Does great offense trump great defense? Anybody in Chicago who watched Michael Jordan terrorize the league’s best perimeter defenders every night would say so. Anyone who has watched Alex Rodriguez win intense battles at the plate for the New York Yankees against Cy Young winners would say so. Anybody who remembers the smooth skating of Wayne Gretzky would say so. So, in this upcoming Super Bowl will the explosive Cardinals offense be able to overcome the dominating Steelers defense?

The first question is how great is the Arizona Cardinals offense? Kurt Warner has been playing like his days with the Greatest Show on Turf at times and like a 37-year-old quarterback playing a young man’s game many others. Of late he has been much closer to great than old. This last weekend his numbers were very impressive. He completed 21 of 28 passes for 279 for four touchdowns and zero interceptions.

Beyond the numbers, looking at the third quarter, it looked like a different story and a possible preview of the big game on February 1st. He was frustrated, throwing the ball away or playing happy feet as the Eagles defenders bore down on him. Nobody was open and the Cardinals let an inspired Eagles offense get back into the game.

The Steelers will be bringing that kind of pressure all game long, along with the kind of coverage that will even leave his checkdowns closed down in the flats. The counter argument is that Anquan Boldin was in limited use because of his hamstring injury. He, whether yelling at offensive coordinator Todd Haley or not, is a powerful component in the Cards offense.

Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald are the kind of receivers that demand double coverage. Add in a slot receiver (Steve Breaston) that could start for any team in the NFL and any secondary coach’s head is swimming in a nightmare of matchups that will surely find some poor linebacker against a speedy receiver.

Still, without a running game that is consistently dominant, is the Arizona still one of the greatest shows on Earth? Tim Hightower and Edgerrin James have been hitting the holes when it counts, but have hardly demanded the attention of seven men in the box.

Now, the greatness of the Cardinals is in question. The tremendous, historic greatness of the Pittsburgh Steelers is not. The Steelers brutally ripped the Ravens into nevermore in the AFC Championship game. They picked Flacco off three times, they forced three fumbles and recovered one, and they sacked the rookie quarterback four times along with countless other pressures and knockdowns.

The Ravens offense is hardly the Cardinals, but the team has handled the San Diego Chargers high scoring attack as well the Giants and the Texans. The Steelers averaged allowing only 237.2 yards a game of total offense and only 13.9 points a game. The average team allowed 100 more yards a game and another touchdown. The pass rush is merciless and the secondary will cover you or jar the ball looses with a safety smash. This club is one win away from entering the running for the best defense ever to take the field.

The one place the D is not top notch is in takeaways. While many clubs ball hawk and use a bend but not break approach, the Steelers simply stop the line of scrimmage moving anywhere but backwards. This tendency might actually give the Cardinals a chance if they turn this into a high scoring affair. That said, I am a fan of both teams. It is the Arena League with top notch talent versus gruesome gridiron football.

Perhaps the real question is in the less celebrated parts of each team, the inconsistent offense in Pittsburgh or the questionable defense in Arizona. I just want to believe that this will come down to the strengths and that this will be a remarkable math up of two wills, the will of the terrorizing Steelers defense and the will of the uncontainable Cardinals offense.

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