Ben's Bowl?

This year Ben has piled up the most wins for a QB in his first 5 years. He already is the youngest QB to win a Super Bowl. He has been to 3 AFC Championship in his first 5 years. Not quite Tom Brady but certainly very impressive.

The fact is Ben is a bona fide leader and on is way to a Hall of Fame career. And while he will never put up mind boggling stats he will win. That is what he is, a winner.

His first Super Bowl was XL against the Seattle Seahawks. Which in some ways mirrors the present scenario. However he did not play that well in that Super Bowl. In fact he explained at Media Day that he was a bit overwhelmed by the scope of that game. And yet he was able to keep his team, who had hit a bit of an offensive snag, to keep plugging away. He wants a redemption of sorts in this game.

Interestingly it is against his old offensive coordinator that he plans to do it. Ben and Bruce Arians have spent the last 2 years revamping the “Whiz” offense. They have changed the verbiage and given Ben more leash and it has made him very comfortable. Sometimes too comfortable. But the holding onto the ball habit has been exaggerated by ineffective and inconsistent Offensive line play. In fairness to the maligned O-line, they have shown some improvement as the year progressed. I would like to see more of an aggressive push in the rushing attempts to get this game won.

Facing the Cardinals, Ben will be facing inferior defensive play compared to the Baltimore's, the New England's, the Philadelphia's, the Tennessee's and the NY Giants he has faced to get here. Make no mistake about it though Ben and the coaching staff will not take them lightly and they shouldn't.

That said the game plan should be simple to me. Nevertheless I would change things up a bit in this way. I would come out swinging for the fence. That's right, the ball control smash mouth Steelers need to hit Nate Washington or Santonio “puffy” Holmes on a fly route right out of the gate. 1 st and bomb baby! Whisenhunt knows they will take a shot but not on first downs.

I am not suggesting that the Steelers should not run the football, because they should. Fact is they are not as efficient at carrying the rock as a Steelers team usually is. And yet they have the home run hitter back in Willie Parker and a nice mix of Mewelde Moore and short yardage man Gary Russell to get something done. As I mentioned above, running is an attitude and the O-line needs to assert themselves and snort while they are doing it.

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At this point the Steelers are what they are. And that is a great team with a few deficiencies. So here is what needs to happen.

As I suggested above, I would like to see a few deep throws that they already have, attempted early. Aside from that as Mike Tomlin said at Media Day, you need to stick with the identity that got you here. Which is a nice mix of power runs, little dump offs to Moore, the usual array of mid range and out patterns, and the slants and hash mark passes to Holmes, Washington and Miller. And hopefully Ward may go which could be huge.

Keys are long sustained drives, touchdowns and not field goals, 3 rd down conversions, and no turnovers. And the predictable vise grip defense.

The All Universe defense needs to get to Warner fast, because he makes fast decisions. I also think they should use some blitz formations as decoys. They also need to be very physical for 60 minutes. Do not let Fitzgerald hurt you.

This is going to be great! More review to come.

By Andy Natalie
ProFootball-fans.com Pittsburgh Steelers Correspondent