Super
Bowl teams juxtaposed to find the winner
Jesse
Munoz
Everyone
thinks they know who is going to win
Super Bowl XL, but then again they just
aren’t sure.
Folks up in Seattle have to believe this is finally their year. On the other
side of the ball, Steelers fans fully expect to bring home a fifth Super Bowl
Championship.
I have developed a system for picking the winner, using five simple categories
to match the two teams up in a variety of areas before picking a winner.
The first category is head coaches. Based on looks alone, Bill Cowher and his
resemblance to Sgt. Slaughter of GI Joe fame definitely gets the point over
Seattle Coach Mike Holmgren.
The next category is running backs. Hands down the point goes to Seattle and
MVP Shaun Alexander. The 1,800 yards and 27 touchdowns Alexander rushed for
this season makes it easy to award the point to the Seahawks, but that’s
not to say Pittsburgh can’t run the ball. Both Bettis and the younger
Willie Parker have found plenty of success, just not 1,800 yards worth of it.
Next is the all-important quarterback position. Pro-Bowler Matt Hasselbeck
enjoyed a career year in 2005 completing over 65 percent of his attempts, while
amassing over 3,400 yards of passing and 24 touchdowns, most coming with top
receiver Darrell Jackson injured for a majority of the season.
Roethlisberger’s season didn’t include such high offensive numbers,
but while playing with a variety of nagging injuries Big Ben led the Steelers
to three impressive playoff victories over AFC powerhouses Cincinnati, New
England and Denver.
So if the big time stats and big game wins cancel each other out, who gets
the point? The answer, Ben Roethlisberger.
Both teams like to get physical and pound the run, but in 2005 no one did so
better than the Seahawks. Anchored by all-pro offensive tackle Walter Jones
and all-pro guard Steve Hutchinson, Seattle punished its opponents all season
with a relentless running attack. Pittsburgh can certainly run the ball effectively
but just doesn’t seem to dominate the line of scrimmage quite as well.
Chalk up another point for Seattle.
As for the score, look for Pittsburgh to jump out to a quick lead by getting
Bettis an early touchdown in front of his hometown fans, before letting Polamalu
and the defense take things from there. Also don’t be surprised if Polamalu
takes home MVP honors, while leading Pittsburgh to a 24-10 defensive-minded
victory.
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