Exactly how have the Arizona Cardinals come to this point? Larry Fitzgerald is a big part of that. He has been running on fumes the whole postseason. He’s broken team records and scored a whole bunch of touchdowns. Another reason is that Kurt Warner is really playing at the top of his game as well. It’s not quite as good as it was back in his heyday in St. Louis, when he could just launch a big throw that went right into the endzone. It’s great to see him now, though, playing a smaller game than he did before. Yes, he throws big passes every once in awhile, but it’s not as often as it was with the Rams. Between the two of them, they’re going to give the Steelers a real run for their money this weekend!

Kurt Warner for the Hall of Fame? This has become a major discussion in the last couple of days and it’s getting hard to tell whether this is a serious issue or just the kinds of thing we talk about during the open week before the Super Bowl. So that’s why I’m talking about it, anyway. There is a case to be made that Kurt Warner will deserve to make the Hall of Fame. He wasn’t drafted to begin his career and in the end he’s won one Super Bowl and will be playing for another one this coming weekend. He’s an impressive QB who’s come back from injuries and moves to different franchises to make it to the playoffs some more. He’s taken what would normally be an awful team and turned them into championship contenders. Anyone think he shouldn’t be in? I’d appreciate your comments.

So what are Arizona’s chances in the Super Bowl next weekend? It’s hard to tell. The early odds had Pittsburgh ahead of them by about 6-7 points and so the Steelers are the favorites. But remember, Arizona has been beating out a lot of different teams that they weren’t expected to win against, including high ranked teams. They were also really bad at the end of the regular season. As a result, we’re going to see Arizona try to take the underdog style again, flummox the other team’s offense and try to keep their own offense moving and do unexpected moves along the way. It will be exciting to see, because Arizona has been good at this kind of trickery before, so perhaps they will get it in again.

The Pittsburgh mayors name change must have worked. Mr. Steelerstahl’s team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, took the AFC Championship game by the score of 23-14 against their divisional rival Baltimore Ravens. It was, by and large, a good game. The Steelers took an early lead. Baltimore came up to take a slight lead during the second half but that was short lived, as the Steelers defense closed up and caused 3 interceptions and a couple of fumbles. The final straw for the Ravens was an interception by Troy Polamalu, who returned it 40 yards for a touchdown with only about 4 minutes left in the game. The Steelers are going back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2005.

Now that Baltimore has proven (at least when it counts) to be the more capable defense against the Tennessee Titans, they will now have to take on the reputed best in the league in the Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s a match between number 1 and number 2. For John Harbaugh and his vicious defense, the hope is that the third time proves to be the charm against the Steelers. After a 23-20 overtime loss on September 29th and a 13-9 loss on Decemeber 14th, it’s now a clean slate for the postseason. And if the old adage proves true that “defense wins championships,” the winner of this game will have a more than healthy chance off securing the Super Bowl trophy.

Who would’ve thunk it this year? There have been several very dominant teams throughout the season and then a few kind of good teams, and then some mediocre teams. The Tennessee Titans seemed like the team to beat. So they got beat this weekend, by the Baltimore Ravens 13-10. This was definitely a shocker on Saturday. But then there came another game, another shocker, with the Arizona Cardinals taking down the Carolina Panthers 33-13. Carolina and Tennessee have been two of the major teams this season, but they couldn’t hold up. On Sunday, we saw the NFC first place team, NY Giants lose 23-11 to the Eagles. And then the Steelers beat the Chargers 35-24. What a weekend.

Let’s put it this way: when the Titans host the Ravens this Saturday at 4:30 ET, offense isn’t in the spotlight, nor will it likely prove to be the difference maker. With two of the top 10 defenses going against each other (Baltimore is number 2 and Titans…7?, teeth will shatter and bones will crumble. It’s basically going to be a grueling rematch, where there week 5, 13-10 Tennessee victory, left off. The Ravens are probably the most vaunted defense at this point, which has the Titans defense a bit on the defensive. They feel they have more than enough talent to leave Baltimore in the dust.

With all the playoffs and stuff, you’d think that the biggest news would have something to do with one of the playoff teams. But no, some of the biggest news has to do with the teams that are no longer in the playoffs. For example, Tony Dungy may or may not return to the Indianapolis Colts. I don’t know how that’s going to work out, but gosh. What will the Colts do without him if he decides to go. The reason for him thinking about leaving is that his family lives in Florida and he’s been commuting back and forth from home during the last few seasons. He is still deciding how long he wants to remain in the NFL and balance his family and football duties. Anyway, it’s good to have someone who thinks that way in the sports world.

There seems almost too much to write about for the upcoming weekend of playoff football. We’ve got the Arizona Cardinals clinching the NFC West for the first time in…possibly ever; The New York Giants returning to the playoffs to defend their well-deserved title; Chad Pennington (former Jets QB, ousted by the arrival of Brett Favre) and his Miami Dolphins clinching the AFC East, one year after their 1-15 record; the return of the Steel Curtain for the Pittsburgh Steelers; two rookie QBs leading their teams into the playoffs (Ravens, Falcons); and two last second qualifiers in the Chargers and Eagles, each of which seemed definitely out of the playoffs only a month ago. With all of this huge storylines that have potential for growth, the postseason and Super Bowl are definitely going to be interesting. Just for the hell of it though, I say Ravens versus Giants. Winner TBD.