by Jordan M. Iwanyszyn
Sunday brings another NFC Championship Game, and another for my team, the Philadelphia Eagles. This is their fifth of this young century.
They will meet another team that deserves to be where they are, the suddenly-hot Arizona Cardinals.
The story of this NFC title game is primarily about the teams who are there, more specifically, the fact that these two teams did not dominate through much of the regular season.
Philadelphia floundered through the first half of the season, with the low points coming with a tie to the lowly Cincinnati Bengals, and a blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens, who are playing the Pittsburgh Steelers in tomorrow's AFC title game. Suddenly, after the benching of quarterback Donovan McNabb, the Eagles went on to win six of their last seven as it currently stands. The lone loss in that time nearly cost the season.
Just before Christmas, the Eagles had a chance to control their playoff destiny with a win over the mediocre Washington Redskins. All the Birds could muster was a field goal in a 20-3 loss, leading many "experts" to declare their season over. The Eagles would still be in the hunt, but they would have to beat Dallas the following week, along with help needed by Oakland, who would have to beat Tampa Bay, and Houston, who would have to beat Chicago. Tampa Bay losing would be highly unlikely, thought many, including yours truly.
However, it all happened. Oakland beat Tampa Bay by seven. Houston beat Chicago by that much, as well. All that was left was for Philly to beat the hated rivals from Dallas. Not only did the Birds beat the Cowboys, they drubbed them 44-6! That clinched an unlikely playoff spot for Philly as a wild card seeded at No. 6 in the NFC spectrum of the playoffs.
Philly went on the road to defeat the NFC North Champion Minnesota Vikings 26-14, which set up a Divisional Round play-off game against the despised rival New York Giants. The Giants came into the game as the NFC East champs, and the No. 1 seed for the NFC. Games the previous day gave the Eagles and their fans hope, though, as the AFC's No. 1 Tennessee lost to wild-card team Baltimore, and NFC No. 2 Carolina lost to Arizona in a blow-out. The Eagles came to East Rutherford, New Jersey with confidence against New York, and Giants' QB Eli Manning had a long day as the Birds defense led the way to a 23-11 win. The offense for Philly also performed well enough to grind out more points than the opposition.
That set up a NFC title match with the Arizona Cardinals, which followed a different path through the regular season.
After a 7-3 start which put them in position to run away with the lackluster NFC West, The Cards lost four of their last six in the regular season, including a 48-20 drubbing to the Eagles in Philadelphia on Thanksgiving day. However, Arizona ended with a 9-7 record, enough to clinch the West and grab the NFC's fourth seed, the least for a divisional winner.
The Cards found their swagger again in the playoffs. After holding off Atlanta in a 30-24 win in the wild-card round, Arizona had to go on the road to Charlotte to play the Carolina Panthers. Until this time, the Cards had not won a single game in the East this season. That changed as Arizona slammed the NFC's No. 2 seed 33-13 after forcing six turnovers.
So now, that sets up a BATTLE OF THE BIRDS in the Arizona desert tomorrow afternoon. A solid Philly defense will meet a hot Arizona offense. A strong Eagle rushing attack will try to give the Cards fits through the afternoon. It promises to be a good matchup. It starts at 3 PM ET on Fox.
I pick the Eagles by three, but this one could go either way...
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