Jan 13 2009
Thoughts on the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs
After what can only be described as a roller coaster year, the Philadelphia Eagles are one win away from returning to the Super Bowl. The Birds, who were only 9-6-1 during the regular season, went into Giants Stadium for the second time this year and kicked the NFC East and defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants straight in the teeth. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but when the smoke cleared, the Eagles emerged as a 23-11 winner. While Philly’s offense didn’t do anything spectacular, their defense was phenomenal. The Birds forced three turnovers, including two interceptions, one of which was returned by Asante Samuel to the New York one-yard line and set-up Donovan McNabb’s rushing touchdown. Samuel has certainly earned his money this postseason with an interception in each game and a touchdown. Additionally, watching the Eagles stuff the Giants twice on fourth down was incredible. Philly played one of its worst offensive games of the year and still won by double-digits thanks to their defense. If they want to advance to and win the Super Bowl, Brian Westbrook is certainly going to have to play a lot better than he did on Sunday. Same goes for McNabb and the rest of the offense. By the way, McNabb has now led this team to five NFC title games. That’s an amazing feat in itself, especially after the season that he had. The Iggles so close to returning to the promised land, but I don’t want to get my hopes up because they’ve been known to break hearts during the NFC Championship games that they were supposed to win (see: 2002 against Tampa Bay and 2003 against Carolina). However, it looks like there’s something special about this squad and there’s no reason to stop believing in them now. E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!
The team that the Eagles will travel to face in the NFC Championship is the Arizona Cardinals, who shocked the world with their 33-13 dismantling of the Carolina Panthers. The Cards forced SIX turnovers, including five interceptions off of Jake Delhomme. Arizona’s D certainly came to play and they’ve been playing really well the past three weeks. However, I think ‘Zona may have caught the over-confident Panthers looking ahead to the NFC Championship, something the Eagles will certainly not do. While the Cards have an explosive offense, I think Philly will be able to contain it. However, Arizona is no pushover and they can certainly win the game, especially since it’s at home. All I know is that the last time a Philly team (i.e. the Phillies) faced off against a team that nobody believed in and had home-field advantage (i.e. the Rays) it worked out pretty well for the City of Brotherly Love.
In the most physical game of the weekend, the Baltimore Ravens escaped Tennessee by knocking off the top-seeded Titans 13-10. In my opinion, the Ravens were saved by an atrocious non-call by the refs on a clear delay of game. If the officials make the correct call in that situation, the outcome might have been different. I also found it kind of weird that after they blew that call, the refs were extremely quick to call delay of game penalties in the other three playoff games. Coincidence? I think not. Basically, this game was a blood-bath and the Titans shot themselves in the foot with turnovers. Tennessee could have blown out Baltimore, but they choked. Now the Titans have seven months to think about what they could have done differently, like securing the ball better would be a good start. One final note on this game, Baltimore’s Joe Flacco wrote his name in the history books by becoming the first rookie QB to win two playoff games.
In the AFC title game, the Ravens will meet up with an old friend, the Pittsburgh Steelers, who trounced the San Diego Chargers 35-24 in the only non-upset of the weekend. Pittsburgh finally looks healthy again and it couldn’t have come at a better time for them. Willie Parker had a monster game and looks like he’s 100% again. Though, right now, the main concern for the Steelers has to be the health of Ben Roethlisberger, who has recently suffered a concussion and a spinal injury. How he was able to play as well as he did on Sunday, I have no idea. If Pittsburgh plays like they did against the Chargers, they may need to make room for an NFL-record sixth Lombardi Trophy at Heinz Field. However, first they’re going to have to get through the Ravens for a third time this year after two extremely close calls. The AFC Championship should be an outright war between two division rivals. Football fans wouldn’t want it any other way.
Conference Championships–January 18, 2009
NFC: #6 Philadelphia at #4 Arizona, 3:00 p.m.
AFC: #6 Baltimore at #2 Pittsburgh, 6:30 p.m.
