Old vs. New

The Steelers are there again, pounding their chests, waving their penalty flags (a.k.a terrible towels) and admiring themselves in the mirror as they do so. They’ve resumed their customary place on the podium to remind the world – lest any of us have forgotten – that they feel quite at home at the Super Bowl and they intend to get comfortable as quickly as possible. Yet, while all this bravado goes on in the limelight, there’s Mr. LaBeau tinkering in his workshop, preparing for the big one.

He’s dusted off the 2005 Bengals blueprint, but marked out the name and wrote in its place: 2008 Cardinals. There are plenty of similarities: dynamic receivers, a good-enough ground-game and a quarterback who knows his system well. The difference is that Kurt Warner can get the ball out quickly and adjust to three-step drops if the pressure gets too heavy, while our boy, Carson, has rarely shown that kind of craftsmanship. Alas, Dick knows how to go about this.

Against a deep-threat passing attack, I look for LeBeau not to bring the house when blitzing, but send a different blitzer on each play. If he can’t simply unleash the hounds – like he does against run-first teams – he’ll have to disguise his blitzes and rely on some of the bigger guys to occasionally drop back into coverage. It’s what made him famous and against a team like Arizona, he gets to show off a little.

If the Cardinals are smart – and they certainly seem to be on to something – they will look to run up the middle on draw plays, in hopes of catching a hole where a lineman has dropped back to play the pass. Then, once Pittsburgh brings more players to the middle on running downs, the Cardinals can work the passing plays along the sidelines. It will only work for so long before LeBeau adjusts, but it could be a way to get early points in a game that shouldn’t produce many.

The other priority when facing Pittsburgh is running backs and tight ends blocking the extra blitzers. Because of LeBeau’s sneaky attack, it can be hard for teams to identify what’s going on in time, which leads to turnovers, sacks, chaos and a busted knee. It’s up to the eloquent Edgerin James, the motorboat Tim Hightower and others to get a clue against the zone-blitz.

Pittsburgh doesn’t need an offense to win Super Bowls, yet they employ one, and it’s rather mediocre at that. No matter. Rothlisberger will rumble around the backfield, dragging people around his ankles, find the nudist, Santonio Holmes, for improvised first-downs and Willie Parker will get a couple of big runs. No surprises here.

The script is an old one. The recipe’s been in the family for years; they’ve only added ketchup recently. The Steelers do what has become expected of them and the rest of us have to walk around with our heads down, bitching about it.

Of course it’s fair. They have a bigger brain than the others. Even in a bone-crunching sport played by flatheaded brutes, it’s still a thinking-man’s game.

Pittsburgh 20, Arizona 13

Mojokong –– Dispatched beneath the great ice storm of 2009.

"Well, say, this beats croquet. There's more go about it!" – Samuel Clemens on football.