Conference Championship Thoughts

First of all, I just want to toot my own horn a little bit. I almost nailed the final scores of both games yesterday. Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe I really do know what I'm talking about after all.

Here are some of my thoughts from each of the games.

NFC: ARIZONA 32, PHILADELPHIA 25

There were a couple things I was looking for in this game for each team. First and foremost, the Cardinals needed to own line of scrimmage and keep Philadelphia's pass rushers away from Kurt Warner. The fact that the Eagles only managed to sack Warner twice meant that he would have more time to throw the ball, and that allowed Larry Fitzgerald to go out for some of the longer passes of the day. The Cardinals were also able to run the ball fairly well between Edgerrin James and Tim Hightower, who combined for 106 yards. When a team secures the offensive line they're already halfway to victory, in my "expert" opinion.

The Cardinals also needed to maintain the Warner-to-Fitzgerald connection. To that, I say "mission accomplished". Fitzgerald made a mockery of the Eagles' secondary with nine catches for 152 yards and three touchdowns. As the saying goes, he looked like a "man among boys". It is worth repeating the sentiments of many fans and analysts that Larry Fitzgerald has already broken the postseason receiving yards record and he stil has one more game to play...his future is very, very bright.

For the Eagles, my key to the game was time consuming drives. Unfortunately, clock management has never been a strong point for Andy Reid and Philadelphia only managed to put together one drive that lasted more than five minutes. Some of the trouble might be attributed to the Eagles' lack of a rushing game...they carried the ball only 18 times, and 12 of those carries were by an ailing and worn out Brian Westbrook.

I absolutely did not expect Arizona to jump out to a 24-6 lead at halftime. I truly doubt that anybody did. When the Cardinals were leading 14-6 and took the ball over at their own 27 with 9:02 to play in the second quarter I looked at my wife and said, "If the Cardinals score another touchdown this game is over." Warner then led his team on a nine play, 73-yard, nearly six minute drive that gave Philadelphia the ball back with just over three minutes to play.

Philadelphia's comeback was really quite amazing considering how poorly they played in the first half. I would be curious to find out what exactly went on in the locker room at halftime, but it must have been pretty good. The Eagles scored 19 unanswered points to take a 25-24 lead in the fourth quarter, and they did it by speeding up the tempo of the game. Philadelphia scored on three straight drives, two of which lasted just over two minutes. None of Arizona's three drives during the same sequence lasted more than two minutes. Of course, the Cardinals ensuing game-winning drive completely destroyed any momentum the Eagles had built as it lasted almost eight minutes.

One last thought. Undoubtedly, Andy Reid will take some flack for this game. Unfortunately, his quarterback will be the reason for most of it. Donovan McNabb again showed us that he does not have the "clutchness", "moxie", "grit" or "guts" to win a big playoff game. His passes were consistently off-target, meaning that his receivers needed to manipulate their bodies in various ways to make catches. Several passes were thrown low, many were behind the receiver, and some sailed far too long. Had his play been more consistent it's entirely possible that several of the Eagles' stalled drives would have resulted in touchdowns, and the game would not have slipped away from them. Countless McNabb posters are being torn down all across Pennsylvania as this is written.

AFC: PITTSBURGH 23, BALTIMORE 14

We all knew this was going to get nasty. Any time you put two elite defenses on the same field after an entire season of trash talking and bounty hunting you can expect the team trainers to be working double time to remove casualties from the field. On several plays, multiple players had to be escorted to the sidelines.

The Steelers took full advantage of Joe Flacco's shaky play, intercepting him three times with one being returned by Troy Polamalu for the game-clinching touchdown. One of my keys for Baltimore was for Flacco to connect on some deep passes, and this did not happen as Pittsburgh's secondary played stifling defense all night long. It could have been the hard hits, or the cold temperature, or both but it seemed like Ravens were dropping passes on just about every drive.

Pittsburgh didn't really break the game open until the beginning of the second quarter when Ben Roethlisberger connected with Santonio Holmes for a 65-yard touchdown that put the Steelers up 13-0. The funny thing about that play was that Holmes was covered very for what seemed like an eternity, but at the last second the defender stumbled and Holmes managed to get open. His ensuing dash for the endzone was just as odd, as he began running to his left and eventually cut the entire way across the field with some help from his teammates before crossing the goal line.

Baltimore certainly made things interesting after Willis McGahee's second touchdown of the evening brought the Ravens within two at 16-14. With their season on the line, and their fate seemingly in their own hands, it was their young quarterback who essentially sealed Pittsburgh's win when he fired a pass directly into the hands of Polamalu, who ran the ball back across the field for the final score of the game. Baltimore had time to mount a late drive but after McGahee's frightening injury the Ravens seemed to lose steam and admit defeat. In my mind, it was very much like the end of a long, drawn out boxing match. That final blow took them to the mat, and they chose not to get back up.