Jonathan Mohr

Arizona Cardinals 30, Philadelphia Eagles 17 – You read it here first

It’s January, and that means the NFL playoffs are here again. I’m a St. Louis Rams fan, and my team is home watching the action on the tube. But there is a reason for Rams fans to tune in: former Rams’ quarterback Kurt Warner has led the Arizona Cardinals all the way to the NFC Championship Game. Yes, the same football Cardinals that spent decades stinking up the joint in St. Louis are one win away from the biggest stage in sports.

This is a bittersweet moment for fans of the Male Sheep. Bitter because we wish Warner was still taking snaps for our team, and sweet because we’re happy that one of the finest gentlemen in football is tasting playoff success once again. Watching him sling the rock spurs flashbacks of the Greatest Show on Turf.

Those were the days.

These days Warner is connecting with the electrifying Larry Fitzgerald, who might be better than either Isaac Bruce or Tory Holt. Fitzgerald was unstoppable in the Cards’ Divisional Round matchup against the Carolina Panthers. If you didn’t see the game, check out the highlights. Fitzgerald had eight catches for 166 yards, a touchdown, and an answer for every defensive trick the Panthers threw at him. Even when Panther d-backs played perfect coverage and were on him like glue, he still came away with the ball.

The real story of the game was the Cards defense, though. They shut down the Panther’s vaunted ground game, limiting them to 75 yards and often hitting DeAngelo Williams as soon as he touched the ball. More importantly, they forced six – yes six – turnovers. Cards defenders were inside Jake Delhomme’s head all evening, seeming to know where his passes were going even before he did. One analyst surmised that the Cardinals defense must have seen something on film that tipped them off as to where Delhomme was going to throw. Or maybe they pulled a Bill Belichick and figured out a fail-safe way to cheat. Regardless, they dominated Carolina and sent the number two seed packing.

Thanks to that performance, the Cardinals will meet the Philadelphia Eagles in Arizona this Sunday for the right to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. It has been noted that this will be the first time the Cardinals have played in an NFC championship game since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger: they are the only NFL team who has never made it to their conference’s championship contest. This will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Birds’ pathetic history.

The Cardinals will need another top-flight performance if they hope to represent the NFC in the Big Game. The Eagles are one of the hottest acts in the NFL right now. They’ve got a solid defense, a good receiving corps, Brian Westbrook in the backfield and veteran QB Donovan McNabb under center. The Eagles rolled over the defending Super Bowl champion Giants this past weekend, and as the pundits keep pointing out, they blasted the Cardinals 48–20 in a previous meeting on Thanksgiving night.

This is a different Cardinals team than the one that was playing at the end of November, though. They’re on a roll that hopefully will take them all the way to Super Bowl XLIII. So here’s my fearless pick for the weekend: Cardinals 30, Eagles 17. Yes, you read that correctly: the Cardinals will win by 13. Anquan Boldin (hopefully) will  be back in the lineup for the Cards, and I think the combination of he and Fitzgerald will be more than the Eagles can handle.

Go ahead, bet the house on my projected outcome. Just don’t come crying to me if you don’t have anywhere to sleep when next Sunday evening rolls around.

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