An early breakdown of Super Bowl XLIII
America, are you ready for the Wiz Bowl?
That’s what we’ve got in two weeks, a Super Bowl matchup littered with NFL incest and historical intrigue. The Arizona-Pittsburgh cross-pollination goes back to the winter of ‘06. When Bill Cowher called it a career in Pittsburgh after 16 years as head coach, the media all but assumed offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt or longtime offensive line coach Russ Grimm would take the reins. Keep it in-house, and continue the Steeler tradition.
Alas, the media were wrong. Mike Tomlin, a defensive coordinator with the Vikings for just one year, got the gig instead. An outsider, but a fresh face. Whisenhunt took the news (and rejection) in stride, eventually taking over for Dennis Green in Arizona as the new coach of the Cardinals. He brought Grimm — also feeling the sting of rejection — with him as his offensive line coach and assistant head coach. It would be “Steelers West” in Glendale.
Here we are, less than two years later, and coaches Wiz and Grimm are up against Mike Tomlin and the Steelers. Though some of the offensive personnel Whisenhunt and Grimm helped lead to a Super Bowl title in 2005 has changed over the past three years, the core — Ben Roethlisberger, Willie Parker, Hines Ward, Heath Miller — still remain. If any two men know those guys and their strengths and weaknesses — it’s Whisenhunt and Grimm.
If Raiders-Bucs was the Gruden Bowl, then Cardinals-Steelers is undoubtedly the Wiz Bowl. Giddy up.
Who’s got the edge in Super Bowl XLIII? Let’s do a VERY EARLY breakdown.
The last time they played
Last season, a 3-0 Steelers team made the trip out to Glendale for the first “Wiz Bowl.” A true turning point of the Whisenhunt-era Cardinals took place in the third quarter of this one, as Kurt Warner replaced a struggling Matt Leinart early in the second half. Warner led the troops back, connecting with Jerheme Urban on a crucial 6-yard TD pass to tie the game at 7. Leinart would eventually return and help lead the Cardinals to their second win of the season. A quirky 21-14 win, it showed Arizona fans two things: One, the Cardinals could compete with the big boys, and two, Kurt Warner still had a little something left in that rocket arm of his. How much stock do you take in a Week 4 game that was played over a year ago? I’d say not much, but if you’re in that Cardinals locker room, you at least know you can line up with the big dogs. Heck, you’ve done it before. And you’ve won.
The passing game
Who’s got the edge at QB in this one? That’s a tough one. Both Kurt Warner and Ben Roethlisberger have won Super Bowls and enter this year’s showdown playing at the top of their games. By leading Arizona to a conference championship and its first Super Bowl berth, Kurt Warner becomes the third quarterback to play in Super Bowls at least seven years apart (Craig Morton and John Elway are the other too). He’s 7-2 in postseason games. So is Roethlisberger. As strong a few weeks as Big Ben’s had, Warner’s in an altogether different zone. It will take a Herculean effort from the Pittsburgh D to put the clamps on him and Larry Fitzgerald. Of course, if any unit can put one together, it’s Dick Lebeau’s Steel Curtain D.
EDGE: ARIZONA
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