2009 NFC Championship: Battle of the Birds
The Cardinals and Eagles Play for the Super Bowl on Sunday
Jan 12, 2009 Derek J Griebenow
In the animal kingdom, Cardinals are known as robust, tenacious, fierce fighters, with strong bills. Eagles, on the other hand, are well known for their large size, powerful beaks, strong legs, powerful talons, and extremely keen eyesight.
Cardinals Silence Critics
The Cardinals defense was tenacious in their 33-13 win versus the Panthers. They went into Carolina with a game plan and stuck with it for all four quarters. They knew they had to stop the run game of DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart and they succeeded; holding them to just 75 yards combined.
By stuffing the run Arizona was able to make Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme throw more than he would have liked, forcing him into making several mistakes. Delhomme was intercepted five times and he fumbled once. Happy 34th birthday Jake.
The Cardinals weren’t supposed to win this game. According to some, they shouldn’t have even made it this far. But the team wouldn’t allow any negative talk affect their game. Most teams, for whatever reasons, tend to shy away from the style of play that got them in the playoffs in the first place. Not Arizona, their passing attack is what won them the NFC West crown and they continued to use that same philosophy to beat Carolina.
Running backs Tim Hightower and Edgerrin James also elevated their game and combined for over 100 yards on Saturday. With these two contributing on the ground, and Kurt Warner being so accurate passing the ball, it gives Arizona a deadly combination at the right time. Philly’s defense will have their hands full trying to stop this bunch on Sunday.
Eagles Claw into NFC Championship
It wasn’t a pretty 23-11 victory for the Eagles, but they dug their claws into the Giants and made the stops they had to. The Giants were an awful 3 of 13 (23%) on third down conversions. Eli Manning was not able to get any rhythm going throughout the game and the running game, for the most part was inept.
Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel has the keen eyes to always seem to make the big play at the right time. He is the talons of the Eagles defense. Early in the first quarter Samuel stepped in front of a Manning pass and took it into the end zone for a 7-3 lead that set the tone for the Eagles attack. Eli never recovered from that and the Eagles continued to fight their way to victory.
2009 NFC Championship Game
The Cardinals will bring their tenacious defense and passing attack into Philadelphia and surprise the skeptics once again. The Eagles will attempt to clip the wings of Warner’s passing attack and shut down any attempt to run.
When the season started nobody could have expected to see Arizona battling Philly for the right to go to the Super Bowl. Anyway this game goes, the winner will be most deserving. Stay tuned for Battle of the Birds II if Baltimore can defeat Pittsburgh for their second Super Bowl birth this decade. All hail the birds!
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