I've seen some ideas put forth that it will be the Steeler offense vs. the Cardinal defense that will decide the outcome of Super Bowl XLIII. The feeling being that the powerful Cardinal offense and the smothering Steeler defense will wash each other out. Leaving the lesser known units of each team to decide the contest. This theory has a great deal of merit. But I don't think Dick LeBeau is going to let that happen. I think he will come up with a grand scheme to throttle that high powered offense and make them play Steeler football.
It will come down to what personnel the Steelers employ on the field in down and distance situations, particularly passing situations. We know the Steelers can shut down ANY team's running game and Arizona's run game is not top notch to begin with. If Whisenhunt abandons the run quickly as I suspect he will, the personnel packages we use to react to this change will dictate the game. How soon does LeBeau pull Casey Hampton? How soon does he pull Larry Foote, a great run stopper but a liability in the pass coverage?
We cannot stop Arizona's passing attack in our base 3-4. Nobody knows that better than Whisenhunt. But fortunately for us, we do have the personnel who can stop them. Here's what I expect, and something you should watch for.
As soon as LeBeau recognizes that the Cardinals recognize running the ball is futile, he will make personnel and thus scheme changes to take away Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin. First thing is to remove Fat Casey. Instead, the pass rush will still be provided by 4 players but they will be Kiesel, Smith, Harrison, and Woodley. That leaves 7 men to drop into coverage. Larry Foote should then be replaced by the much faster Lawrence Timmons. Making the coverage linebackers Farrior and Timmons. That leaves us with 5 defensive backs being Ike Taylor, Troy Polamalu, Ryan Clark, Bryant McFadden, and either DeShea Townsend or William Gay.
If this scheme can provide enough pressure on Warner, mistakes will be made by the Cardinals and turnovers will ensue. We may have to rush 5 to get sufficient pressure but that still leaves 6 men in coverage. And as little man coverage as possible. Warner chokes like a lawn mower outta gas when facing complex zones. He's not going to get fooled like Joe Flacco. But we can make him indecisive and that may be good enough.
That's what I think Dick will do. We shall see...
