The Super Bowl will be decided by five men...
And they are Arizona offensive line. The difference between a competitive game that the Cardinals have a 50/50 shot at winning and a blowout win for the Steelers will be how the Cardinal line holds up against the Pittsburgh pass rush. If they can keep Kurt Warner upright and generate a little running room, then the Cardinal passing game should be able to generate some yardage and points and make a game of it. If not, then we can expect to see Warner following in the tradition of Jim Kelly and Tom Brady from last year and seeing a bunch of replays showing him slowly getting up off the turf every third or fourth play. The Cardinal defense only needs to keep Pittsburgh from ringing up 30 or more; they don't need to pitch a shutout. It's all on the offense, really. Speaking of Warner....
One more reason to hate Peter King
King does not believe Warner is a Hall of Famer. King, as always, came to this conclusion through some convoluted logic. He says that Warner has only played five 'full seasons' out of his eleven in the league. How does he describe a full season? Eleven games. Where does the eleven come from? Why not ten, or twelve? Seriously, there is no good reason for this. Warner did only play in eleven games five times, but he played in ten games twice. And you could just as easily not count his first year in the league because he was a third stringer who only got in one game and threw eleven passes. Why should that count towards his total? And by King's logic, Donovan McNabb has only played in six full seasons out of ten total. It's totally arbitrary, as are a lot of King's conclusions. No worries, though; as soon as someone calls him up and makes a good case for Warner's enshrinement, King will change his mind and let us all know about when he names drops whoever talked him into it.
No need to fix the NFL playoffs
The usual griping about the NFL playoff format was taken to a whole new level this year when the 9-7 Cardinals and 8-8 Chargers hosted playoff games against teams with better records, and when the Cardinals got to host a second game against the 9-6-1 Eagles for the NFC Championship. Some talking heads, pundits, and columnists were expressing the usual instant outrage over this travesty, this miscarriage of justice, this abomination the likes of which we haven't seen since the Nazis marched into Poland. They all need to get a life. The Cardinals went to Carolina and won in the second round, and it's not like the Falcons would have beaten them if only the game were in Atlanta. Puh-lease. You do not win three straight playoff games in the NFL without being legit. And it's not a shame that the 8-8 Chargers got in while the 11-5 Patriots did not. Just stop, OK?
The X-factor: Steeler tturnovers
The Cardinals defense was fifth in forcing turnovers, first in fumble recoveries. They averaged almost two turnovers per game (30 over 16 games). The Steelers turn it over at least once per game (25 times in 16 games). Now we all know the Steelers get their share of takeaways, but the Cardinals do a lot more of this than anyone realizes, and that could very well be the deciding factor in a close game.
I scored!
At least this time around I did. I went 2-0 for the conference finals, which put me at an even 5-5 for the playoffs. So the Super Bowl will break the tie for me. I haven't decided which way I'm going with that; I'll let you know next week.
No body like Peter King fat ass except Peter King