I give him a slight edge over Polomalu but not by much. 11 career touchdowns(1 punt return) and 34 interceptions at age 30 and still in his prime is amazing. If Reed scores one more defensive touchdown, he should be defensive player of the year.(his 2nd honor)
Polomalu is still getting better.
no matter how you look at it, both these guys will be in canton one day.
this is going to be a great defensive battle. i like how it's shaping up- great defenses on both sides of the field and the unknown variable of who shows up on the offensive side of the ball.
there are alot of keys to this game-
you've got a team in baltimore who moves the ball very well on the ground up against a pittsburgh team who leads the league in rush defense. since baltimore isn't the best team in the air, and given you have a secondary like pittsburgh's i don't think you'll see flacco going deep to often. it is imperative for baltimore to win this battle on the ground if they have any hope of beating pittsburgh.
pittburgh offensive is, well, not good. they don't move the ball well in the air. they don't move the ball well on the ground. they win on games on the back of their defense. as i said before rothleisburger is going to have to release the ball alot more quickly as i think you'll see baltimore bring alot of pain with a great blitz package, and even so, that baltimore secondary is scary enough to make big plays if he makes the wrong decisions with the ball under duress.
when you break it all down, you have to give the edge to balitmore in this one, just for the simple fact they do bring a good running game to the table and stack up well defensively against a lackluster steelers offense.