FAN: Steelers Should Fear Cardinals

The Cardinals. The Cardinals? The Cardinals? All we have to do is beat the Cardinals? And we'll have six Lombardi Trophies? The Cardinals? I keep thinking that. I thought the same thing all week as the Eagles were preparing to play them and schools and companies had "wear your green" days. Heck, it's just the....Cardinals? Wrong. These aren't your father's Cardinals. They might not even be your grandfather's Cardinals. These Cardinals are good, and they're pissed off. I've been watching much more TV this week concerning football. The Cardinals aren't happy with just winning the NFC. On Showtime's Inside The NFL Ken Whisenhunt took a clear jab at Cris Collinsworth for a comment he made a few weeks ago saying the Cardinals may be the worst team to ever make the playoffs. He's using that negative energy to fuel his team, and it's working. They're going to pull out all the stops in The Super Bowl. That's when a team is most dangerous. They've been playing with house money for weeks and now they have a pile of chips sitting in front of them and Whiz is seriously considering going "All In". And when you think about it, why not? The Steelers might have better hole cards, but the Cardinals have at least a pair of 7's. If I was Whiz, I would not just let this game play out and try to stay close until the end. I would come out like I was driving a Porsche with a 100lb anvil pinning the gas pedal to the floor. If they can get up early and take the 85% Steeler crowd out of the game and put the Steelers on their heels, it could go towards winning the game. This is not going to be an easy game. The only way it gets ugly is if we get to Warner early and often. Remember Warner in that Giants start when he fumbled 3 times in the first half or something because his head kept hitting the turf? That's what I want to see. I also saw an interesting piece on one of the shows about Ken Whisenhunt being Ben's OC. It was discussed how Whiz knows all of the things Ben doesn't like to do in games. Hopefully he's grown out of those things, but it was just 2 years ago. He will definitely be able to help the defense game plan for Ben. This has nothing to do with my prediction or how we will attack them - that will come later next week. I'm just saying, I hear a lot of people saying Arizona doesn't have a chance. As a huge fan, I want to believe that. As a somewhat knowledgeable football fan, I don't. If Warner has time to throw and gets comfortable, it could be a long day.
On a completely different note - you should catch NFL Network's Live Wire show this week. It's clips from NFL Films with some commentary mixed in. They showcased Ward getting injured and then cheering from the sidelines. It's amazing what you don't get to see during a game. When Limas Sweed dropped the TD pass and finally got up, Ward threw off his cape and started walking towards him screaming "Sweeeeeeeeeeed..........Sweeeeeeeeeeed........." as he motioned for him to come over. I was thinking, Wow, he's going to lay into him..... I couldn't have been more wrong. Ward slapped him on the side of his helmet and said something like "now you have to forget that drop and go play some ball." What leadership. What maturity. I was really impressed. Then they showed Sweed getting the crushing block with Hines yelling approval and also making a clutch 3rd down catch. You wonder if Hines didn't say anything to him if he would've folded like a AAA map. Damn, I love me some Steelers Football.