This is as good of a writeup as I've seen. It's on the EMB.
http://boards.philadelphiaeagles.com/index.php?showtopic=531343
this is sorta long, so I'm splitting it up a bit
by Tommy Lawlor ,
http://eaglesblitz.blogspot.com
NFC Championship: EAGLES at CARDINALS
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OVERVIEW
The Eagles play on Sunday for the right to go to Tampa. You might say that's not a big deal. We're not talking about a trip to Sacramento, Milwaukee, or Jessica Alba's house after all. But wait. Tampa is hosting the Super Bowl this year. Going there is actually a good thing for once.
The only thing standing between us and a return to the Super Bowl is the Arizona Cardinals. Is that a fantasy or what? We're talking about the Cardinals. No way those guys beat the Eagles, right?
This Cardinals team is different than the one we beat 48-20 on Thanksgiving. That isn't just trite pre-game talk. Think about how different the Eagles are now compared to the team that the Giants beat at midseason. Football teams evolve as the season goes along. The Cardinals are running the ball better and their defense is making plays. They are a quality football team.
Arizona beat the Falcons and Panthers to advance to the NFC championship game. They edged Atlanta 30-24 in a tight game and then demolished Carolina last week. Let's take a look at that game...
LAST WEEK
I went back and re-watched the game last night to see just what happened in more detail. I wanted to see if that score was due to Arizona playing lights out or Carolina coming up small in a big game.
Carolina was awful. If I were a Panthers fan I’d be furious. The team didn’t look prepared. Their effort was inconsistent. They were passive. Jake Delhomme was horrible. The Cardinals deserve credit for taking advantage of the situation and blowing them out, but a lot of media types are going to over-hype Arizona based on last Saturday.
The Panthers’ coaching staff had to be sick as they watched the game. Larry Fitzgerald was left uncovered on a third down play on the Cardinals opening drive. He caught a short pass and turned it into a gain of 31. I don’t mean he was covered by a linebacker or simply had a step on a defensive back. Fitzgerald was uncovered. On the next drive Arizona faced third and goal from the 3-yard line. The Panthers failed to cover running back Tim Hightower and he caught an easy touchdown pass. On both plays you could see Panthers defenders pointing and arguing about who to cover.
The Cardinals have a good offense. Their plays are creative and do feature some confusing elements. Still, you can’t have multiple plays where defenders don’t know who to cover. That is inexcusable in the postseason. There was another goal-to-go play where a linebacker didn’t shift with motion and was completely out of place on a touchdown run where Edgerrin James was untouched. These are simple alignment mistakes that cost the Panthers points and huge chunks of yardage.
Carolina’s defense was very passive in the first half. They sacked Kurt Warner once, but only pressured him on two of his first 15 passes. That means Warner had a nice clean pocket to sit in. How do you let that happen on top of leaving guys uncovered? Yikes. Warner threw 19 passes and the Cardinals scored 27 points in the first half. With no pressure he was very effective. Carolina decided to blitz in the second half and it worked. The blitzing didn’t lead to sacks, but it slowed down Warner. He was only 6 of 13 for 21 yards after halftime. Arizona struggled on offense. They had less than 100 yards in the second half and only scored six points.
Delhomme had six turnovers in the game. It was a nightmare performance for him. I’d tell you I felt bad for the guy, but that would be a lie since he once cost us a trip to the Super Bowl. I was curious to see if Delhomme had a bad game or big time pressure and great defense led to the mistakes. It was mostly Delhomme. His fumble came on a good rush by Antonio Smith. His interceptions were either thrown into double coverage or just sloppy passes in traffic. It was funny to listen to the FOX analysts argue. Tony Siragusa was trying to defend Delhomme, but Darryl Johnston would have none of it. In this case, listen to Moose over Goose.
I’m not trying to say Arizona didn’t play well. They certainly did. The point is that Carolina was terrible and had a significant hand in giving the game away.
HOT TEAMS
I guess you'd call the Cardinals hot. They've won 3 in a row. However, prior to that they'd lost 4 of 5 and were playing horribly. Whatever. They have righted the ship. Turnovers have been huge for them. They have come up with 9 takeaways in 2 playoff games.
The Eagles are red hot. We've won 3 in a row and 6 of 7. And 5 of those wins came against teams with winning records. This isn't a case of beating weak teams or anything like that.
The Cardinals have scored 30 or more points in each of their 3 wins. The Eagles have played great defense during their streak. The defense has allowed 7 TDs in the last 7 games. The defense has scored 4 TDs in that span.
The Eagles have kept games close through halftime in both playoff wins before pulling away late in the game. Donovan McNabb has been a big part of that late success. In the 4th Qtr of the two playoff games he is 11/13 - 176 - 2 TDs - 158.3 rating. That's clutch play from the QB.
PREVIOUS MEETING
The Eagles won on Thanksgiving night, 48-20. Arizona had a terrible game. Their defense couldn't handle Westy. Warner threw 3 picks. Their receivers had a handful of drops. Anquan Boldin played the worst game I've ever seen from him. We also know that teams coming from west to east did not fare well this year.
That game came on a short week of practice so you can bet that those were real basic gameplans. Things will be different this time around. Both the Cards and Eagles will pull out all stops. Anything will go in this kind of a situation.
DEFENSE
We’ll start with the Eagles defense, since that unit is playing brilliantly right now. They know that the first order of business is getting to Warner. Jim Johnson will mix in some blitzes early, but likely will try to let his defensive line do most of the work. If you can pressure Warner with just the front four you are that much better off. The back seven can then focus on coverage.
I’m sure the Eagles pass rushers are excited this week. The last two games they had to focus on the run and couldn’t tee off on the opposing quarterback. This game will be different. The Cardinals like to throw the ball. Trent Cole, Juqua Parker, Darren Howard, and Chris Clemons will be able to get after Warner. They don’t have Adrian Peterson or Brandon Jacobs to worry about. Warner is public enemy number one.
While Warner isn’t the most mobile guy he does an excellent job of moving in the pocket and also avoiding sacks by getting rid of the ball quickly. He was sacked once every 24 pass attempts. That is impressive for a guy of his age and mobility. It goes to show you that a sharp mind and quick release can be just as effective as the ability to scramble.
Warner does not always handle pressure well. We didn't sack him in the Thanksgiving game, but he threw 3 INTs. Kurt needs to have his feet set in order to get the ball off accurately and with good velocity. He's also very much a timing QB. Make him move around in the pocket enough and you'll disrupt the timing of their passing game. Sacks are great, but the key is to get in his face and make him uncomfortable.
JJ has faced Warner quite a few times over the years. He always finds a way to get some pressure. In the 2001 opener Johnson used double CB blitzes, the first time I ever recall that. In 2002 the DL played great and Warner went down 8 times. Jim will come up with something. As I mentioned earlier, the Panthers defense got little pressure in the 1st half and Warner ate them alive. Carolina got creative and aggressive in the 2nd half and Warner couldn't do squat. You must rattle his cage.
The Cardinals offensive line is good, but not great. Those guys are overachiever types, my personal favorite kind of linemen. They don’t have the greatest athletes in the NFL, but those guys will battle you on every snap. Offensive linemen who are well coached and play hard can be very tough to beat. I was surprised at how good a job left tackle Wayne Gandy did on Trent Cole in the first meeting.
I expect the Eagles to play a lot of man coverage underneath. They will probably press, where the defensive backs line up aggressively on receivers and try to either jam them or at least run tightly with them. Jim Johnson will not let Fitzgerald run free this week.
There are a couple of interesting things to consider about the CB/WR matchups. Asante Samuel missed the first game with ARZ. Lito started in his place and gave up 3 TDs. You always want Samuel on the field in a game that will feature a lot of passing. Hanson is solidly the NB this time around. He's playing well right now. I'm curious about Sheldon. He didn't play so well last week in coverage, but played great against ARZ the first time around. I hope we get the good Sheldon.
Quintin Mikell and Brian Dawkins will play a lot of cover 2, where they line up about 15 yards off the ball and split the field in half. That makes it tough for Arizona to throw deep. Mikell and Dawkins are already off the ball and can turn and run if needed. They are able to see the ball in front of them if Warner throws short or over the middle. That’s when they can go attack receivers and pound on them.
There have been holes in our pass defense the last couple of weeks. We've seen various receivers open, only to have the ball off target and end up incomplete. A couple of times we've seen balls dropped. This is something to be somewhat concerned about, but not totally. The defense has been focused on stopping the run recently (because of our opponents). Dawk and Mikell were coming up aggressively against the run. That won't be the case this week. Those two will be deep. Those holes down the field should not be present this week.
With the safeties deep, the front seven will have to play the run well on their own most of the time. Arizona only ran 10 times in the November game. Don’t expect a repeat of that. They’re improved on the ground. Edgerrin James is back to being the primary ball carrier, which allows Hightower to come in with fresh legs and be a very effective backup. I think the Eagles size and speed will be good enough to handle the Cardinals ground attack. James shows a tendency to like to go outside, but he lacks the speed to get there. He still has good vision, but his legs just can’t move like they used to.
The Cardinals will move the ball and score some points. Warner, Fitzgerald, James, Hightower, Steve Breaston, and Anquan Boldin are too good to completely shut down. I think you can count on Boldin playing. He missed last week and I’m sure sitting that game out is eating at him. Add in the fact he really struggled in the first game with us and you can bet he’ll have something to prove. One interesting thing to watch is how the Cardinals handle our defense. They faced the 24th and 18th ranked defenses in the first two rounds. We have the #3 defense in the NFL. Arizona has to be at their best against us, but they will have some success.
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