The NFL's Defensive MVP

Safety of the Pittsburgh Steelers Troy Polamalu has won the NFL 2010-2011 defensive MVP. The question is did he deserve it. Polamalu stat line for this year was 63 tackles, one sack, one force fumble, and seven interceptions in 14 games. He was tied for second in interceptions along with the Eagle's Asante Samuel and the Patriot's Devin McCourty, Ed Reed led the league with eight. This will be Polamalu's first defensive MVP award which some think is long over due being that he has been a top safety in the league for 6 years now. Also taking into account his importance to the team as he is arguably the best player on a super bowl contending team. This season in the two games Polamalu missed the Steelers went 1-1, in comparison to the 3-1 record the team acquired while Troy played and their star quarterback Ben Rothlisberger didn't. The Steelers are 14-4 when Troy plays and just 5-7 when he's out. With this being said some would disagree that Polamalu deserved winning the defensive MVP award over Packer's outside linebacker Clay Matthews. Matthews recorded 60 tackles, 13.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and 1 interception. Clay Matthew finished 4th in the sack race 2 sacks behind the league's leader DeMarcus Ware. This is Matthews' second double digit sack total in a season in only his second year. In his rookie season he recorded 10. It's safe to say that Matthews has been putting up numbers since he entered the league, the question is.... Are his numbers better than Polamalu's??? The voting finished with Troy getting 17 first place votes and Matthews getting 15 first place votes. With both stars in this years superbowl we can only hope that the game is as close as the MVP race.