How the Steelers matchup against the Cardinals

[BlitzburghRockCity]

Big key in this game will be if the Steelers defense can put consistent pressure on Kurt Warner with only rushing 4 men and dropping 7 into coverage.......Kurt Warner can kill a blitz so blitzing him could lead to trouble for the Steelers defense......I'm not saying the Steelers shouldn't blitz at all but just be smart about it......Coach LeBeau is going to have to come up with a great game plan and disguise his blitzes/coverages well against Warner......The Steelers defendars must win their individual match ups.....I don't how many times Lawrence Timmons was stoned by Willis McGahee in the AFC title game......Edge James is very good in blitz pick up but still Timmons must beat a RB one on one......

On offense the big key is running the football no doubt......If the Steelers can get their running game going then it keeps Warner and that offense off the field.....Plus if the Steelers offense can oppose their will on the Cardinals defense then it will break their spirits and then the play action pass can be effective.....

The Steelers special teams must be tight in their kick coverage so no big returns please.......The Steelers kick return units have been solid this year but they have allowed two big returns in this post season.....Steve Breaston took a punt return back for a TD against us last year in Arizona...........

No doubt he can kill a blitz, if a jim johnson blitz wasn't effective then it's hard for anybody else to do it and be successful. IMO we have to blitz him in key situations especially and really try and get him out of his rhythm. If you can throw off his timing you can beat him, same as peyton manning. Mix up the coverages every play and never show your hand as to what your doing. If we can confuse that line we'll be in good shape. Whiz will have his OL ready to try and block it though but it's not like the CArds are super great at blitz pickup they don't have to do it that much because Warner has a quick release. If we're going to blitz then we need to get there and not leave our DB's one on one all day long. Im sure Lebeau will play some Tampa 2 and pretty much hold nothing back because it's now or never.

Im confident our defense can get the job done enough to help out offense just like they have every year. On offense though you absolutely must score TD's every chance you get. Kicking FG's all day long isn't going to do anything when you have an offense that can score a lot.

[Iron City South]

The key to winning this game is a simple one:

1) Don't turn the ball over

2) Keep the Cards offense off the field; control the clock

3) Execute

[BlacknGold Bleeder]

The offense must play like they did against the bolts. The biggest key will be them staying on the field and chewing up the clock,also they have to limit the turnovers.
Don't give them a short field, make the redbirdies drive the field. They might get an early score but that will be against a "vanilla defense" , then the "Master Le Beau" will make the necessary adjustments to shut them down.
Special teams will have to have good coverage,see above ,no short fields.
The defense will keep them close ,the offense just doesn't need to screw it up, basically be a game manager. Stick with the run and by end of game they will wear down. I see us doing well with them getting a garbage time score or two to make it closer then it really will be,ala ratbirds and bolts.

[AZ_Steeler]

The only key for this game is the Cardinals WR's... Last time they played each other (2007) Fitz went off for 123 yards on 11 or 13 catches, and Boldin didn't play! Fitz (1431 yards), Boldin (1038) and Breaston (1006) must be stopped! It's as simple as that!

[JensK]

First of all, i don't know if this should have been in the Article section. I figured it wasnt really an article. Second, i would like to excuse my self for spelling errors. There is a lot of them and i know it. I did the best i could.

Here it is! This is what it all comes down to. The Superbowl! The most watched one-day event on earth. Almost 300.000.000 people watch this game every year, and this year’s match-up is one for the books. I will try to break down this game, this hunt for becoming the first team with 6 Lombardy Trophies.

Prior this season no one would have bet that the Steelers, with the hardest schedule you could possible get, and the Cardinals who, before this season, never had been in a championship game before, would end up playing this first Sunday in February. I am pretty certain that most people would have picked Giants/Cowboys vs. Patriots/Chargers. The only team Steelers did not beat was the Giants, and we even beat Chargers twice. It’s been a long year. We have had our ups and downs, we have fought more injuries than most teams, and we have not had one game in this post-season where we were the favorites. Yet here we still stand, on top of the AFC and ready to take on the Arizona Cardinals down in Tamba this next Sunday! Who would have thought?

Speaking of Tamba, let’s have a quick look at the Stadium. Raymond James Stadium, often referred as the “crown jewel” of the NFL by league insiders, is home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the University of South Florida Bulls. Raymond James Stadium can host 65,857 people, but will be expanded to 75,000 for the SB. Raymond James Stadium has won the NFL players' survey 3 times in a row. What’s really special about this field is that they can roll the whole field outside of the stadium, which allows them to “nurse” the grass much better. Raymond James Stadium is currently seeded with Tifway 419 Bermuda natural grass.

What two teams will we see in this SB?

Arizona is a pass-happy kind of offence. Kurt Warner (QB) is the perfect fit for this unit of players. He is really good at the 1-2 step’n’drop. Short slants to Boldin have become one of the most dangerous plays on this Offence. Fitzgerrald needs no introduction. He is, imo, the best WR this year. Obviously he has gotten a lot of balls his way. Arizona have been throwing the ball almost 70 % of the time this year, which have affected their running game, or lack of the same. 32, dead last, was the place where you should look for Cardinals in the NFL statistics. Edgerrin James has been horrible at best, and has been replaced by rookie Tim Hightower, who is not the greatest runningback in the league, but he is pretty dangerous at short slants. E. James has been productive in the postseason though. Arizona has avg. of 111.0 yards on the ground per game in the postseason, which is better than the Steelers.

On Defense you’ll see a very very opportunist bunch of players. They are not the type of defense that will stop force 3-and-out situations all the time, but they have been really good in the postseason with 8 Interceptions, 3 FF and 7 sacks. Not bad at all, even though Panthers did almost make this list on their own with 6 (I believe?) give-away’s.

The Steelers does not really need an introduction? You all know these guys, but I’ll run through it real quick. Big Ben has been really great in the postseason. Even though his passer rating isn’t that great compare to Warner’s (Warner: 112.1 – Big Ben: 90.8) he gets the job done. He has been great avoiding pressure and his rating should have been way higher if it wasn’t for quite a few dropped passes. Willie Parker has had a rough year full of injuries and he has suffered behind a really bad o-line and horrible play-calling. However, against Chargers Parker had the best game of the season, where he totally ran over the Chargers defense. Many will blame the Chargers defense here, but I really think it was the return of the I-formation that helped Willie out. He just hasn’t been good without a lead blocker. Look for the Steelers to come out in the bunch formation with 3 TE’s. It allows Big Ben to scan the field and get the ball away. It will spread their defense and we’ve seen that, when done correct, there will almost always be a man open if Ben gets enough time. The two questions are: Will he have enough time, and will the WR’s start to catch the ball instead of dropping them? Hines Ward is injured but will play against Cardinals. He is the most reliable receiver we’ve got, so we’ll need him big time. Holmes will probably get a lot of attention from the Defense, so look for Limas Sweed and Washington to get a few balls their way.

The Steelers defense has been the best all season. They are number one in points allowed, yards allowed, 3 down conversions, first against the pass and second against the run. All players on this unit have been great. Even the back-ups have been recording sacks and interception all season long. The Steelers is the second highest sacking team, and good ol’ Troy was second in Interceptions. In the post season the Steelers have recorded 4 Interceptions, 7 sacks and 2 FF.

KEY MATCH-UPS.

Steelers QB Big Ben vs. Nervousness:

Last time Big Ben was in the SB was in 05. With an outstanding postseason performance by the second year QB, he had a terrible SB. He said it was because of nervousness, which I am sure it was. However, he can’t afford to be nervous this time. Big Ben has been playing against the best defenses the NFL can manage this season, and he has been doing alright. He can’t start to make stupid mistakes and bad calls against this defense though. They’ll intercept the ball, force a fumble or something bad for the Steelers. Therefore I believe that one of the keys for the Steelers Is that Big Ben keeps his head cold read that field and make the right choices. No turnovers please!

Steelers Secondary’s vs. Arizona’s passing offence.

Larry Fitzgerrald, Anquan Bolding and Steve Breaston. These guys have all recorded 1000+ receiving yards this season. As I said earlier, they have been giving a lot of throws, but it is still an amazing stat. Fitzgerrald is their go-to guy. He can catch the ball no matter how bad it’s thrown, and he can do it against 3 DBs. He is a high receiver who is one big match-up problem. Ike Taylor will probably be the guy who is going to take care of Fitz. Taylor has been facing the best WR’s in this league pretty much, including T.O, Burress and Randy Moss. He has shot down all of them. Taylor will probably get a lot of help from Troy. McFadden is going to take care of Boldin, with help from Ryan Clark and probably Timmons. I am not too afraid of this match-up, since Boldin is a guy who likes to get the ball quick and then run with it. No team have done that with success against the Steelers, and if they try they’ll get hurt (*cough* *cough* Welker *cough*).

Steelers pass-rush against Cardinals QB Warner.

Blitzing is dangerous against Cardinals. Warner is great at reading that blitz and getting the ball away. Most of the time I believe the Steelers will only bring 4-5 man against Warner, but they will have a lot of guys in the box. As the game develops look for more blitzes, but they’ll have to slow down in the beginning or else they’ll pick you apart. Warner has shown that he hates pressure and he plays really terrible when he is under pressure, therefore it is still important to pressure him at all time.

Steelers o-line vs. Cardianals SS Adrian Wilson

What? Why this matchup? Because I say so! No really, it is important that Hartwig reads Adrian Wilson and calls the blitz, because it will come. Adrian Wilson is not the same type of player that Troy and Reed is. While Troy and Reed is fantastic at reading the field, Adrian Wilson is more of a hard-hitting blitzing type of player who is blitzing A LOT!!! Steelers is not very good against the blitzes and it is therefore important that Hartwig read that blitz and gets someone to stop him.

When the Steelers have the ball:

Even though Cardinals held Westbrook under 50 yards last week, the Steelers will try to get their running game going. Steelers will need to keep Warner and co. off the field and pull time off the clock (depending on the score obviously). Therefore, look for a lot of I-formations and double TE sets. The Steelers will probably try to use their “bread and butter” play a lot. Kemo runs a route from his position and over on the right site of the line to block down-field for Willie parker. This was the same play which Willie Parker broke the longest run in a SB in 05.
Steelers will use the bunch formation a lot when throwing the ball. It allows the WR’s to spread out the defense, and it creates miss-matches. Look for Big Ben to go deep to Sweed or Washington at least 2 times in this game.

When Cardinals have the ball:

They will probably come out going deep to Fitzgerrald. Cardinals know it can be done. Chargers did it not too long ago. As the game moves on, look for Cardinals to try to run the ball. If it’s successful they’ll use the run to set-up the pass. If not, they’ll setup the pass with passing the ball. They have so many different weapons on that passing attack, and they’ll try to use all of them. Look for Boldin to be the go-to guy in this game on some short routes. Hightower and Pope will probably get some short slants as well.

Over all I like this matchup. It is going to come down to who is creating most turnovers and who is able to shut the other offence down. Personally I believe Steelers will pull this away, but it is not going to be easy. Cardinals are smoking hot right now, and they have nothing to lose.