Super Bowl

[widestrides]

Big Ben is NOT the sharpest pencil in the box. He has made his share of blunders, although they sat him down and told him not to try to force things.

I lean under 47 also and AZ +7. Pitt offense has been pathetic and Tomlin plays it very conservatively. Balty could hav easily covered if Troy wasn't so zeroed in on Flacco's eyes. But Pitt got the running game going against SD. Maybe Baltimore's D was just too tough and Pitt will have their way with the AZ D like Philly started to do in the 2H.

[jpehl]

You know feel free to correct me if Im wrong but it seems to me Ben was a little sharper before his crash. Does anyone agree.

[woodee12]

ok, maybe I am wrong there on the mistakes, but Leftwich instead of him, No way.

Thats just stupid. If Leftwich was any good he'd be starting somewhere.

I will take Ben over a ton of other Qbs still. Not for fantasy points or big numbers but for winning.

[jpehl]

Byron Leftwich PITTSBURGH 21/36 att 2 tds 104.3 rating 0 int 0 fumbles

He did only play against Washington and Cleveland but IMO I would rather see him back there than Ben. Just my thoughts. Lets be honest, if Ben didn't have the Defense we wouldn't be debating this right now, but he is equipped with a superior D. Im sure we can make the "what if" arguments about every QB out there but I do consider Ben a weak link in Pittsburgh. Im sure he will prove me wrong in the Super Bowl!

[jpehl]

Correction he played 4 games. add Phil and Cinc

[dragon1952]

I don't know.....I felt the Steelers were on their way to losing that game before Polamalu's interception. Man, that sure saved my ass....and what a run back. I needed those pts. I could just see him getting tackled at the 3 and then Pittsburgh settling for a FG. It really seems like they were afraid to run a play there on their last couple of possessions after Baltimore got to within 2. They had two 3 and outs that were just pathetic. Awfully conservative sitting on a 2 pt lead with the SB at stake. All Baltimore needed was a FG, and they had the ball with 4 min to play.
Roethlisberger won because of his defense. He had a pathetic 80% QB rating with just 2 more TD's than INT's (as jpehl stated). And he is a statue. I know a lot of it was problems with the OL, but he can very rarely avoid a sack and he makes bad decisions sometimes to avoid them. That was a terrible pass in the end zone and could very easily have cost them the game. Sweed really made up for his drop (which was a great pass), with that break-up and his killer block.
Of course Roethlisberger should be the starter, but it just seems that when Leftwich has entered the game it has provided a spark, and regardless of who should be in there, I like him better.

[dragon1952]

I was writing that as jpehl was...it just took me 20 minutes cause I was looking back at the games. I almost added Leftwich's stats and QB rating too.....lol! Great minds think alike.

[woodee12]

yeah, we can go back and forth about it and I guess I am just use to watch the pathetic Chicago Bear Qbs all year and wish they had a guy like ben and not like Orton or grossman.

Not much to compare to but anyway, I don't really care to argue a point that cannot be won on either side.

Just saw the line came down a bit to 46.5 at one of the books. Wonder if it will fall anymore? Or bounce back and forth? Most vegas book have 47's and a couple 47.5's it looks like.

[dragon1952]

This is probably going to turn out to be more similar to the Charger game where Pittsburgh put up 35 and San Diego put up 24. If Arizona has some success on offense and can score a couple 1st H TD's, maybe Pittsburgh won't be able to go into their hibernation mode to protect a 3 pt lead and then wait for their defense to return one to ice it.

[Dinger]

Anyone know what the money line for the game?

[jpehl]

ARIZ +245
Pitt -265

[Rick]

Depends where you play

Cards +230
Steelers -270

I am looking at the Cards -3' +320
Cards -7' +650
Cards -10' this one is nuts but what the hell +900

This one is for sure The Arizona Cardinals +7 -110

[widestrides]

You're right dragon. If AZ gets an early score or two, the track meet is on and Pitt can't play smash mouth and play close to the vest as usual.

That makes the under a little risky.

I kinda like Pitt under 27? I like that better than AZ under 20.

I could see Pitt getting ahead and then sitting on it and winning 23-17, 24-20. And that's what makes the Pitt -7 risky.

[dragon1952]

I've just got a feeling that the Pitt 'D' and special teams will set up a few short fields and maybe even return one. And I'm not saying that the Pitt defense isn't great....they are really good.....but they really didn't face a whole lot of top QB's and really top notch offenses. They got Cleveland twice, once in a severe wind storm and once with Gradkowski, they got Cincinnati twice with Fitzpatrick and one of those games was snow and freezing, they got McNabb without Westbrook and Curtis, they got the rookie Flacco 3 times, they got David Garrard with a banged up OL to boot, Jason Campbell, Matt Cassell, Kerry Collins, they got Schaub the 1st game of the season before they really gelled. Other than that, they got Rivers twice (once in really nasty weather), and Peyton and Eli Manning. Rivers put up 21 of 35 for over 300 yds and 3 TD's in that 2nd game for 24 pts, they played the Giants tough but they did give up 21 and lost, and Eli is no elite QB anyway, and the Colts got them for 24. The win at New England was impressive because the Pats had been playing real well, but Cassell is definitely not an elite QB. So this is certainly the most dangerous offense they've faced. Warner was definitely the best QB of the group mentioned above this year. And no other team has the WR group that the Cards possess with Fitz, Boldin and Breaston. Edgerrin James didn't get a lot of work in the regular season so he's got fresh legs. I just think the Cards put up something more similar to what the Colts, Giants and Chargers did, rather than the 13.9 avg the Steelers gave up against those lesser offenses.

If you look at just the games Arizona played before they clinched in Week 11, they only scored less than 23 pts one time in those 10 games. That was when they scored just 17 at Washington in Week 3, and they had a TD called back in that game on a controversial play clock violation. And even in the 6 after they clinched, they still scored 20 or more 4 times. Minnesota held them to 14 and New England held them to 7, but they average 29 pts in the other 4 games. And in the playoffs they've scored 30, 33 and 32. I don't think there is any way they get held to under 20 here. And I think I just talked myself out of my prediction of Pittsburgh by 10. Right now I'm thinking Pitt anywhere from 26-31 and Ari at least 23.

[Boone Moone]

Right off the top (I'll probably have alot more to say by game time), I think that either the Steelers will win a low-scoring 27-7 type game, and that's only if AZ decides to succumb to all of the hype and pressure, or I see the Cards carrying on in the fashion they have displayed lately -- and win a high-scoring game outright...........I'm hoping for the latter.

It will be one of the two, as silly as this sounds..........but my main feeling about this game is that the point-spread will not even be an issue here...........Either Pitt wins easily, or Arizona wins the game outright............Call my imagination "extreme", but that's JMO.