In case anyone out there has been living under a rock lately, the NFL is about to finish the season (sniff) and play that Super Bowl thing that they do. The end of the season—nooooooooo!!! Man, the prospect of seven months with no football is always daunting.
For the teams, there’s a lot on the line. The Cards can end their 61-year drought. The Steelers can become the only franchise to win 6 Super Bowls. But what’s on the line for me and Al? Well, not a lot.
Now, I was a little under .500 for the season before the last round of bowls and the playoffs. But I went 9-3 in the last round of bowl games and so far I’m 8-2 in the playoffs—that’s a serious roll for me. Al went 7-5 in the last round of bowls and is 5-5 in the playoffs. Now, if we drop both of our best and worst week of the NFL regular season, I am now a combined 138-125-7 and Al is 126-136-7. If we include all picks, I’m 153-139-7, or +14 for the season and Al is 136-142-7, or -8 for the season. So, no matter how you slice it, the Super Bowl won’t be the deciding factor, I’ve got the season locked up.
Nonetheless, we should still pick the big game.
Arizona Cardinals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers(-6.5)
Obviously, the big story is the Cardinals’ big-play offense vs. the Steelers’ top-ranked defense. Frankly, my take on this is that those two factors will mostly cancel each other out; I don’t think the Steelers will stop ‘em, but nor will the Cards roll it up big, I see the Cardinals scoring a pretty normal total, somewhere in the high teens to low 20s. So, how much will the Steelers score? Well, frankly, I’m not that impressed with the Cardinals defense. It’s certainly not better than the Ravens’ defense or the Chargers’ defense, and the Steelers did OK against both of them. Yes, they got a special teams TD against the Bolts and an interception return against Baltimore, but overall I just like the Steelers’ offense better than the Cards’ defense.
Plus, there’s the Willie Parker rule. I mean, really, why stop now?