Every week this season we've analyzed some aspect of line play for Between the Lines. So for the Super Bowl, we are analyzing all aspects of the battle at the line of scrimmage.When you watch the Cardinals defense and try to discover tendencies, or pick out stars and weak spots, you can't help but get tripped up by one glaring problem -- if you go back and watch the Cardinals during the regular season, you feel like you're watching a different team than the one that cruised through the NFC playoffs.
Any story you read this week or any talking head on TV that says they understand what the Cardinals are going to do on Sunday either has a time machine, is absolutely brilliant, or is exaggerating their own abilities. This team is so hot and cold that it's nearly impossible to predict.
In the regular season, the Cardinals didn't generate much pass rush, were mediocre against the run,and had a secondary that provided plenty of big plays -- for the Cardinals and their opponents. But in the postseason, the secondary has tightened its coverage, the pass rush has improved, and the run defense has gotten even better.
But in rewatching the Cardinals' playoff games, plus three games from the regular season (an early season game against the Dolphins, a midseason game against the Giants and a late-season game against the Seahawks), there are some hints as to what to look for on Sunday.
If you follow the NFL closely, you probably know that Darnell Dockett and Adrian Wilson are the defense's stars, and they deserve the accolades. Dockett is a quick defensive end who has the moves to get into the backfield, while Wilson is the man who makes the defense go with his run support and extremely effective blitzes.
But defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergrast deserves a lot of the credit for mixing things up and being willing to experiment. At the start of the season, the Cardinals were a 3-4 defense that mixed in a 4-3 look every now and then just to give offenses something else to worry about. But now they use the 4-3 and 3-4 almost interchangeably, and are really more of a 4-3 team in running situations.
The switch to the 4-3, which happened after Adrian Peterson gashed them for 165 yards late in the season, replaces defensive end/outside linebacker Bertrand Berry with defensive tackle Bryan Robinson. Robinson teams with nose tackle Gabe Watson to give the Cardinals better bulk in the middle, while Antonio Smith and Dockett give the team solid size out as end as well. It's not a particularly effective pass rush lineup, but it has helped stuff the run; in the playoffs the Cardinals have yet to allow 100 yards rushing, shutting down the Falcons' and Panthers' stout running games.The Cardinals defensive line is not filled with stars, but the move to the 4-3 on running downs helps occupy blockers, which allows Arizona's impressive linebackers (Karlos Dansby and Gerald Hayes) to flow to the ball.
Whichever front the Cardinals are in, they will win or lose on Sunday because of their pass coverage. While the Steelers defense is based around pressure, Pendergrast's defense is based first around giving the quarterback nowhere to throw the ball. The Cardinals will often rush three in obvious passing situations, dropping eight into coverage with the idea, something that the Steelers almost never do. But when the Cardinals do bring heat, they go all out. While the Steelers mainly rush five when they blitz, Pendergrast will send six or seven rushers as a regular part of his blitz package, and he's not averse to sending seven with four DBs lined up in man coverage across the field.
When the Cardinals do send six or seven, you can count on seeing Wilson as part of that blitz -- he's easily the NFL's leading sacker among DBs in the past four years, and he's also not as comfortable as the rest of the Cardinals secondary in man coverage. But unlike most defensive backs, Wilson can consistently beat a back or tight end in blitz pickup, so Arizona is happy to get him matched up on a back. What Pittsburgh has to watch for is where Wilson is lined up pre-snap. Unlike Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu, Wilson does not have the speed to fake a blitz before getting back to a deep zone responsibility, so if Wilson is up near the line pre-snap, it's a safe bet that he's either rushing or covering a shallow zone.
It's a risky gambit to rely so much on the team's man coverage skills, but because the Cardinals send three so often, it has worked this postseason. If a team goes max protect to prepare for an all-out blitz, they are just as likely to find seven blockers handling three rushers, and when that happens, there are very few open receivers. But if you don't prepare for the seven-man rush on a third-and-10, you're running the risk of a sack, or at best, a quick hot read throw that may not get a first down.
Arizona doesn't have the pass rushers to really generate pressure when they send three, but with Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Roderick Hood and Antrel Rolle, they are able to make up for that with tight coverage. Rolle moved inside to safety last year because he struggled in coverage at cornerback, but he still has better man coverage skills than your average free safety to go along with excellent tackling. Rodgers-Cromartie spent the entire NFC Championship game covering DeSean Jackson -- Philadelphia's biggest threat at wide receiver. In the Super Bowl, it would make the most sense for Rodgers-Cromartie to cover Santonio Holmes, because Holmes is the Steelers' big-play receiver, but if that happens, expect to see the Steelers try to pick on Hood with Hines Ward, if Ward's healthy enough to be effective.
| SACK LEADERS | |
| Bertrand Berry | 7 |
| Antonio Smith | 6 |
| Chike Okeafor | 5 |
| Adrian Wilson | 4.5 |
| Karlos Dansby | 4 |
| Travis LaBoy | 4 |
| * Stats include postseason | |
But what the Cardinals do have is a slew of players who are all capable of getting a sack. Berry led the Cardinals with five sacks during the regular season and he's had two more during the playoffs. He will be the Steelers' biggest worry, as he has the speed to give left tackle Max Starks some problems, especially because he also has a decent counter move where he flies upfield, then cuts back inside if the left tackle overplays him to the outside.
Dockett had four sacks during the regular season, and he's still the Cardinals best all-around defensive lineman, but he doesn't seem to have the same burst in his legs that he did early in the year. When watching him in the Dolphins game, Dockett was making plays on the offense's side of the line of scrimmage. Now, he's still active and he's still running down plays all over the field, but he isn't getting the same penetration any more.
If you're looking for the mismatches or tendencies to watch for, keep an eye on the Cardinals' tendency to use an X-blitz with their inside linebackers. With the X-blitz, the team sends both inside linebackers on a blitz that is effective against both the run and the pass. The first linebacker shoots a center-guard gap expecting to be picked up, but the play is designed so that the second linebacker, crossing behind him, comes free. The Cardinals use it a lot, and it could take advantage of the Steelers' offensive line's difficulties in figuring out who to block in blitz pickup. But working against the Cardinals is the fact that the Steelers have been running that blitz for years, so the Steelers offensive line should be well-versed in seeing it in action during preseason practices.
Because of the Steelers' troubles with blocking assignments, it's also worth watching to see if Pendergrast brings more men up to the line than they normally do. The Cardinals normally set up their linebackers seven to eight yards off the line of scrimmage. If they do that, their blitzes are delayed blitzes by necessity, which gives the quarterback some time to adjust and get rid of the ball. But in the playoffs, the Cardinals have used more formations where six or seven men are bunched at the line. They don't all come, but it does create some hesitation among offensive linemen.
The Cardinals defense can not compare with the Steelers' D, but then the Steelers offense doesn't compare with the Cardinals' O either. On Sunday, we'll find out if these last three Cardinals games were a sign that Arizona has fixed its regular season problems, or just a good stretch from a mediocre D.
