A team with a long standing tradition of winning championships will take on a team that some think may be one of the worst franchises in NFL history on Feb. 1^st when the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers take on the NFC champion Arizona Cardinals down in Tampa in Super Bowl 43.

 

The Cardinals will be looking to win a league championship for the first time in 61 mainly woeful seasons. They hung on and defeated the favored Eagles, 32-25 yesterday in front of a packed house

 

And I have to tell you if anyone still thinks the Cardinals are a fluke, I’m not sure you know much about football.

 

Quarterback Kurt Warner is the perfect leader for this team. 

               

He wasn’t good enough to stick with the Rams or Giants, but yesterday threw four touchdown passes against a defense that hadn’t allowed a TD pass in its five previous games.

 

But it wasn’t easy by any means. The Eagles came back and scored 19 points in 8 and half minutes to take a one point lead.  But the Philadelphia defense couldn’t finish. 

 

Warner calmly led the Cardinals 72 yards in 14 plays including a 4^th and 1 conversion that the Giants could get against that Eagles defense last week.

 

Donovan McNabb had one last chance to drive the Eagles into overtime. But he misfired, as he often did in the first half, and the Eagles got no farther than the Arizona 47, where a fourth-and-10 pass to Kevin Curtis fell incomplete.

 

Wide Receiver Larry Fitzgerald was spectacular as he surpassed Jerry Rice’s single postseason yardage record by catching nine passes for 152. Three went for first-half touchdowns. 

 

The Eagles blitzed play after play and that put Fitzgerald in single coverage and he and Warner took advantage of it.

 

And my favorite play of the game, was that flee flicker that went for 62 yards, offensive coordinator Todd Haley called it “Philly Special,” because the same play had worked against the Eagles when he was on Bill Parcells’ staff in Dallas.

 

Now the question, can Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt go back for his second Super Bowl and beat his old team the Pittsburgh Steelers where was the offensive coordinator when they won the Super Bowl.

 

The Cardinals, are often called “Pittsburgh West” because of their many connections to the city and the Steelers, and of course Arizona will be playing in its first Super Bowl.

 

AFC Championship game

 

It was a cold and snowy night at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh last night, but the Pittsburgh Steelers once again relied on their outstanding defense to get them back into the Super Bowl again.

It was finally settled when Steelers Safety Troy Polamalu ended a rolling Baltimore comeback.

 

Polamalu intercepted rookie quarterback Joe Flacco and returned it 40 yards for a touchdown with 4 and a half minutes left in the game.

 

And that sealed the Steelers’ 23-14 victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

 

 

The victory lifted the Steelers into their seventh Super Bowl and a chance to become the first team to win six. Their seven championships are an AFC record.

 

The two big keys in this game, one of course the Steelers defense, which might be one of the best defensives we’ve seen in the NFL in a long time.

 

They really did a job on Ravens rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, forcing him to throw three interceptions he only hit on 13 of his 30 passes for less than 150 yards.

 

The other key was the play of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who threw for 255 yards and did not throw an interception, a very mature performance for a guy who has played in plenty of big games.

 

And this is going to be intriguing as we head to the Super Bowl, this quarterback match up between Rothlisberger and Warner. 

 

Obviously Warner has some years on Ben, Warner’s 37-years old and was a Super Bowl MVP almost a decade ago with the St. Louis Rams.

 

Rothlisberger won a Super Bowl in only his second year; both guys know how to play in the big game.

 

And you’ll hear plenty about the coaching match ups, Ken Wisenhunt wanted to be head coach of the Steelers after Bill Cowher left, but he was passed over for the job in favor of Mike Tomlin from Newport News. Russ Grim a former Steelers coach is in Arizona now

 

And remember, Cardinals receiver Larry Fitgerald played at Pitt when he was in college, so a big Pittsburgh connection there with the Cardinals.

 

               

               

 

               

 

 

 

 

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