In a very close vote, some would say by a hair. (Get it) Troy Polamalu beat out Clay Matthews for top defensive player of the year. Troy becomes the sixth Steeler to win the prestigious award. Lets hope Troy beats him again Sunday!
Coming in third in the voting is our hero Silverback. Of course being the baddest man in the NFL he had few words to say but all of them complimentary for his teammate, “Troy brings this defense from a ‘C’ defense to an ‘A’ defense. He’s someone that you have to account for in the secondary.”
“Game-changing plays,” Steelers teammate Lamarr Woodley said. “I mean, you look at all the plays Troy’s made — game-changing plays. … So many game-changing plays to go out there and help win football games. Things that he [does], not only in the secondary — coming up, tackling backs in the backfield. Troy does it all.”
Prior to the Steelers winning the conference title former Steeler Santonio Holmes had this to say, “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, Everybody has their one person they think is the greatest player. In my eyes, I think he’s the greatest player I’ve ever played with.”
Of course both Matthews and Harrison were awesome candidates. In his second season Matthews was dominant and he will be on the watch list Sunday vs. The Steelers.
As for Harrison he has a non-stop motor and everyone fears him. I look forward to him putting on a show on Sunday.
It was a great award for the Steelers as a team as well. I think Captain Tailgate hit it best when he mentioned that the play that turned this season around was the Troy sack fumble against the Ratbirds!
BEER WE GO STEELERS!
February 2nd, 2011 at 2:17 am
Troy made the big plays all year and is deserving of the award. My vote would have went to the Silverback though. I wish they had a stat for holding penalties against and holding penalties against that were not called because I would think that Harrison leads the NFL in both categories by a large margin. With that said, Congrats to Troy…I guess the Madden curse has been lifted!!