It doesn't get any bigger than this fellas.

Wow, it's officially Super Bowl morning and I thought Christmas morning was good. We're less than 9 hours from kickoff and I'm already anxiously awaiting kickoff. Here's ten things I guarantee you we'll see out of the Arizona Cardinals today (ok, maybe not guaranteed, but you might entice me into a bet). Use this as ROTB's official prediction and pre-game thread.

1. Darnell Dockett will have a monster game. He's a big-game player and he'll spend plenty of time in the Steelers' backfield. 
2. DRC will shine on the big stage. He'll hold Santonio Holmes under 40 yards and out of the endzone. He'll also get his hands on at least one pass.
   
3. Ben Roethlisberger will be sacked more times that Kurt Warner and Big Ben will have a fumble.
   
4. Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin will combine for over 150 yards recieving and they'll catch at least two touchdowns.
   
5. Antrel Rolle will have a big play and I'm thinking that it might be on offense (the crystal ball is fuzzy on this one for some reason).
   
6. Larry Fitzgerald will catch a pass from Anquan Boldin.
   
7. Travis LaBoy will pick up his first sack since early October (now that is fearless) and he'll strip Roethlisberger on the sack.
   
8. Adrian Wilson will tackle Santonio Holmes in the backfield as he's attempting to throw the ball.
   
9. Anquan Boldin and Todd Haley hug on the sidelines in the fourth quarter.
   
10. Last but certainly not least: The Arizona Cardinals walk out of Tampa with thier first Super Bowl Title.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.....Time can't move fast enough and I can't think about anything but tomorrow's big game. In an effort whet my football appetite, here's your chance to pick the Super Bowl Champion. It's as simple as that, I've listed a couple of obvious choices tell us why you picked your choice or put your write-in-candidate in the comments.

We've covered key matchups for the Arizona Cardinals in several different posts and looked at some key players who will impact Sunday's Super Bowl. Kickoff is just over 48 hours away and the time for talk is almost over (notice I said almost). Before it gets too late though let's take a look at what the Cardinals have to do to beat the Steelers.

Win the Battle of the Big Play: In the regular season the Steelers weren't much of a big play threat, but things have changed drastically in the post season. In 469 pass attempts during the regular season Ben Roethlisberger had seven completions of 40 yards or more, but in the post season he's managed three such plays on just 59 pass attempts. The Steelers offense has scored 44 points in the post season and 17 of those points were the direct result of a completion of 40 yards or more. The Steelers are executing their play action passes to perfection and Ben is finally healthy enough to throw the ball deep. Antrel Rolle and cornerbacks Dominique Rodgers Cromartie and Roderick Hood will have to commit themselves to keeping the Steelers wide outs in front of them.

Win the Battle on Third Down: The Cardinals offense has been good all season at extending drives thanks to the poise and accuracy of Kurt Warner, but they've gotten even better in the post season. They've converted 47% of their third down attempts in the post season (best percentage in the playoffs), but the Steelers defense is one of the best at getting off the field as well. Extending drives and keeping the Steelers defense on the field as long as possible will pay dividends for the entire Cardinals team. Their defense will have to be fresh in the fourth quarter so that the Steelers can't just line up and pound them with the ground game.

Force Big Ben to Beat You: It may sound odd think that Ben is the weak link in the Steelers chain, but he hasn't shown that he can consistently carry the Steelers offense this season. He's a much better quarterback when they run the ball and he's able to effectively run play action passes. When he starts to get flustered a bit though he tends to press himself into making a play. Sometimes it works beautifully for the Steelers, but often times it ends in him taking a brutal hit for a big sack. It's a risky proposition but I think that if you put the game in his hands and force him to make plays, he'll eventually make a critical mistake.

Expect the Unexpected and Be the Unexpected: No one holds anything back in this game and the Cardinals shouldn't act any different just because they've never been here. Ken Whisenhunt and Todd Haley have proved to be a master of the gadget play and there's no reason that they shouldn't empty their bag of tricks. At the same time, they also shouldn't be surprised if the Steelers pull out some trickeration. They haven't shown many 'gadget plays' under Mike Tomlin but if there was ever a time to pull a rabbit out of the hat, Sunday will be the day.

There are countless other obvious keys (protect the football and don't give up cheap points) that we could hash over, but only one other keeps sticking out in my mind: Enjoy the Moment but Don't be Satisfied. I fully expect to see some tears from the Cardinals players during the national anthem (and I can't promise that I won't shed a man-tear myself), but when anthem is over and helmets get strapped on, it's time to go to work. If the Arizona Cardinals want a championship, they have to give a championship effort for a full 60 minutes. What else do they have to do in order to fly home from Tampa with a Lombardi Trophy?

Friday is normally the day that sports writers print/post their picks for the weekends' game and even though the Super Bowl is the only game in the world this weekend, they're still posting their picks today. I've got to say I'm pretty surprised by the love/respect that the Arizona Cardinals are getting. Maybe they're just trying to convince fans that it'll be good game or maybe they've all become ROTB readers and we've convinced them that these Cardinals are for real (I'd like to believe the latter). Whatever the reason, I hope that the players don't pick up a paper and they just keep the "us against the world" mentality.

• Sports Illustrated has ten guys picking the game and six of them are picking the Cardinals to win. Only one guy has the margin of victory (either way) by more than 7, and he picked the Cardinals to win. 
• ESPN has 16 guys who picked the game and four of them pick the Cardinals, but only three guys have the Steelers winning by more than one score. 
• Scouts Inc (same link but further down the page) has seven picks and two of them pick the Cardinals and the widest margin of victory is seven. 
• The last of the ESPN picks that includes analysts and editors includes 12 picks and half of them are going with the Cardinals. The best description I've read so far was in these picks by someone named Sheldon Spencer who says the Cardinals will win 30-27 and "Neil Rackers wins the game with a 50-yard field goal in the final minute." (If it comes down to a long, long Rackers kick, I'll have a heart attack, no seriously.)
• Yahoo Sports has four picks with one guy backing the Cardinals, but they don't provide scores. 
• USA Today has eight picks and they're split right down the middle at 4-4. Two guys have the Steelers winning by double digits and one guy has the Cardinals winning by 10.

By my grade school math that's roughly 43.4% of the picks going the Cardinals way. Not that it means a single thing to the game itself, but it's more than I would have expected. So what's the point of all this you might ask? Well it's your turn to put your prediction on paper (so to speak). Leave your prediction about who will win and score.

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Also for anyone looking for a great Larry Fitzgerald piece of memoribilia regarding the Super Bowl, check out his poster from EAS. You can order the poster from EAS for just $10 and all of the net proceeds go to his First Down Fund. His fund actively promotes the health and education of children of their families.

Anyone who plays the Steelers hears about and game plans against James Harrison, and rightly so. The 2008 NFL Defensive Player of the Year is a pass rushing demon who not only got to the quarterback 16 times during the regular season, but he also caused a league leading seven forced fumbles. He's not the only guy that Kurt Warner and the Arizona Cardinals' offensive line will have to watch on Sunday though because LaMarr Woodley has had a great post season. As teams geared up to shut down Harrison, they in turn left Woodley in more one-on-one situations and he's made them pay. He's recorded two sacks in every post season games during his career (one last year and two this year) and he's now recorded 15.5 sacks in 17 games this season. Just for the record, he's the only player in NFL history with three consecutive multi-sack games in the post season.

Containing Woodley will the responsibility of Levi Brown, for the most part. He'll no doubt get some help at times, but he'll also have plenty of downs where it's mano-a-mano. Woodley is a big OLB (6'2 265), quick off the ball and he packs a powerful first punch, but he doesn't have the pure, straight line speed of Harrison. That's good news for Brown though because his biggest weakness is speed rushers, but he normally has the size and strength to hold his own against rushers who rely on power. Woodley wasn't the starter last year when the Steelers came to Arizona and he didn't play much early in the season, but that doesn't mean that they've never faced each other. Woodley went to school at Michigan and the two locked up a couple of times when Brown was at Penn State.

Whether or not Levi Brown can handle Woodley without constant help will be a big key for the Cardinals. Mike Gandy is likely to have his hands full on the other side and if they can keep the tight end or running back help on his side, it'll keep Warner more comfortable in the pocket. The Cardinals offense won't be able to execute the way that they want to if both offensive tackles need help containing their defenders, so the onus falls on Levi Brown. It's been said several times that Russ Grimm loved Brown's intensity and nastiness when he was coming out of Penn and he'll need every bit of that on Sunday. Can he hold his own?

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Heading into the playoffs everyone expected the Arizona Cardinals to live and die by the right arm of Kurt Warner. That seemed like a safe assumption considering that Warner threw for the over 4,500 yards (2nd in the league) and only two QBs threw more times per game, but the offense as a whole struggled down the stretch. The offense finished the season respectably ranked third in points per game and fourth in yards per game, but it was obvious that something was missing. The Cardinals ground game stumbled to the end of the season ranked dead last in yards per game (73.6), attempts per game (21.2) and almost dead last, 31st, in yards per attempt (3.5). So there's no way the Cardinals got any production out of their running game right?

Well not exactly. The Cardinals played musical chairs with the starting running back again and rested and refreshed Edgerrin James has led the way averaging 67.7 yards per game in the playoffs while running game as a whole is averaging 111.0 yards per game. So why are they suddenly so effective on the ground? Let's take a look....

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