The question on the minds of a lot of Steelers fans – how will the Steelers attack and cover Cardinals wide out Larry Fitzgerald. All Fitzgerald has done in the playoffs is haul in 23 passes in three games for 419 yards and five touchdowns, three in the NFC Title game vs the Eagles.
It will be up to the Steelers to not allow Fitzgerald, a former college wide out at Pitt, to get off on them early, and set the tempo that could spell a long day for the Steelers defense. Safety Troy Polamalu shared with the media on Monday some of his thoughts on how the team will look to slow down Fitzgerald.
“That’s a tough question because I don’t think anybody has done a very good job of that yet. I’m sure they all have these great game plans for him, but nothing has worked,” Polamalu said Monday after arriving in Tampa. ” You can cover him, but he’s going to out-jump you, he’s going to catch the ball, he’s going to do everything he can to get the ball. That’s what it’s all about. He does a great job of finishing even when the guys are in position to cover him. That’s the only reason I don’t have an answer for you, because maybe our best opportunity is to not let them throw the ball, which has always been the Steelers philosophy. It’s just not giving the quarterback an opportunity to make a good enough throw to him.”
Steelers MVP and NFL Defensive MVP James Harrison likely won’t have to spend much time covering Fitzgerald, but he’ll have the task of trying to put pressure on Kurt Warner most of the day Sunday. Even with that, even he had some words about the talented Cards wide out Monday. “I hope we can stop him. We are sure going to try,” he said. “He has every weapon at his disposal. He has speed. He has great hands and he can jump out of the gym. We just going to hope we can contain him.”
If the Steelers can at least slow him down, it will go a long way in trying to capture that NFL record 6th NFL title.
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Jay
January 28, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I don’t know that you don’t mix up coverages on this guy…In watching the Eagles game, Samuel (an overrated cover corner) played off and doesn’t have the size to play cover one regularly. I say try and play as much cover one on him as possible; meaning, jam him at the line and be ultra physical with him within five yards and, of course, within the rules (we know how refs love the yellow hankies for us…hey…maybe they think they’re terrible towels!)…Anyway, maybe rotate corners on him so that he cannot get a feel for the STYLE of any one corner’s ability to play cover one…When Gay/Townsend are on him, slide Clark or Troy over and maybe put Mcfadden on Breaston and Taylor on Boldin…Try Mcfadden out at times in zone and when Ike is the guy, maybe don’t even double him….Point is, Cards have too many other weapons to focus primarily on Fitz. If Pittsburgh can reduce the amount of time it takes for Fitz (and company) to get in and out of their breaks, maybe the pass rush can get to Warner…Sitting back primarily in zone in this game, I think, would be a mistake…Warner’s seen it all before (yes, even from great D’s like ours)…I believe attacking and being aggressive with Cadinals Offense is the key…Philly didn’t do it and Carolina and Atlanta didn’t either (okay, people, quick digression…is it really any surprise to anyone that Carolina and Atlanta struggled to stop Arizona?!? I mean yeah Carolina had that great running game all year and Atlanta was a turnaround story but NEITHER team, I don’t care how they were ranked, played any significant or substantial defense all year! Philly’s performance was the one that surprised me and they got their shit together in the second half. I attribute Philly’s first half and final minutes defensive woes to being extremely young and relatively inexperienced in their front seven.) I believe that the keys to the game defensively are: stop the run (as always) and rotate defenses on their wideouts to keep the receivers (not necessarily Warner) uncomfortable and, finally, get pressure on Warner. Offensively, if we protect Ben and he performs in this game the way he did in the last two playoff games (S.D., Baltimore)…can you say SIX!