Cardinals vs. Steelers: What's the Game Plan for Pittsburgh?

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals are all set for a big-time matchup Sunday at Heinz Field, where a familiar face will return to his old stomping grounds with a major chip on his shoulder.

Former Steelers offensive coordinator—now Cardinals head coach—Bruce Arians was forced out in Pittsburgh, whether the Steelers officially want to recognize that or not.

Now? He's in the discussion for best head coach in the NFL based off his interim time in Indianapolis, along with what he's done in three years in Arizona.

On top of resurrecting the careers of Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald, everything that Arians touches seemingly turns into gold. In fact, Chris Johnson has shown flashes of the former 2,000-yard rusher he was more times than not this season under Arians' direction, which couldn't have been said last year in New York.

Coming into Sunday's game, the coaching staffs should be very familiar with each other, considering past experience working together.

While he's in the NFC and halfway across the country, Arians runs a similar version of the offense he ran in Pittsburgh.

Despite not having a big, bruising running back, Arians is able to lean on Chris Johnson, rookie David Johnson and, when healthy, Andre Ellington to establish a running game that allows the Cardinals to throw into lighter coverage.

When throwing the ball, Palmer fills the role of Ben Roethlisberger for Arians. The Cardinals try to utilize the deep ball often, but they also rely on intermediate routes between 10 and 19 yards downfield, where Palmer is almost perfect (28-of-30, 467 yards and five touchdowns), according to Pro Football Focus.

The Cardinals have done a good job of protecting Palmer all year, which has allowed him to pick apart defenses off play-action fakes and those previously mentioned deep throws and intermediate routes.

Pittsburgh's secondary will have their hands full, especially with just three healthy safeties due to Will Allen's ankle injury suffered last week. A heavy pass rush will have to get home early and often to help the secondary in this game.

Negating the running game has to be the key for the Steelers defense Sunday. Taking away the Cardinals running game will make Arizona one-dimensional.

How can the Steelers attack a physically imposing Cardinals defense? Loads and loads of Le'Veon Bell on the ground and through the air.

Offensive Game Plan

When watching tape of the Arizona Cardinals defense, it's clear the Steelers offense matches up well with the Cardinals in this one.

While the Cardinals tend to blitz a lot from all over the field, the Steelers should be able to counter blitzes with a heavy dose of swing passes and short dump-offs over the middle to Bell, DeAngelo Williams and Heath Miller, much like the New Orleans Saints did in Week 1 with Mark Ingram, Khiry Robinson and Benjamin Watson.

The Steelers offensive line is much better than the Saints offensive line, so Pittsburgh should be able to run the ball against a Cardinals defense allowing 97.2 yards per game on the ground. Pittsburgh comes in averaging 120.4 yards per game on the ground.

Through the air, the Steelers will have to remain conservative in this one due to the ball-hawking Cardinals secondary, led by Patrick Peterson. It won't get any better for Antonio Brown this week, as he has struggled to produce with Mike Vick under center due to a lack of targets and general shortage of chemistry between the two. Don't expect Brown to return to his dominant ways in this one as Vick is likely to avoid throwing towards Peterson as much as possible.

What Vick will likely do is look Bell's direction as much as possible. The Cardinals defense is susceptible to big plays by running backs through the air. There's nobody as good as Bell is at catching the ball and making plays out of the backfield.

The closest comparison to Bell the Cardinals have faced this year was Matt Forte in Week 2. Forte had 15 total yards on 19 touches. I imagine Bell sees double the touches Forte did.

Pittsburgh will have to put themselves in manageable third-down situations as well, considering the Cardinals allow their opponents to convert just 36 percent of third-down attempts. With Vick under center, it's important not to put him in tough 3rd-and-long situations against the Cardinals secondary.

Defense Game Plan

Arians really hasn't changed his offensive scheme much, so the Steelers should be very familiar with it. That said, it comes down to executing against the Cardinals' offense, which nobody has been able to do consistently.

Palmer is so efficient this year under Arians with Fitzgerald, John Brown and Darren Fells being tough to cover long enough for pressure to get home. That's not even including Michael Floyd out wide and David Johnson out of the backfield.

The Cardinals might not have powerhouse names offensively, but nobody is as good as Arians at getting the best out of his offense.

The Cardinals have a strong running game, which they haven't had in a long time, averaging 134 yards per game on the ground, with 23 rushes of 10 or more yards. Eleven of those 23 rushes came from Chris Johnson, who has added a 20-plus yard run in each of his last three games.

As a unit, the Cardinals average north of 5.0 yards per carry. They have built their entire offense on the running game, which has allowed Carson Palmer to have tons of success through the air.

To slow down the Cardinals offense, it's on the Steelers front seven to shut down Arizona's running game early, forcing Arians to work away from it.

In the passing game, don't expect Keith Butler to blitz quite as often against Arizona, as Arians loves to employ tons of empty sets, allowing Palmer to survey the field and get rid of the ball quickly.

The Cardinals allow Palmer to have complete command of the offense, using tons of run-pass options, much like Ben Roethlisberger does now.

This might be the biggest defensive test for the Steelers since Week 1 against New England in terms of deception, scheme and multiple options available on one play.

Key Matchups

Antonio Brown vs. Patrick Peterson

If you enjoy prime one-on-one matchups, don't take your eyes off Brown and Peterson Sunday.

These two are arguably the best in the business at their respective positions, so whomever comes out on top in this individual matchup will help their team win the game. While Brown hasn't had much success with Vick as his quarterback, he has made it clear he wants the 15-year vetran to look his way more often.

I'd be surprised if Vick tries to test Peterson much, especially with Jerraud Powers on the other side of the field likely matching up with Martavis Bryant.

Bruce Arians vs. Keith Butler

These two worked on the same staff in Pittsburgh under Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin, so the familiarity is definitely there.

This is going to be a game of chess between the coaches, with Arians holding the slight edge because of his ability to get the most out of his offensive players consistently. That's no knock on Butler, who has done a phenomenal job through five games with a young Steelers defense.

It might be fair to say that Arians is one of the smartest coaches in football, so it's hard to go against him in an individual matchup.

Kelvin Beachum vs. Calais Campbell

Although these two won't match up head-to-head every play, this is a major matchup in the running game for the Steelers.

Campbell is a load to block for anyone, but Beachum is very good as a run-blocker in the Steelers zone scheme. Due to Campbell's height advantage, Beachum should be able to get leverage on Campbell more often than not.

However, the biggest thing with this matchup is the pass-rushing/protection side of things.

Beachum struggles with length, which is something Campbell has plenty of. Although Campbell isn't a dominant pass rusher, he does have half a sack this year. He could add a couple on Sunday.

Matchup X-Factor

Martavis Bryant

It's going to be huge for the Steelers offense to get the second-year receiver back against the Cardinals, assuming he plays.

He won't play a ton of snaps due to conditioning, but for the likely 20-25 snaps he will see on Sunday, expect Bryant to be a major factor in this one.

While Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell will be the main focal points for the Cardinals defense, Bryant could open up some room for those two to operate Sunday. If Vick can connect with Bryant on some big plays, the game could really open up for the Steelers offense when he is on the field.

Prediction: Cardinals 31, Steelers 23

Le'Veon Bell is due for a huge game. I think he cracks 200 all-purpose yards in this one with multiple touchdowns.

However, I do think the Steelers' secondary struggles to stop the Cardinals' passing attack. Larry Fitzgerald hauls in a long touchdown and John Brown gashes the Steelers defense on crossing routes, quick slants and the occasional deep shot.

Defensively, the Cardinals don't sack Vick in this game, but he does throw a costly interception late to give the Cardinals the ball in Steelers territory, giving them a short field for an easy score.

Bruce Arians is triumphant in his return to Heinz Field, sticking it to the Steelers and Mike Tomlin in this one.