After some tremendous post-season play, the Super Bowl is set. In this edition of the Final Drive, I look back at Sunday’s Conference Championship games.
Arizona Cardinals 32, Philadelphia Eagles 25
Is everyone done picking against the Cardinals now? They’ve only rattled off three consecutive victories against teams that were supposed to pummel them. I stopped downplaying their success after their smackdown of Carolina, which was then substantiated by an outstanding effort against the favored Eagles. Arizona’s defense continued its impressive post-season run by forcing three Philly turnovers and turning them into scores. While the Eagles were settling for two field goals early, the Cardinals had already scored two touchdowns, forcing Andy Reid to move away from his running game. Donovan McNabb shouldered the offense for another week as the Cardinal defense did an excellent job of taking Brian Westbrook out of the equation. McNabb ended up with 375 yards and three touchdowns, but did have two turnovers (1 fumble, 1 INT) on his record as well. Westbrook’s lack of playoff production finally caught up with the Eagles, and they were subsequently eliminated in another NFC title game. Andy Reid will be back as head coach next season, but McNabb’s future has not been officially confirmed. If he’s not back, it would be one of the worst personnel moves in NFL history. He kept the Eagles in the playoff hunt as the regular season ended, and when January rolled around he performed admirably without any help from a running game. He is a top-tier NFL quarterback, hands-down. On Sunday though, Arizona had one of their own. Kurt Warner proved his value to the Cardinals with a 21 for 28, 279 yards, and four touchdown performance on Sunday. He should also be thanking Larry Fitzgerald, who caught three of those touchdowns within his nine reception afternoon. Fitzgerald embarrassed the Eagle secondary, catching all three touchdowns in the first two quarters. Ken Wisenhunt’s squad was pushed to their limits by Philly, even losing the lead with about ten minutes left in the contest. In spite of the pressure, the Cardinals mounted a 14-play, 72-yard drive that sucked up almost eight minutes of clock and ended up in the end zone. It was the best the Cardinals looked all season, and it came at the perfect moment. Now it is time to see if their storybook season has a perfect ending.
Pittsburgh Steelers 23, Baltimore Ravens 14
Even though Baltimore closed the gap to 16-14 in the fourth quarter, this one never felt in doubt. The Steelers jumped out to a 13-0 lead early in the second and never looked back on their way to Tampa. The Ravens were not their usual selves, turning it over four times. The most debilitating mistake was Joe Flacco’s third and final interception, taken back 40 yards to the house by Troy Polamalu to stave off a possible Raven comeback. Flacco and the offense had only turned it over once in the two prior playoff contests while forcing nine from their opponents. Flacco finally faltered in his third post-season outing, completing only 13 passes to five different receivers. The Steelers took a page out of Baltimore’s playbook, never letting the Ravens get easy field position due to a turnover. Ben Roethlisberger may only have completed 16 of his 33 pass attempts, but he made plays when it mattered, hitting Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes for big yardage. As anemic as Pittsburgh’s offense was, Baltimore had even more trouble moving the ball. Flacco may be the long term answer, but he still has a way to go before he is capable of winning games on his own. The Steelers defense brought the pressure, sacking Flacco three times en route to the victory. John Harbaugh should be proud of his team’s turnaround in his first season as head coach but will now have to worry about Ray Lewis’ impending free agency. Losing Lewis could be disastrous to that defense’s morale. Running back Willis McGahee took what can only be called a “wicked shot” from Steeler safety Ryan Clark in the fourth quarter and was carted off the field, but he is expected to make a full recovery. Pittsburgh gets to play one more time, only it will be on neutral ground versus a warm-weather team in the Cardinals. It will be Pittsburgh’s defense against Arizona’s offense in the final game (of any significance that is, silly Pro Bowl) of the year.
Catch a special Super Bowl Preview next week!
