Skip to main content

Super Bowl XLIII prediction

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.

Comments

John said…
I am taking the Steelers as well. The Cards are a great offense and story, but they are too one-dimensional to get it done against an experienced, well-rounded team like Pittsburgh, I say Steelers by 10 after a late garbage time touchdown by Arizona.
12:52 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who cares?

So we finally got done with the NBA playoffs after nearly two months of stretched-out play, and tomorrow's the draft. I really couldn't care less. I'm so burned out on the sport. Sadly, there's nothing else going on worth mentioning, so we might as well get into it. (Yes, baseball, Pugs, but I haven't really started following that this year yet, sorry.) Would the NFL hold its draft five days after the Super Bowl? Of course not, and not just because the league doesn't want to distract from the highlight of its annual calendar, the Pro Bowl. Of course, the NBA's situation is a little different. College play ended two and a half months ago, and the teams want to get draftees ready for the all-important summer league play (because the kind of guys that need the summer league always end up players). Not that when college basketball is over is relevant, anyway-the league is overrun by a bunch of high school players "just months removed from their prom" (...
12 comments
Read more

Payback

It's a nice little coincidence. Sunday the Broncos face the Steelers, who knocked them out of last year's playoffs. Tomorrow night the Nuggets play the L.A. Clippers, who knocked them out of last year's playoffs. Friday the Avalanche host the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, who knocked them out of last year's playoffs. (All right, the part about the Avs was a complete fabrication, but you believed me, didn't you?) Forget the Steelers game. The last thing I want to talk about right now is Denver's football team. (Seriously, what was that Sunday? I finally start to fall for the defense, and voila! Peyton Manning, for the first time ever, gets the better of it. You win some, you lose to the Colts.) I'm not so excited about the Clippers game either, per se, but I am glad the NBA is back, especially after this week. So what has changed from when we last left the squad? (Not that much.) New guys: The Smiths, Joe and J.R., might be Denver's most effective sibling duo...
4 comments
Read more

The Top Dozen Pro Quarterbacks

With the NFL season over, it’s time for year two of my annual quarterback rankings . Actually, last year the list was of quarterbacks I’d take over Jake Plummer. Since such a list this year would be at least a novella, I’ve changed it to the top twelve quarterbacks. This list is intended to be the best quarterbacks as of today and/or next season. Thus, it won’t correspond perfectly with, say, my list of the best young quarterbacks . Vince Young’s completion percentage, for example, will count against him more here. That said, some predictions are still involved. (For example, will Jake Delhomme and Ben Roethlisberger bounce back?) The winners: 12. Philip Rivers, San Diego. Rivers may deserve a higher spot on this list. I’m just trying not to get too carried away. On the plus side, he’s on a fine team (if they have coaches next year) and has a fantastic arm. On the downside, he’s young and was nothing special in the playoffs. So there’s a chance he won’t be quite so good next year, tho...
9 comments
Read more