Nick picks six
Tuesday 1 February 2011 16:06, UK
Nick Halling looks at the men he thinks will have a massive say in Super Bowl XLV, starting with Pittsburgh.
The men who might make a difference on Super Bowl Sunday
The greatest show on turf is almost here, folks! This Sunday, live on Sky Sports HD, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers will slug it out in Super Bowl XLV in Dallas. Nick Halling will be our man in Cowboys Stadium for the game but before he went we asked him to single out the six men who will make a difference for each team, three on offense, three on defense. As a Steelers fan we let Nick loose on Pittsburgh first, so here are the six men he thinks can win - or lose - the Super Bowl...Defense
Troy Polamalu (Strong Safety) - It's an obvious choice but despite that Achilles problem he's had all season he is still the X-Factor that makes the defense tick. If he's 100 per cent healthy he can do a lot of damage but he has been noticeably quiet in the post-season; I am hoping he has been saving himself because if he is fully fit, he can be the difference, but to have a Polamalu in there who is not making plays is essentially just another safety. They spread him all over the coverage scheme, line him up on the line of scrimmage - although on Sunday they might even drop him deep to help those cornerbacks deal with the speed of Greg Jennings.
James Farrior (Inside Linebacker) - He is the veteran, the leader on this defense. Polamalu and the linebackers are the ones that get all the publicity but it's Farrior that is calling all the signals and is very much the glue that holds everything together. His primary role is as a run-stopping linebacker but the Packers are not a particularly strong running team - although they will try - so it will be interesting to see how he does if he drops back into coverage. He's 25 now and still pretty mobile but his coverage skills are not the best in the NFL. An unquestioned leader but it will be interesting to see how they deploy him and how his coverage skills match up if he does drop back.
Brett Keisel (Defensive End) - The three guys on the defensive line tend fo be unsung heroes, their job is to go up against the blockers, contain the running game and just do the general dirty work that allows the outside linebackers to be the glory hunters. If those three guy don't do their job, the Steelers scheme will fall apart. They lost their other defensive end Aaron Smith earlier in the season but since then Keisel has really elevated his game and it's almost like he's taken personal responsibility to make sure those big three up front do their job. He has grown a beard that he is not going to shave until after Super Bowl and they have sold a lot of t-shirts saying 'Fear the Beard'. Well, Green Bay should - he has to be a disruptive influence on the line of scrimmage.
Offense
Doug Legursky (Center) - Pittsburgh keep saying Maurkice Pouncey is going to be okay but realistically he won't. Legursky came in for him in the Championship game and had a couple of fumbled snaps - which you kind of expect - but I don't see that being a big issue because he will have had two weeks to iron things out. But he is not a particularly strong run blocker which is a major downgrade on that offensive line because if Pittsburgh can't run, it really does hurt them offensively. It will also be interesting to see how Legursky holds up in pass protection against that big old lump BJ Raji and guys like Ryan Pickett as well. The Packers have expressed confidence in him but it's the tea-bag syndrome; you don't know what you've got until you put it in hot water - and he will be in hot water on Sunday. It doesn't help that he's their fourth back-up this season and if someone else goes down, they've only got one guy they can bring in to that line.
Heath Miller (Tight End) - If the pass rush is, as expected, ferocious he is going to have a duel job. He's going to have to help with protection, which he is pretty good at anyway, but he's also going to have to get open and get out into the flats or into the underneath zone and be the safety blanket, if you like, for Ben Roethlisberger. Miller is a very under-rated tight end in as much as there are a lot with good hands, a lot who are good blockers but this guy combines both very, very effectively. Given the state of that Packers offensive line, his contribution on Sunday is going to need to be huge if the Steelers are going to win the game. He is one of those playmakers at tight end and offers more flexibility in the passing game rather than a solid pair of hands on third down.
Ben Roethlisberger (Quarterback) - His stats don't stand up that well when you compare him to other quarterbacks, including AaronRodgers, but when it comes to Big Ben they do not tell half the story. What you get with him is a real competitor, a guy who takes hit upon hit and keeps coming back for more. You also get a guy who knows how to pull it out of the fire and has done so on many, many occasions. That is what makes him so important to the Steelers because as good as they are, that defense cannot win games alone and they do need a guy that can stand tall and be counted. We know Green Bay are going to get to him, he knows it and they know it as well, but do they know how to take him down? That will be the key here because he knows how to survive once that pocket has collapsed but if those Packers linebackers can tie him up and he can't get on his bike, it could be another tough Super Bowl for Roethlisbeger.
