NFC Semifinals: Cardinals/Panther and Eagles/Giants

Wild-card weekend has passed. There were some very exciting games and some surprise endings. Now we are getting ready for some interesting matchups in the NFC semifinals this coming weekend.

The 9-7 Arizona Cardinals will be making a trip out to Carolina to face the NFC South division champs, the Carolina Panthers.

Both Carolina and Arizona are divisional winners. That being said, the combined record of Arizona’s division was 22-42. Carolina played in one of the NFL’s most competitive divisions having a combined record of 40-24.

Coming into the game this weekend, Carolina is coming off a bye and Arizona is coming off a surprising 30-24 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

The Falcons had a league leading rusher in Michael Turner and Matt Ryan at quarterback was rookie of the year.

The Cardinals struggled late in the regular season and their defence was terrible against the run. Against Atlanta, the Cardinals shut down Michael Turner and their explosive offence was clicking on all cylinders.

Although the Cardinals ran a video game style offence during the regular season, rushing only 34 percent of their plays, they got their rushing game going against the Falcons with Edgerrin James.

Carolina, on the other hand, finished their season strong going 4-1 in their last five games of the regular season. Arizona is going to have their hands full with the Carolina Panthers this weekend. Unlike Atlanta, Carolina has a few more weapons on offense, an experienced quarterback and a Pro Bowl receiver.

Carolina presents Arizona with a three-headed demon, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart ran for 2351 yards and 28 touchdowns. The other head of the demon is Pro-Bowl receiver Steve Smith, who caught 78 for 1421 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Arizona is going to have to play the run even harder then they did against Atlanta because Carolina has been running all over teams. What makes defending the run more difficult against Carolina is the fact that they have veteran deep threat Steve Smith and returning veteran receiver Muhsin Muhammad.

Arizona won’t be able to cheat up with the safety Antrel Rolle like they did against Atlanta, because Rolle is going to have to be ready to help over top against Steve Smith.

Carolina is going to have to deal with an explosive Arizona passing attack.

Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald are both going to the pro-bowl after combing for 2469 yards and 23 touchdowns. Throwing to the two pro-bowlers is veteran quarterback Kurt Warner who is also going to the pro-bowl and has won a Super Bowl in 1999 with the Rams.

Carolina is going to have to count on their leading pass rusher Julius Peppers and their secondary to try and shutdown Arizona’s aerial attack. If they concentrate on the Cardinals' aerial attack too much, Arizona maybe able to get their running game going for the second week in a row.

Carolina should come away with this game, they had the better regular season record, their defence is tougher and they have a much better rushing attack.

About the only place Arizona has the upper hand on Carolina is their passing attack.

Everyone knows hard running and tough defence wins championships, it will be up to the Cardinal squad to prove otherwise. I would expect this game to be a high-scoring affair, possibly surpassing 50 points.

This brings us to our next NFC semifinal matchup between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles faced Minnesota in the playoffs, and although it wasn’t a blow out, the result was expected.

The Eagles defence has been lights out the last few weeks and their secondary is loaded.

Minnesota, although good against the run on defence and running the ball on offense with Adrian Peterson, doesn't have a strong enough passing game, mainly due to inexperienced quarterback Tarvaris Jackson. The passing defence on the Vikings has been suspect at times as well.

The New York Giants are last year's Super Bowl champs.

The Giants dominated the NFC East division in spite of great adversity after the loss of players like Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, and the drama surrounding Plaxico Burress. 

Luckily for the Giants, pass rushers Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka have filled in nicely for Strahan and Umenyiora.

On offense, although the Giants’ passing game is far from spectacular, they have three great running backs. Jacobs, Ward, and Bradshaw have averaged a league-leading 157 yards per game for the Giants.

The regular season games between the Giant and Eagles were split one a piece, with each one being won by less than a touchdown.

The Eagles-Giants game is really dependent on one thing: Donovan McNabb.

If McNabb is on, I think the Giants will have trouble winning this game. If Donovan does like he has done in many past playoff games and starts throwing interceptions at key moments, then the Giants will win this game for sure.

In the end, we will probably see the Carolina Panthers face-off against the New York Giants in the NFC Championship game. Carolina is stronger than Arizona in almost every aspect of the game and the New York Giants have a stronger running game and have been more consistent than the Eagles have.

In any case, a great weekend of football lies ahead of us and will bring us that much closer to Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa Bay, FL.