Super Bowl Blowout

Just some thoughts I had about Sunday's Game.

-Steelers CB Ike Taylor is going to have to be the Steelers best defensive player sunday. He's going to be matched up against Larry Fitzgerald alot. Taylor's come a long way from being benched during the 2006 season. Along with other Steeler corners Bryant McFadden and Deshea Townsend, he's had a fantastic year. 

Taylor's best attribute as a corner and specifically for covering Larry Fitzgerald is his height.  Taller than most Cornerbacks at 6'2, Taylor has demonstrated the ability, when asked to, play physical man to man coverage and jam receivers at the line. Often though, Taylor is not often asked to play man to man, but rather zone coverage in defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau's zone blitz scheme. However, I believe Ike Taylor could flourish in a role like the one Packers cornerback Al Harris has been asked to play in the last couple of seasons. Harris makes a living off jamming and rerouting receivers at the line of scrimmage. (oddly enough, Harris's team, The Packers, are switching to a defensive scheme very similar to the one Taylor currently plays in with the Steelers)

I believe the Steelers will obviously mix up coverage looks throughout the game, but the one I think they'll continually go back to is one were Taylor's on the line with Fitzgerald, but has a Safety clouding over the top of those two. That way, Taylor can pretty much do what he wants with Fitzgerald within the five yard bump zone, i.e. jump routes inside or outside, play trail coverage etc., with the knowledge that there's a Safety behind him if Fitzgerald beats him at the line. Watch for Lebeau to mix up this "cloud" look with zone coverages on the other side to force Kurt Warner to read the enitre field, not just one side of it.

The most important aspect to the Super Bowl will be how well Ike Taylor can reroute Larry Fitzgerald. The Steeler's shouldn't care much about what Fitzgerald does after he's been rerouted by Taylor. The important thing should be that Fitzgerald was rerouted at all. On almost every play, Fitzgerald is Warner's first passing option, and when Warner can't consistently throw to his first option, that could give the Steelers the extra split second they need for Woodley and Harrison to hurry and sack Warner.

-Cardinals G Deuce Lutui, C Lyle Sendlein and G Reggie Wells all have to be able to get some movement on Steelers Nose Tackle Casey Hampton. Any combination of Lutui with Sendlien or Wells with Sendlein needs to end with Hampton being moved and one of those players scraping either James Farrior or Larry Foote on the second level. The Cardinal's won't run it much, but believe me, if you just tee up the pass against the Steelers, then your Quarterback will end up hurt.

-Cris Collinsworth pointed out in the Cardinal's Wild Card Game against the Falcons that Cardinal's defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast had given inside/middle linebacker Gerald Hayes responsibility for just one gap in that game. Hayes has played exceptionally since Pendergast made the change, because it simplified things for Hayes and he was able to quickly diagnose plays and run to them without thought of much else. The Cardinal's have lots of talented players on defense, but many times I think they're effectiveness has been hampered by Pendergast's over-aggresive play calling. I have doubts about Pendergast's ability as a coordinator but he's done a smart job with Gerald Hayes.

-That said, I still think Pendergast does more bad than good for this Cardinal's defense. If he blitzes on Sunday as much as he has this season, I believe his corners will struggle matched up with no help against the Steeler's receivers.

-Steelers Safety Ryan Clark is one of the best Safeties in football. There was an article in Friday's Washington Post that talked about Clark's connection with his former team the Redskins. Clark had previously played with Sean Taylor in Washington, and Taylor was known to make big plays, but not without being caught out of position in other plays because of his freelancing ways. Ryan Clark helped fill the gaps in coverage that Sean Taylor left when he went to freelance, and he's continued to play that same way with the freelancing Troy Polamalu. Clark has great instincts with unbelievable range, and these skills help nurture Safeties the like of Polamalu and Taylor because he allows them to be great. 

The best comparison to another sport I can come up with to talk about the effectiveness of Clark's play is to compare him to Bobby Orr's defense partner. Orr's coaches knew they couldn't put another player like Bobby (not that there was one) out on the ice the same time as Bobby, because they'd have two defenseman out of position all the time because they tried to make plays. Orr needed a player who was his exact opposite: not very flashy but steady and did his assignments right. Thats what Clark is to Polamalu.