Better set your alarm clocks for next Sunday, because for the first time in a long time, the best action of Super Bowl Week...uhhh...Weeks will be between the whistles. Every once in a while we get a game that lives up to the hype of being 'Super', but most of the fireworks typically occur in the days leading up to the event. The Whisenhunt Factor is just not that exciting, certainly not as scandalous as the media will try and convince us. And Kurt Warner is an exceptional human being, a god among men, a paragon of goodness who pees salvation and craps world peace. Seriously, we get it. Kurt Warner is a pretty hardcore dude. Hardcore at being awesome. It makes for great pieces on Sportscenter, the evening news, Oprah. But two weeks of it is going to get hard.
Let's take our first look at the Super Bowl teams.
Pittsburgh is by far the better defensive team. They are as violent as they are precise. They are as mean as they are efficient. They are as ferocious as they are determined. When they say that defenses win championships, they are talking about this defense. On offense, they are stubborn with the running game, sticking it out despite 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters of meager gains. They are capable of big plays and they play well with the lead.They are the favorites, and deservedly so. But the Steelers did not face a very explosive Ravens offense and that will change in the big game.
The Super Bowl will not be played on a snowy, icy field in Pittsburgh. The conditions will be more suited for offense, and that is what Arizona brings into Tampa. Kurt Warner has been there before. He will not be easily rattled. Warner and Fitzgerald will not be shut out. And let's not forget that this team has figured something out defensively. They put a clamp on Carolina's running game, and they made stops against Philly when it mattered most. Dockett is getting into the backfield and causing trouble, and Adrian Wilson is a hell of a talent in the defensive backfield.
And finally, the Cards have an ace in the hole...in the form of the best assistant head coach in the game--Russ Grimm. He also knows about Super Bowls, and he will be an asset in the days leading up to the game for an organization extremely unfamiliar with these bright lights.
This game, like the entire playoffs thus far, has the potential to be exciting and unpredictable. Picks and prop bets coming up soon.