Last weekend’s games taught me next to nothing about the 4 remaining teams.  Is the Cardinals D really suddenly inspired, or did Delhomme’s intestines just try to pass a dinosaur egg last Saturday night?  Yes, the Ravens won, but their performance was still ragged and Tennessee even proved that you can run on the Baltimore D.  The Eagles are a bad match-up for the Giants, especially when you mix the blitzing Eagles with the dead-man-walking Giants receiving corpses.  So how good is Philly, really?  Pittsburgh looked the most solid but is always one Big Ben concussion away from turmoil.  Let’s get this sorted out…

Philadelphia at Arizona

I think both of these teams entered the playoffs with limited pressure and low expectations, and both have responded by playing their best ball at the perfect time.  I elect to compare the QBs and defenses to help build some separation between the squads.  Bag Boy and McNabb are both fragile players who can implode and smear pooh all over a game; however I predict a well-played, high scoring game from both.  Perhaps McNabb will make one play with his legs, either an elongated scramble to steal a first down or a long jailbreak run down the stretch.  On the defensive side of the ball, Bag Boy will have success but the Eagle secondary is going to make him work for it.  The Cardinal o-line is going to come back down to Earth, forcing Bag Boy to hurry some throws, possibly coughing up the rock a couple times.   After all these incoherent ramblings, all you need to know is Eagles 31, Cardinals 27.

Baltimore at Pittsburgh

I’m embarrassed to reveal how much time I spent thinking about this game.  First, let me say I’ll be glad when this game is over, so I can stop hearing “Hide the women and children, smash mouth football forthcoming!  Gagaga!”  Shut up already.  Yes, these are good defenses.  Yes, it is going to be cold.  We get it, thanks.  Let me also say that as a Clevelander and avid hater of both the Ravens and Steelers, this is a lose-lose scenario for me personally.  Every logical fiber in my pea-head is advising me to pick the Steelers.  They have played an impossible schedule and won big games all year long.  They have winning Super Bowl experience.  The long season without a real bye finally appears to be taking a toll on the Ravens.  Derrick Mason is unleashing press conference rhymes that can only be used against him later as incrementing footage.  Joe F. Flacco is under center and it is going to be like 9 degrees, and don’t forget that a rookie head-coach is in charge.  But this version of the Ravens will not die, and I predict them to somehow scrape and claw their way into another absolutely disgusting, enraging, illogical victory.  Ravens 16, Steelers 13