a TD by Ryan Clark. One more scoreless drive from AZ and PIT holds onto the ball for most of the 4th qtr, scoring two more field goals before AZ sneaks in a long bomb to Fitz in junk time to leave the score at 37-21 Pittsburgh.

 In short: The Cards will be too psyched-up for the game, and despite going up early will run out of emotion in the first half and will finally be dominated by a patient, experienced, talented and determined Pittsburgh defense and a surprisingly effective dink-and-dunk Steelers pass offense.

The above post was my way of saying that i think Warner will throw for more than 250 yards, and how i think it will come about.

 In no way, shape, form or fashion does my comment above constitute ANY kind of prediction, or any kind of slight against the Cardinals and everything they’ve accomplished this year. I’m extremely happy for Kurt Warner, Ken Whisenhunt, Larry Fitzgerald and all the other Cardinals who have achieved what no one thought they could.

 Arizona is a great team. They’ve more than earned the right to play in the SuperBowl, and will undoubtedly give our Pittsburgh Steelers all they can handle in pursuit of Arizona’s first championship. Nothing about Arizona is to be taken lightly, especially consideing that this same team beat us last year.

 I will even go so far as to say that I wish Wiz and Co. weren’t Pittsburgh’s opponent in this SB; if not, i’d be rooting for them!

 I just can’t root against my hometown Black and Gold. Nor do i want to.

PS- Please, please Great Football Gods: Forgive my presumptiousness and accept my humble pleas to protect and guide our beloved Steelers to victory in this NFL Championship Game! In the beloved memory of names of great Steelers passed( Mike Webster , Steve Courson, Ray Mansfield, Steve Furness, Dwight White, and Ernie Holmes) I pray, amen.

Hey, if it starts snowing too, then we know it was meant to be :)

The obvious; the Cardinals can not get enough of running yards against the Steelers to make an impact. Warner sprinkles the field with his quick release dinks and dunks that sets up the down the field throws. I feel his down the field throw is the Cardinal’s only scoring hope. They do have a good receiving core This will rack up the yardage, but barely over 300 or maybe just under. The Steelers had the tougher schedule and played some of the best passing offenses, the Cardinals have not played a defense like the Steelers.
FWP will have a good day against this defense.

Since the Steelers will be able to run the ball, they will control the clock, but not the score. If Big Ben does not play like last his SB, the Steelers will win.

http://birdland.bigcartel.com/product/yeah-right

…that the officials are crooked, BUT- there have been several games in the NFL that have seen some pretty shady officiating. I’m talking about the kind of calls that keep one team in games that would otherwise be lopsided(a long DPI, Personal Fouls, Roughing etc).

 I’m willing to bet that there will be at least one call by the zebras that help one of these two teams come SuperBowl Sunday. As a Steeler fan, i tend to think AZ will get some ref-help, but it could be the other way around. The NFL sure does seem to take pride in how “competitive” it’s league is. I sometimes wonder if they don’t encourage officials to “balance out uneven games”. Remember any Steelers games where we destroyed opponents, ran up and down the field, and had TDs taken away, making certain games closer than they maybe should’ve been?

 Well- it’s happened all over the NFL. And i have no reason to think the league won’t maximize it’s viewership by making dubious calls to keep this SB as “interestying and compelling” as last year’s.

 I vaguely remember when SB blowouts were fairly common. Not so much the last few years. Coincidence? Maybe.

 I’m not saying….i’m just saying…..

that i predicted all those game-changing penalties.

It looks like Bigfoot was referee and the Grey Aliens were the umpires and line judges.

Jagoff.

And who’s laughing now, funny man??

Muwahahahahahahah…Go Stillers :-)