Today I found a rare moment of agreement with ESPN analyst Skip Bayless. On the show First Take, Bayless mentioned an increasing trend of analysts picking the Arizona Cardinals to win the game. Obviously I have no problem with these people saying that they like the Cardinals, but these picks seem to be more sentimental, yet most of the analysts claim that their picks are intellectually based.
One of the popular teams that analysts compare the Cardinals to is last year's champions, the New York Giants. These analysts point out that the Giants went on a late run and ended up winning the Super Bowl against the heavily favored Patriots. While the comparison may look good at the start, these analysts should look at how last year's champions won the championship game, rather than obsessing about the whole run. Most notably, the fact that the New England Patriots brought in a stellar offense and a decent defense. In many ways, the Cardinals are more like the Patriots due to their extremely talented receiving corps. True, the Cardinals defense has improved in the last few weeks, but it is still not a high caliber defense.
One thing that I couldn't help but notice was that the Cardinals allowed the Philadelphia Eagles to score 3 touchdowns in 10 minutes in the NFC Championship game. The key difference between last year's Giants and the Cardinals is the popular maxim "Offense wins games, but defense wins championships". The Giants won last year's Super Bowl because they had a dominant defensive line that could get an incredible pass rush and keep the prolific Patriots offense from ever being successful.
For some reason analysts seem to be ignoring the fact that James Harrison is a freak of a pass rusher. Oh, and Casey Hampton, Lamarr Woodley, and Brett Keisel are no slouches either. The pass rush of the Pittsburgh Steelers is far more dominant than that of the Cardinals, and just like last year's Giants, the Steelers' offense seems to make the key plays at exactly the right time late in games.
There you have it, my pick for Super Bowl XLIII is the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they will be the team most reminiscent of last year's champions, the New York Giants. Enjoy the game.
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Good point on the pass rush Mr. Hamline. The Steelers ranked 2nd in the NFL in the regular season with 51 sacks. The Cardinals were tied for 14th at 31 sacks. Last year, the Giants led the NFL with 53 regular-season sacks, although the Patriots were 2nd with 47 sacks.
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