Do the Cardinals Have a Chance?

Here are my thoughts on this year's Super Bowl, originally posted in my blog over at FantasyFootballChamps.com:

I'm not a betting man at all so I had to do some searching to find out what the spread is for Super Bowl XLIII. After some Googling I see that the sportsbooks have the Steelers favored by 6.5 to 7 points and I guess I'm not surprised. The Cardinals are definitely the underdogs in the eyes of the betting public and sports media alike. Again, I won't be betting on this game, but if I were my money would be on the Cards. Do I think the Steelers are the safe bet to win this game? Yes. If these two teams played 10 times, do I think that the Steelers would win more than five of those games? Absolutely. We've all heard that defense wins championships, and no team had a better defense than the Steelers this season.

That being said, the Cardinals have been playing some defense this postseason as well. They have shut down a pretty impressive trio of running games so far this month -- all three of them better than the rushing game that Willie Parker and the Steelers have. The pass defense has yielded the normal number of thouchdown passes (for them) with an average of two per playoff game; however, they have really ratcheted up the takeaways with eight interceptions. Ben Roethlisberger is hardly on a different level than Donovan McNabb and Matt Ryan. We won't talk about Jake Delhomme. And with Hines Ward gimping on a sprained knee, I have to think the Steelers passing game might be borderline inept in Tampa this Sunday.

In other words, if the Cardinals can score more than 20 points in this game, I like their chances of not only covering the spread, but winning the game outright. Heck, Larry Fitzgerald will score at least once so they just have to come up with two more touchdowns. Of course, the Steelers defense could score a defensive touchdown or set up short fields for the offense with takeaways and that could prove to be the difference. In short, I think this is going to be a more interesting game than most people give it a chance of being.

Do the Cardinals have a chance? Hey, I didn't think they'd win any of the three playoff games they've played so far... nothing would surprise me.

So I'm saying there's a chance.

SEE ALSO:
Super Bowl XLIII Preview
Super Bowl Prep

The Case for Fitz

This past Sunday, Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald caught 10 passes for 151 yards against the Seahawks, but he failed to reach the end zone for the third time in his last four games. In spite of his recent scoring drought, Fitzgerald remains on pace to score 10 touchdowns this season and a solid case could be made that he warrants designation as the No. 1 wide receiver in fantasy football. I know his teammate, Anquan Boldin, has caught more touchdown passes this season, and I realize that the Texans Andre Johnson has him by 16 yards.  But I don't think many people realize the rarified air Fitz is on pace to reach if he continues at his current clip.

Specifically, Fitzgerald is on pace for 107 receptions, 1,502 yards, and 10 touchdowns. It would mark the third time in his six-year career that he has reached 100 receptions, 1,400 yards, and 10 touchdowns. 

That got me to wondering how rare it is for a receiver to reach that trio of milestones.  So I started doing some digging and I found that Marvin Harrison has done it four times, Jerry Rice did it three times, and Randy Moss has only done it once.  It took Harrison until he was 30 to reach those levels three times. It took Rice, arguably the best to ever play the game, until he was 33 to do it. Fitzgerald is 25. I can't find anyone else who turned the 100/1,400/10 trick three times before their 26th birthday. If you can, let me know.

Whether you play in a touchdown-only league, performance league, or PPR league, and especially if you play in a keeper league, I can't think of a wide receiver I would rather have on my fantasy team.  I know Boldin is hotter right now and Roddy White has been every bit as good as Fitz this season, but no one can compare to Larry's combination of skill, youth, stats, and consistency.  He will definitely be the No. 1 wide receiver in my rankings heading into next season.