NFL Open Thread: Conference Championships
posted at 11:16 am on January 18, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
A few weeks ago, if someone had asked me to pick the Final Four in the NFL, I would only have picked one correctly, and then mostly out of loyalty to the Steelers rather than any sense of conviction, especially after their loss to Tennessee in week 16. Today, though, all of the other favorites have left the playoffs, and the challenge for the two divisional champions left is to win at home — a challenge that has mostly been unmet this year.
Let’s start with Philadelphia at Arizona. The Cardinals appeared to run out of gas during the regular season, and took a beating from the Eagles on Thanksgiving that almost made Detroit look good. They’ve bounced back in the playoffs with impressive wins over Atlanta at home and Carolina on the road, knocking out the #2 seed while the Eagles dispatched the #1 seeded Giants. However, Donovan McNabb won’t play the worst game of his career as Jake Delhomme did last week for the Panthers. He’s been to the dance before, and he won’t give the game away to Arizona. It will be a close, high-scoring game — a shootout between McNabb and Kurt Warner, who’s also been to the dance a couple of times — but the Eagles will prevail, 35-31.
That brings us to Pittsburgh. The Steelers wound up with home-field advantage throughout the playoffs when the Ravens did what the Steelers couldn’t do in Week 16 and beat the Titans. However, the Steelers didn’t get beat up at all when they trounced the San Diego Chargers last week, while Baltimore barely survived that tough, emotional game against the Titans. They got an extra day of rest, but that won’t be enough against the refreshed Steelers lines and running backs. The Titans drove on the Ravens’ defense last week, and we can expect the Steelers to do the same, but score from the red zone more often than Tennessee did. I’ll pick the Steelers 24-14 at home, making the upcoming Super Bowl an all-Pennsylvania affair.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 … 3 4 5
go choke on those sour grapes.
Whisenhunt was the Steeler’s offensive coordinator. Not bad for his second year as head coach, wouldn’t you say?
I’m right there with ya.
vermillionsky on January 18, 2009 at 10:58 PM
Good for Rooney despite the fact that he loves The One.
Good for the Ravens who now are done.
Good for the officials who only missed one.
But most of all,
Good for Big Ben who can be the QB he wasn’t in the SB he won.
And God Bless and keep NFL fans everywhere.
IlikedAUH2O on January 18, 2009 at 10:59 PM
If I see one more “Yes We Can Monday” ad, I’m gonna scream!!!!!!
LL
Lady Logician on January 18, 2009 at 10:59 PM
I’m from northeast Ohio, but live in Pittsburgh now. Amongst my Ohio friends and family, it’s pretty much split. My dad rooted against the Ravens, but most people my age seem to be rooting against the Steelers (I think the older you are, the more you resent what Art Modell and Baltimore did).
vermillionsky on January 18, 2009 at 11:06 PM
Jamson64 on January 18, 2009 at 11:09 PM
I’ll be rooting for the Cardinals to beat the color blind team from the Keystone State. Why do you Steeler fans keep perpetuating the fallacy that your team colors are black and GOLD? Open a crayon box, it’s yellow!!! Seriously annoying!
rmel80 on January 19, 2009 at 12:16 AM
rmel80 on January 19, 2009 at 12:16 AM
Someone crap in your cornflakes today? Here’s a tissue, go root for women’s basketball and leave football to the men.
Bishop on January 19, 2009 at 12:29 AM
Clean? Yeah, Right. As long as it’s the Steelers doing the hitting it’s clean.
R D on January 19, 2009 at 12:39 AM
Alright now, all you non-Steeler fans can come over to the dark side now and support the only real team in the NFL. Leave your liberalness behind and join us.
Bishop on January 19, 2009 at 12:41 AM
Sure thing Bishop. Hold your breath……
R D on January 19, 2009 at 12:48 AM
Sure thing Bishop. Hold your breath……
R D on January 19, 2009 at 12:48 AM
Awwwww…don’t get all mad. I’m sure Detroit will do better next year and you can go back to cheering for them. :-)
Bishop on January 19, 2009 at 1:12 AM
Congratulations Cardinals!
AZCoyote on January 19, 2009 at 6:57 AM
Classic Kurt Warner drive at the end of the game. Reminded me of the typical drives Montana or Elway would make to finish off their foes. With Pitt playing against a banged-up Raven defense, (and a rookie QB that was one drive short of taking the lead at the end of the game), color me “not impressed”. With the early point spread being 6.5 in favor of Pitt by the Las Vegas boys, this tells me they need some money to be wagered on the Cards side. While most Superbowls start out conservative, (when no one wants to make the early “big mistake”), Warner and the Cards may just blow the game open the way they did with an Eagles team that has a more balanced offense than the Steelers. And while the Steeler’s defense IS the best in the league this year, Warner has the reputation for killing blitzing teams. Who ever controls the line of scrimmage in the forth quarter may have the edge. I think this will be a close one at the end.
Rovin on January 19, 2009 at 7:50 AM
That was some impressive running by the Steelers. Impressive indeed.
I thought it was smooth sailing until I hear that car accident near the last two minutes on the field. Thank goodness for helmets or there would be two dead men on the field.
Congrads to both winning teams yesterday for two very well played games. There was some good ball played.
johnnyU on January 19, 2009 at 10:29 AM
If the Dow Jones to AFC/NFC correlation works in both directions, based on how badly markets will do in 2009, this gives the Steelers a lock on the superbowl.
Vashta.Nerada on January 19, 2009 at 10:49 AM
Class? Now that’s something you need to learn.
JohnnyD on January 19, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Has Nukemhill killed himself?
Calling people names over a call. Typical stupid raisins moron.
IlikedAUH2O on January 19, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Anyone else noticed that FOX Sports is becoming unwatchable? The do commercials at every drop of the hat! I’ve never seen so damn many commercials at a sporting event! I can’t take it any more. And then there is their idiot robot! I’m not going to watch them much longer…
sabbott on January 19, 2009 at 3:18 PM
Should be a good game–Steelers and Cardinals. Unfortunately, it’s on NBC, which means I’m going to have to mute Olbertwit. Got to feel sorry for Al Michaels having to put up with those bozos.
Matt Helm on January 19, 2009 at 3:29 PM
Pardon a Philadelphia fan venting here:
Donovan McNabb is, as Andy Reid observed, the best quarterback ever to don an Eagle uniform, and is an amazing athlete. That said, did you notice all the underthrown, overthrown, behind-the-receiver-thrown, at-the-feet-thrown passes in the Philly-Arizona game? The incidence of those increases directly with the amount of pressure McNabb is feeling personally. This is why the Eagles so often lose the really big games, and why I’m personally willing to bet that so long as McNabb is quarterbacking the Eagles, they will not win the Superbowl, despite the outstanding coaching and the talent of the team.
Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers is perhaps about 80% the athlete McNabb is, but Big Ben’s play improves when he’s under pressure, whereas McNabb presses and misses opportunities when he’s under pressure (I’m not talking about defenders swarming around him, I’m talking about the importance of the game to McNabb’s inner persona). I’m willing to bet a fair sum of money that if Roethlisberger had been quarterbacking the Eagles yesterday, they would have won that game rather than losing. This is so despite the fact that it was mostly a failure of the defense that let the Eagles down. They had opportunity to score at least 14 more points yesterday, perhaps 21 more, and missed them because McNabb chose those moments to try a little too hard and miss the target.
Ok, I’m done venting. Congratulations to the Arizona Cardinals, who really did play a superb game yesterday, and whose play does merit a Superbowl appearance.
philwynk on January 19, 2009 at 5:12 PM
Bishop you really are an idiot. I played college football. How about you?
rmel80 on January 20, 2009 at 12:58 AM
Up to the point in the game where the Eagles made it 24-19 neither Andy Reid nor Donavan McNabb had lost the game for the Eagles.
Let me recap up to then. Arizona had taken a 24-6 lead into halftime and looked like it controlled the game. Philadephia had kicked 2 FG’s. After scoring a TD with 4:13 left to go in the 3rd qtr. the Eagles caught fire again and scored a TD with 56 seconds left in the 3rd quarter making the score 24-19.
Troy Aikman commented that Reid should have gone for 2 points to narrow the Cardinal lead to a FG. Instead he decided to kick the extra point with Akers missing. Post-game all the talk was on Aker’s missing an easy point, but little attention was paid to Reid’s decision. As far as I am concerned Reid lost the Eagles the game right here.
If the Eagles had successfully converted the 2 point conversion it would have narrowed the gap to 3 points (24-21) and changed the Eagles strategy in the 4th quarter and force the Cardinals to alter their defensive strategy knowing that a field goal could tie. By only going for one point he caused the Eagles to still have to score a TD to forge ahead. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Now you say the Eagles did score another TD to make it 25-24 and did go for 2 points (which they missed) to make it a FG difference in the Eagles favor so the damage apparently was undone. Let’s review. If the Eagles had gone for 2 points and converted when the score was 24-19 that would have maded the score 24-21 Cardinals; by scoring another TD the Eagles would have been ahead 27-24, so they would have gone for 1 point and presumably got it to make it 28-24-thus forcing the Cardinals to score a TD to get ahead or win the game with 10:56 left in the 4th quarter-yes plenty of time for the Cardinals to score a TD (with a 1 point conversion)to make the score 31-28 but also plenty of time for the Eagles to move the ball to FG territory with about 2-3 minutes left in the game to at least tie the game up and send it into overtime.
As it was, this is exactly what happened. With 2:53 on the clock and the ball at their own 20 yard line the Eagles had one last chance to tie or win the game. But they needed a TD to tie, not a FG. Again this was caused by Reid not going for 2 points when the score was 24-19, as recommended by Troy Aikman.
Having to go for a TD also caused Reid to abandon the run, again with 2:53 on the clock. Now let’s move ahead to 2:09 on the clock with the Eagles having a first down on the Arizona 47 yard line with 1 time out (therefore can stop the clock twice.)Here is where you reap what you sow. If the Eagles had only needed a FG to tie the game they could have run the ball with Westbrook on draws, thrown shorter passes (screens)to advance the ball another 17 yards to give Akers a realistic chance to tie the game and again remember the Eagles could have stopped the clock twice and the Cardinals would have had to alter their defensive strategy so as not to lose the game on a TD. Thus the Cardinals would have laid back while the Eagles could have plodded towards the 30 yard line of Arizona and perhaps gone beyond. However, what was facing the Eagles was that they had to score a TD and 1 point conversion to even tie the game. The Arizona defense simply knew, even if the worst possible scenario happened, they would simply go into OT and still have a chance to win. And remember nobody expected Arizona to win anyway. But also with this in mind it allowed the Cardinal defense to take chances blitzing McNabb and with perhaps tighter coverages or man-on-man coverages again knowing they could not lose the game if the Eagles scored a TD(by the way the 2pt conversion that Arizona scored to make the score 32-25 was huge) because Reid was not going to lose his job by going for 2 points in that situation.
You all know what happened. The Eagles did not run the ball from the Arizona 47 yard line, not trusting in their best offensive player Westbrook to win the game for them. McNabb, with the game on the line did not call his own number on first or second down which would have surprised the Cardinals.(My complaint of McNabb whether he was behind a FG or a TD was that he should have run on either first or second down because he had 2 stoppages of plays if the runs consumed time off the clock-but here’s how I think-with the game on the line and Mcnabb presumedly a Hall of Fame player and still a good runner-why, or why would any coach shy away with the whole season on the line not at least trying to run his QB at least once-yes you can blame Reid, but I’ve seen enough QB play to know that if a QB can run, is still elusive and can get a key first down it could literally decide the game-this was no time worry if McNabb was going to get hurt or not). Instead McNabb threw 4 straight insipid incomplete passes and lost the game for the Eagles and their long-suffering fans and did not move the ball past Arizona’s 47 yard line.
This loss for the Eagles is hard to swallow. Reid lost the game by not going for 2 points when the score was 24-19; McNabb lost the game by not running more himself and Akers contributed to the loss by missing a single point and FG. But as to Akers, he did not definitively lose the game for the Eagles, but Reid and McNabb alas did.
technopeasant on January 20, 2009 at 11:27 AM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 … 3 4 5