On the flip side of our AFC Championship recap, a bad side of writing is being proven completely wrong after writing an article earlier in the week. This was the case in my NFC Championship preview as I predicted the Eagles would hammer away Arizona 27-10. Barring a missed two point conversion, I almost nailed the Philly score on the dot but I completely underestimated the Arizona offense.

Arizona came out of the gates flying high in this game and completely took Philadelphia by storm. They marched right down the field on the opening drive and capped off a nine play drive with the first of three Larry Fitzgerald touchdowns. Fitzgerald cemented himself as the best wide receiver in the league with another amazing performance. He finished the day with 9 receptions, 152 yards, and 3 touchdowns.

The Eagles tried to keep up but failed to do so in the first half and went into the locker room at halftime down 24-6. Donovan McNabb tried his best to will his team to victory in the 2nd half with two touchdown passes to tight end Brent Celek in the 3rd quarter to bring the score to 24-19. McNabb continued his hot play in the 4th quarter with a highlight reel touchdown to rookie DeSean Jackson, who bobbled the ball all the way into the end zone to give Philly the lead 25-24.

Arizona’s offense, which had been non-existent in the 3rd quarter, finally came back to life and marched right down the field to take the lead. The Cardinals capped the drive off with an 8 yard touchdown pass from Kurt Warner to Tim Hightower and then got the 2 point conversion with a pass to Ben Patrick to make the score 32-25. The Eagles had one final shot to tie the game, and seemed like they were well on their way until the drive came to a screeching half around mid-field. With 4th down and the season on the line, McNabb’s pass to Kevin Curtis fell incomplete, and so Arizona advanced to Super Bowl XLIII for the first time in franchise history.

It goes without saying that many football fans didn’t give the Cardinals a chance to make it out of the first round, let alone take the NFC crown, so as one of those writers I have to give credit where credit is due. The Cardinals will have their hands full with Pittsburgh’s number one defense but they definitely have a shot to take it all.

Look for our Super Bowl XLIII preview coming next week on D&S Sports and stay tuned for plenty more sports articles coming this week.