Sorry, folks, but it’s going to be short. I think the Pittsburgh Steelers will win Sunday’s Super Bowl (4:28 p.m. Mountain, NBC).
I like the Arizona Cardinals and have pulled for them in the NFC playoffs. I think they were underrated during much of the postseason and they’ve had a great run. Unfortunately, as far as reasons for picking them in this game go, I don’t really have any.
Sure, they’ve got a heck of an offense—4th in the NFL in yardage this year, and only San Diego scored more points. They have fine receivers, like the unstoppable Larry Fitzgerald…but in years past everyone said no one would stop Steve Smith, who’s maybe not the best teammate on the planet but a force in the postseason who always got stopped somewhere along the line. I like Fitzgerald more than Smith, if you can’t tell, but anyway my point is I don’t think he’s going to carry this team to an upset win. Kurt Warner’s good, too, but Big Ben is the best quarterback in the NFL when Tom Brady’s not playing, so that’s no advantage.
The Steelers, on the other hand, have an experience edge, having won the Super Bowl a couple years ago in a similar-looking matchup. That’s when they played the Seahawks. I watched the Seahawks in the NFC playoffs that year and thought they were great. No one gave them much of a chance in the Super Bowl. I thought they were wrong; turned out I was. This year the Cardinals have the flashy fresh faces that make headlines, but not the all-around depth to beat the Steelers. Arizona is a 9-7 team that outscored its opponents by one point (427-426) in the regular season. (Pittsburgh had a 124-point edge.) I’d love to see the Cards win it all, but the Steelers are better and will hoist the Lombardi Trophy Sunday night.
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