Larry Fitzgerald was electrifying..........                    and Santonio Holmes looked good too Photo by Jamie Squire - Getty                                                 Photo by Gene J. Puskar-AP

I did it again.  In my last article, I spent paragraph after paragraph espousing the good points of the Arizona Cardinals, the defense especially, as everybody knew their offense was incredible.  And then I picked the Eagles to win.  What a dummy!

My premise was flawed.  It was that McNabb would get the time to throw to his myriad of receivers, as he did against seemingly everybody else.  And, if he didn’t get the time, he’d run away.  I also thought the Eagles secondary was too good; would never allow Fitzgerald and Boldin to beat them. 

So, for 3 weeks running now, I’ve been right on the OTHER game but wrong on the Cards.  It goes against my nature to get behind a team that totally quit for much of the second half of the season, a team that let the Patriots tar and feather them on a day I had no alternative game to watch, a team that totally ruined one whole Sunday in my life.

With all of that though, the Eagles could have won the game.  I guess if Kevin Curtis could catch everything thrown his way, or if guys like Avant and Baskett could get open a little more often, they’d all be making a lot more money.  The Eagles SHOULD have scored more points.  But, in the end, of course, it was the Eagles defense that lost the game, or, conversely, the Arizona offense that ultimately won the game. 

In the end, the Eagles just had to stop the Cards to go to the Super Bowl.  They could not.  They couldn’t stop Warner and they couldn’t stop the run in the two chances they had in that Cards final drive to stop them.  On third and two, they stopped Hightower for just one, but on 4^th and 1, they gave up six yards.  Then, on a 3^rd and 1 later in the drive, they let Hightower get the corner for another first down.  They let Hightower kill them on that drive, as the big Cards bruiser caught the 8-yard TD pass for the clincher.

I say “clincher” but, even at that point in the game, the Eagles could have come back.  That they didn’t wasn’t McNabb’s fault.  Curtis’s drop of still another pass he should have had on 4^th down sealed the Eagles fate. 

So much for an all-Pennsylvania final.  And so much for my handicapping.  I have to admit it was a great game; you couldn’t ask for more.  And who cares about Pennsylvania anyway?

The Steelers game went pretty much according to form.  In the end, it was just too much Polamalu, too much Steelers defense, and too much of Big Ben.  Roethlisberger showed why he was a Number 1 pick, consistently buying time by scrambling and finding open receivers downfield.  

Polamalu’s INT  was really the game-breaker though. Until then, the Ravens still had a hell of a shot.  Flacco threw one more INT later on, when he was forced to pass, but, in my eyes, Flacco was pretty damned good yesterday.  If he had some receivers like Santonio Holmes, he would have looked even better.

So much for the Championship Games.  Now we can look forward to two full weeks of hoopla, hoopla that I studiously ignore year after year.  Besides, there are some big things happening in Jets-land, and pitchers and catchers report to spring training in about a month.  

The Jets just selected Rex Ryan as their next head coach.  If anybody can put a charge into that moribund Jets defense, it’s Rex Ryan.  I have no idea what he’ll be able to pull off on the other side of the ball, but, at the very least, maybe he’ll be able to rein in crazy Schottenheimer and his totally inaccurate old-man of a quarterback.

And, if Favre won’t be coming back (please God), Jets fans will probably be in for some crazy games in the short term, until the management can decide on somebody else.  If the Jets could pick up a breakaway threat at wide receiver, things might even start to look rosy, or rosier anyway.  Oh, and did I mention that Tom Brady will be back next year? 

Best for Jets fans though, is not having to watch Eric Mangini process his way through another press conference.  We might just even see a little emotion when his team throws in a clinker or two, or three, as they did this year.  Maybe he’ll even do a Singletary and pull his pants down! 

The Giants, though, they finally lost Spagnolo.  That will be a big hit on the defense, especially if the new guy brings in a totally different scheme.  I’m hoping they keep the same scheme.  It sure seems to work, and it’ll work all that much better when Osi Umenyiora returns. (This just in-the Giants are promoting Bill Sheridan from within-YAY!!) 

What a crazy year though!  Miami and Chad Pennington come back from the dead.  Two rookie quarterbacks, Flacco and Matt Ryan, lead their teams to the playoffs.  Arizona and their chronically inept owners are going to the Super Bowl.  Tony Dungy quits, Chucky gets fired down in Tampa.  And what about that crazy Wildcat offense!

Pretty soon, we may even be able to turn our thoughts to the basketball season.  Not that the NY pro teams are doing anything noteworthy yet, but D’Antoni gives the fans at least some hope and Brook Lopez, the Nets rookie center, is starting to show why he was a Number 1 pick. 

In college basketball, there won’t be much going on locally.  Seton Hall is getting killed in the very tough Big East and Rutgers, while showing a lot of fight, can’t really be expected to do a lot.  Even the Rutgers women’s team is having a tough time in the early going.

Thank God for baseball and the Mets!  Francisco Rodriguez, J.J. Putz, a real live relief staff – prospects for a NY World Series.

   
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