FanHouse William Gay

For some reason, head coach Brad Childress thought letting Brett Favre and his 40-year-old arm sling the ball all over the yard gave the Vikings the best chance to win against the Steelers Sunday. He was so sure of this, in fact, that the Ole Gunslinger ended up doing it 51 times.

On two occasions in the fourth quarter that decision led directly to Steelers points. Defensive end Brett Keisel stripped Favre as he dropped back and linebacker LaMarr Woodley took the fumble to the house. And with just over a minute to play and Minnesota trailing by three, a Favre screen pass skipped off the hands of Chester Taylor, into the lap of linebacker Keyaron Fox, and 82 yards later, ball game.

Here's a question: why not give the ball to Adrian Peterson more than 18 times? Since, you know, he came into the game leading the league in rushing, and fresh off hanging 143 rushing yards on the Ravens. Didn't happen, and instead of seeing Purple Jesus tread defenders all afternoon, we only got to see it once.

Video hit-and-run after the jump.

Training camps have wrapped up, the NFL season is right around the corner, and it's still hot as sin outside. But instead of cooling you off with a warm island song, FanHouse break out ye old heat check for our 2009 NFL Season Previews. " We'll rate each club in 5 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

The last time the Steelers won a Super Bowl, in 2006, they limped through the encore season as Bill Cowher headed towards retirement, Ben Roethlisberger battled a motorcycle wreck, two concussions and appendicitis, and the offensive line fell apart. Now after winning another Super Bowl, Pittsburgh's offensive line is still shaky and Roethlisberger has already endured an Achilles injury and a civil suit, but Pittsburgh believes it has built a team that can make a much better defense of its "sticky Lombardi."

When William Gay was drafted, the worries were that he was too light and too short to ever be more than a nickel back.

He may still be short, but no one can accuse Gay of being too light to start any more. The third-year corner who is penciled in to replace Bryant McFadden at cornerback told the Washington Observer-Reporter that he is 15 pounds heavier than he was last year, up from 183 to 198. At 5-foot-10, 198 pounds, Gay now weighs three pounds more than 6-foot-2 corner Ike Taylor is officially listed at.

With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.

The Steelers are never big players in free agency, so the draft is of vital importance to the Steelers ability to contend year in and year out. With two Lombardi trophies and another AFC Championship appearance in the past five years, it's clear that Kevin Colbert and the Steelers' scouting department have done their job well.

The Steelers rarely draft players to start right away. Even 2003 first-round pick Troy Polamalu played only sporadically as a rookie and last year's top two picks, Rashard Mendenhall and Limas Sweed, will be asked to play much bigger roles in 2009 than they did in 2008.

After a week of hoping that Bryant McFadden would decide to stay in Pittsburgh, the Steelers lost him to the Arizona Cardinals Sunday, as Ryan Wilson reported.

It's a disappointment for the Steelers, but one they can easily survive. When McFadden was hurt last year, the Steelers secondary didn't miss a beat. William Gay, the starter when McFadden was hurt, will replace McFadden as a starter, Deshea Townsend will be the nickel back and the Steelers will likely draft a cornerback to eventually replace Townsend and give Gay competition.

According to the Football Outsiders' game charters, Gay was the best cornerback in the league last year in yards allowed per attempt thrown his way, so he's not likely to be in over his head.

Heading into free agency, most people assumed that former Steeler Bryant McFadden would be in demand, perhaps even the first cornerback to ink a big-money deal. Ten days and a handful of defensive back signings later, McFadden finally got a new contract. And it has to be a lot less than what he was expecting: he's headed to Arizona for two years and $10 million.

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As they create room in the trophy case for a sixth Lombardi Trophy, the Steelers also have some decisions to make. Four of the team's top five offensive tackles are free agents (although Willie Colon is only a restricted free agent), as are starting cornerback Bryant McFadden and No. 3 receiver Nate Washington.

But according to Sports Illustrated's Don Banks, the Steelers have already decided on their top free agent priority. Banks says the Steelers plan to try to re-up McFadden before free agency begins on Feb. 27. With $19 million in cap room, Pittsburgh has some room to get McFadden under contract while also either re-upping Max Starks or trying to bring in free agent offensive line help.

Every week during the season we focused on an aspect of line play with Between The Lines. So for the Super Bowl, we're focusing on all aspects of the battle of the line of scrimmage. Today, we look at the Steelers' defense.

There have been many times this postseason when Larry Fitzgerald, Kurt Warner and the Cardinals offense have looked unstoppable. On Sunday, we'll find out how true that is. There many matchups to watch, but it's safe to say that if the Cardinals can block the Steelers' pass rush, they likely will pull off the upset. If they can't, Pittsburgh will be bringing its sixth Super Bowl trophy back to the Steel City.

Warner has averaged 286 yards passing per game this season, but now he'll be facing a defense that has allowed more than 300 yards of total offense only twice in 18 games. Warner and an offense with three 1,000-yard receivers will be one of the Steelers' D's toughest tests, but this is not a defense that is untested.

The third quarter just wrapped up in Pittsburgh with the Steelers leading 21-10 and holding the ball on the one-foot line. The Chargers are lucky that there's still a chance for them to win this game. They took exactly one offensive snap in the quarter, an interception by Philip Rivers, while the Steelers ran 24 offensive plays.

The Steelers have had to survive lots of injuries this year, but if you're the type who likes to find the silver lining, it's pretty clear that the injuries have helped the Steelers' planning for 2009.

When Kendall Simmons tore his Achilles, second-year guard Darnell Stapleton stepped in and has played better than Simmons. Stapleton will almost assuredly be starting in 2009, whether in Simmons' spot or at Chris Kemoeatu's spot since Kemoeatu will be a free agent. It's hard to believe that Mike Tomlin and the Steelers front office would have been comfortable turning a job over to Stapleton in 2009 without a backup plan if not for Simmons injury, but now, that's not a problem.

Now we're seeing the same thing potentially happening at cornerback. When Bryant McFadden and Deshea Townsend both went down with injuries, the Steelers were forced to turn to second-year corner William Gay as an unexpected starter. Three games into his unexpected role, Gay has been very solid, showing that he's an extremely good tackler despite his small size and he has a decent feel for coverages. While it will be important to get McFadden back into the lineup, Gay has shown he can do the job respectably as an emerhgency fill-in.