by Michael DeLuca
Two more underdogs won on Saturday as both the Baltimore Ravens and Arizona Cardinals will now compete in the Conference Championship games for a chance to head to the Super Bowl. This year’s media (and bettor) darlings, the Panthers and Colts are both gone, as predicted by yours truly.
The Arizona Cardinals 33 to 13 drubbing of the Carolina Panthers insured one thing…that the winner of today’s matchup between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles will be heading to the Super Bowl. Arizona’s had an impressive two week run, but neither the Falcons nor the Panthers measure up to the Giants or Eagles, both of whom have already defeated Arizona once this year.
In the AFC, don’t sleep on the Baltimore Ravens. They may have gotten in with the 6th seed, but they are eerily similar to the 05′ Steelers, who snuck in with the #6 seed and also featured a dominant defense and a young QB from a little known school, Ben Roethlisberger from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. That team went on to win Super Bowl XL. The most interesting part is that it will most likely be the Steelers they have to go through on their road to the dance!
Some more NFL notes-
Look for Jake Delhomme to be cut by the Carolina Panthers this offseason. His cap number is high, production was low, and they’re not in great salary cap shape. They’d like to resign both DE Julius Peppers and OT Jordan Gross, cutting Delhomme would get them a lot closer to making that a possibility. If Gross is to land elsewhere, Philadelphia would be a likely destination.
Adam Schefter of NFL Network is reporting that Eagles secondary coach Sean McDermott, is among the finalists for the position of defensive co-ordinator for the Green Bay Packers. I suppose that with the success of John Harbaugh and Steve Spagnuola, we shouldn’t be surprised.
I have a feeling that the Eagles are going to make it 3 birds…