Arizona Cardinals Vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (-6.5) — 6:00 PM Eastern NBC

At Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay

Although the Cardinals have done their best impersonation of the New York Giants of last year, I once again see this Cinderella story coming to an unhappy ending if you are a Cardinal fan.  Despite being wrong on the Cards in their prior three games, I still feel they will not only lose, but also not cover due to their defense.  The Cardinal defense has been pretty bad all year long during the regular season, giving up over 28 points per game, over 330 yards per game and basically has been a huge liability as the Cards etched out a 9-7 record against a debatably easy schedule.  During the postseason the defense has morphed into a different unit thus far holding the very capable offenses of the Falcons, Vikings, & Eagles to 62 points in all (20.7 per game) and has a turnover ratio of +9 in the post season compared to a ratio of +/- zero during the regular season.  While I won’t be surprised to see this unit pull off another great game and make me wrong again, I see the odds of it being extremely low.

I have much more faith in the swarming Pitt D who ranked at the top of the NFL in almost every category (13.9 ppg, 237 yards allowed, etc.).  I do think Fitzgerald has a good game as he is on fire right now, but Warner’s game will be mixed with some good and bad plays as the Pittsburgh Steelers D handcuffs Warner by putting a lot of pressure on him.  I also think the Cardinals running game will give the Steelers no problems at all.

Big Ben might be the popular choice for MVP for many but I see Big Ben having a good but not great game, but instead the running game doing the most damage leaving Willie Parker and perhaps Troy Polumalu left to fight it out over MVP as I expect the Steeler D to make some plays as well.  I don’t expect a blow out but I never feel comfortable with an under (46.5) on a Super Bowl so I’m not touching that, but I do predict a 2 touchdown victory for the Steelers with a score of roughly:  Steelers 27, Cardinals 13

Even if the Steelers don’t cover, I will be happy with a Steeler victory as it is a well known fact to those in the stock market that a Steelers victory in the past has brought an average return of 25% for the year in the stock market.  While it might sound a little far fetched statistically it works out (see link below) and the market definitely could use a boost this year after what we just had last year.

http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/01-28-2009/0004962079&EDATE=