The Luxurious Troy Polamalu

"With all due respect, I honestly think Troy Polamalu is probably the greatest player I’ve ever played with or even seen play in person. The things that he did in my four years of being there … he’s jumping over the line of scrimmage at the snap of the ball. He’s tackling runners in the backfield. He’s jumping up, intercepting the ball one handed [and] returning it for touchdowns. Keeping the ball away from him … can definitely keep him from disrupting our team." - Santonio Holmes

As a New York fan, I have been nervous going into each playoff matchup. First, the Jets had to beat Peyton Manning and the Colts. Before the Wild Card game, Rex Ryan could not figure out how to stop Manning, losing five straight games as the coach of his teams' defenses. Rex finally got a win last year in a game that the Colts laid down for. Even though Rex made it personal to amp up his team, somehow it worked.

Then came a trip to Foxboro where the Jets last walked away with their tails between their legs.

45-3.

Playoff teams are not supposed to lose that badly. Again, Rex made it personal and the rest of the team followed suit and talked so much trash that their training facility in Florham Park started to smell like the Staten Island Dump. Few believed the Jets could back up that much talk with a victory, but Rex definitely outcoached and the Jets outplayed.

Now they head to the Steel City and I am nervous for only one reason. His name is Troy Polamalu. His hair is luxuriously large and his talent is even bigger. He is clearly the best defensive player left in the playoffs. I would put Polamalu just above Ed Reed as the best defensive player in all of football. He just knows what the QB is thinking and where the ball will be thrown before the QB thinks of it. Just as the best QB's in the league can read a defense, Polamlu can read the offense.

The Jets have already proven they can take down the two best quarterbacks in the NFL in consecutive weeks. While Ben Roethlisberger is a good QB, he's no Peyton or Brady. Big Ben has had the good fortune, just as Eli Manning had and Mark Sanchez is having, of playing on a team with an excellent defense. Aside from rings, tell me the difference between Sanchez and Big Ben. Both play for teams with superb defenses, both can evade sacks pretty well, both have made big plays when it matters and both have played well in the playoffs. (Big Ben: 9-2, Sanchez: 4-1) Sure, Sanchez needs to cut down on the turnovers, but if the Jets can stop Peyton and Brady, especially in the 2nd half, why wouldn't they be able to stop Ben?

Proof of Ben being worthless is how this season and last season played out. This year, the team was minus Big Ben for four games because of his off-the-field struggles with keeping his pants on. The Steelers barely noticed. Last year, Polamalu was injured and the team suffered pretty badly. Make no mistake, teams win games, not just QB's. Eli won his Super Bowl because of his defense, as did Big Ben. Sure, both needed to play well and make ridiculous plays, but their respected defenses shut down the undefeated Patriots, who broke records for offense, and the Cardinals, who had Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald basically playing Madden vs. the rest of the league.

The Steelers are Polamalu's team, not Big Ben's. The Jets may be able to shut down the Steelers offense as they did to the Colts and Pats, but shutting down Polamalu will be a different story entirely.