Cardinals make pundits appear, well, stupid

ON FOOTBALL

In case you've been shacked up for the last 30-plus hours, the Arizona Cardinals are headed to the Super Bowl.

OK, let me repeat myself: The Arizona Cardinals — that team that pundits wrote off as "done" in late December; that team that pundits said had "no chance" at winning a playoff game; that team that pundits labeled "soft" — are headed to the Super Bowl.

The Cardinals will take on the mighty, tradition-filled Pittsburgh Steelers. They will, undoubtedly, be a big underdog come Feb. 1. People in the media will say things like, "The Steelers are simply too physical, too strong, too tough for them." And on goes the blabber machine...

Let me rewind the clock a mere four weeks. On Sunday, Dec. 21, the Cardinals played the New England Patriots. Well, that's a nice way to put it. In truth, the Cardinals let the Patriots bully them all over the snow-covered field in Foxboro, Mass.

The result was an embarrassing 47-7 spanking, which amounted to Arizona's fourth loss in five games. The Cardinals had clinched the anemic NFC West a couple weeks earlier, but after the debacle at New England close to no one considered Arizona a playoff team.

And with good reason. Because that Sunday afternoon, the Cardinals played more like an 0-16 team (no more Lions references, I promise). If Arizona played close to as bad as it did against the Pats in January, its season would end rather quickly — and in ugly, sobering fashion.

But here's the thing, which the mainstream media often seems to ignore. A team should never — ever — be judged on one game, or even three games, during a 16-game season. There's a reason the Cardinals won nine regular-season games. There's a reason they defeated a super-talented Cowboys team and won at Seattle, which is never an easy place to play regardless of how bad the Seahawks are.

And, most important, they made the playoffs. The postseason, people should know by now, is a completely different season. Records should be thrown out the window come January; head-to-head results from November don't matter (just ask the bitter Eagles, who destroyed Arizona on Thanksgiving).

The evidence is glaring. Just look at two of the three Super Bowl champions: Last season, the Giants barely made the playoffs as the fifth seed and won three road playoff games; In 2005, the Steelers were the sixth seed and had to win three road games.

Even the 2006 Colts had to win three playoff games, including a road game in freezing Baltimore, and overcome mighty New England in the AFC title game to reach and win the Super Bowl.

The point is that no team can be ruled out. Not even the Cardinals. Did I think I'd see them in the Super Bowl three weeks ago? Of course not. But I certainly wasn't ruling them out at home against a young, inexperienced Falcons team. And once they built up momentum from that game, it carried over the next weekend in Carolina and then Sunday against the Eagles.

Each week, they were doubted. The "experts" picked the other team, almost unanimously. The Cardinals proved just about everyone wrong. Now those experts are lauding them, throwing out all sorts of platitudes when praising the team they thought had no chance to win a single playoff game a few weeks ago.

I know this sounds simplistic, but when a pair of teams full of players who are the best at what they do meet — anything can happen. Any group of top-notch football players and coaches, with the right mindset and confidence, can win on Any Given Sunday.

So go ahead, place your bets with the Steelers. Call that defense impenetrable. Heck, I'll probably pick them to win too.

But I won't be the least surprised, shocked or amazed if the Cardinals pull off the upset and win their first Super Bowl.

It'd be an appropriate ending to what should be called their "Prove All Those Doubters Wrong" playoff run.

McNabb's ignorance is shocking, unaceptable

ON FOOTBALL

A couple of things stand out about Donovan McNabb that have not a thing to do with football.

I admire him for both attributes.

First off, it has to be mentioned that the guy has a great smile. There aren't that many quarterbacks who get beat up each Sunday afternoon only to smile every time they're thrown to the cold turf by a 292-pound, angry defensive lineman. McNabb is one tough dude and an auspicious one.

He usually sees the glass half full.

And then there's his other likable trait. The man is very honest. For the most part, he speaks the truth. In today's jaded sports world, he stands out in that regard.

But, unfortunately, I must say I think less of McNabb the football player, and this may be a result of his honestly. McNabb didn't have to come out after Philadelphia's brutal 13-13 tie with Cincinnati Sunday and say this, but I guess he wasn't ashamed of it. He should have been:

"I've never been a part of a tie. I never even knew that was in the rule book," McNabb said. "It's part of the rules, and we have to go with it. I was looking forward to getting the opportunity to get out there and try to drive to win the game. But unfortunately, with the rules, we settled with a tie."

I was shocked by McNabb's revelation. It's one thing for a rookie wide receiver, such as his teammate Desean Jackson, to not know the rule. But for a quarterback, who directs the offense and decides when to snap the ball, to be oblivious to the fact that overtime is just 15 minutes is, well, just plain unacceptable.

And to think that McNabb has been in the NFL for 10 seasons. That's an eternity for a football player, folks. McNabb has played in a Super Bowl. He led the Eagles to four consecutive conference-championship games. Yet in a game Philadelphia desperately needed to win over a one-win team Sunday, McNabb didn't know that his team needed to score in the first 15 minutes of extra time to do just that.

I like McNabb, he's a good guy, but that's just sad, pitiful, unexplainable. Just hear what he had to say about a possible "tie" in the playoffs.

"I hate to see what would happen in the Super Bowl and in the playoffs."

Uh, Donovan, there are no "ties" in the playoffs. Those are the only games that would be decided in the manner you thought Sunday's ugly back-and-forth would end. There obviously can't be ties in the postseason. Even the average Bengals fan knows that.

McNabb's defenders claim that his ignorance had no effect on the game, that it would have reached the same result if he had known about the rule. I can't agree or disagree with this. I (thankfully) didn't see a minute of the game.

But let me ask this: Would it hurt McNabb to be aware of the rule? The obvious answer is no. Scouring the play-by-play of overtime — yes, I'm brutally honest too — I noticed that on Philadelphia's last legitimate possession that begin with 1 minute, 50 seconds to go, the Eagles faced a third-and-10 at their 13-yard line.

Some context: Philadelphia had smartly used its two allotted timeouts during Cincinnati's previous possession — apparently oblivious to McNabb. So this was its last chance to win the game. If the Bengals got the ball back, they'd definitely try to score. But Philly wouldn't get the pigskin back, again, with enough time to get into field-goal range.

So what did McNabb do on Philly's final meaningful offensive play, needing 10 yards? He threw a 9-yard pass to Kevin Curtis — and then headed to the sideline.

The Eagles punted. The Bengals, led by Ryan Fitzpatrick in his 12th career game, quickly drove into field-goal range. Shayne Graham missed his game-winning attempt. And Philly got the ball back with 7 seconds remaining. As McNabb took the field, he was finally told that he was a touchdown of ticks way from a tie.

So he heaved a deep pass, which was easily broken up. And the NFL had its first tie since 2002.

It doesn't matter what might have happened had McNabb read the NFL rulebook or gone online — like I just did in 27 seconds — to read the explanation of overtime. The point here is that one of the NFL's elite quarterbacks, one of its better-paid QBs, didn't know a very simple rule that the average football fan is well aware of.

This also begs the question of just how smart of a quarterback McNabb is. We all know what happened in Super Bowl XXXIX, which caused mercurial wide receiver Terrell Owens to publicly criticize McNabb and probably helped lead to Owens' exile from the City of Brotherly Love.

In that game, with the Eagles trailing 24-14, McNabb and the offense took nearly 4 minutes to drive 79 yards on 13 plays and finally score a touchdown with 1:48 to play. It would have been fine if the Eagles were down just a touchdown. But as was the case, McNabb's casualness in marching his team down the field forced Philly to attempt an onside kick.

The Patriots recovered, and even though Philly forced a punt with less than a minute remaining, the Eagles started their final possession at their own 4-yard line. A McNabb interception quickly put an end to the drama.

No one will argue that scoring against that Patriots' defense was no easy task. But how quickly you get your team to the line of scrimmage and snap the ball is not affected by the opposition. McNabb should have shown more desperation in getting his team down the field.

(Head coach Andy Reid should have also received criticism for not getting the offense in hurry-up mode.)

So here we are, almost four years later, and again McNabb's acumen must be questioned. His arm can't be questioned. Nor should we doubt his ability to thread the needle on tough throws. And he can still get out of the pocket and run on occasion. He remains a very able quarterback.

But to excel at the toughest position on the football field, one must be a complete player — both in mind and body.

Here's to hoping one of the NFL's most likable, and honest, guys spends a few minutes this week to read over not only his Eagles playbook, but the NFL rulebook as well.

Because for a soon-to-be 32-year-old (the big day is Nov. 25) quarterback and offensive leader, McNabb should be one of the more knowledgeable players on his team.

Right now, his ignorance smells almost as bad as Jackson's dropping of the football before crossing the goal line in his second career league game.

Westbrook's smart move

ON FOOTBALL

Brian Westbrook is now — officially — my favorite NFL player.

I’ve never pretended that my 6-foot, 161-pound frame could last a second in the NFL. But I’ve always believed that I could assist a team as a game manager. There are so many situations where I look at the TV and wonder, What was he thinking?

Coaches not using their timeouts. Players running out of bounds when they need to keep the clock running. Players staying in bounds when they need to stop the clock. You get the point.

I’ve seen it all, and although I don’t pretend that — in the heat of battle — I would make the right decision, coaches and players sometimes appear, no offense, so dumb. (And, no, it’s not because many players didn’t graduate from college; it’s common-sense dumb.)

But not Westbrook, the Eagles’ durable running back. He made possibly the smartest play I’ve ever seen on a football field in Philadelphia’s 10-6 upset of Dallas Sunday afternoon. A win that keeps the Eagles, at 6-8, on the fringe of the NFC playoff picture.

Leading 10-6 with just over two minutes remaining, Westbrook broke through the Dallas defense and was in the clear. He was racing toward the end zone. He could have pranced into pay dirt, maybe done a little prancing, maybe taunted the Dallas crowd. You know, the usual for NFL players celebrating touchdowns.

And the Eagles would have been up 17-6 with just 2 minutes remaining. They would have been in great shape to finish off the road victory. But it wouldn’t have been over. Not with Dallas’ offense back on the field.

So what did Westbrook do? The unthinkable. He angered fantasy owners across the country by abruptly falling at the 1-yard line. The voluble Cowboys fans in the bar I was in were incredulous. They called Westbrook all kinds of vulgar names.

But they knew. Everyone knew that Dallas, devoid of timeouts, was officially done when Westbrook hit the Texas Stadium turf. After the 2-minute warning, all it took were three kneel-downs by Donovan McNabb, and the clock hit 0:00.

The chance of Tony Romo, even with a bum thumb, leading Dallas to two scores in 2 minutes is much greater than the chance of McNabb fumbling one of three snaps. I feel very, very safe saying this.

Which is why Westbrook’s decision was so brilliant. It, ultimately, ended the game. Kept T.O. — and his popcorn — on the sideline.

I’m not a big “favorites” guy. Too many guys make silly, sometimes game-costing errors at a point during a 16-game season. Placing the “favorite” tag is downright dangerous.

But I feel comfortable calling Westbrook my favorite NFL player. All it took was one acute, selfless play at the end of a long afternoon in Big D.

More than likely, nobody will talk about Westbrook’s decision after the next day or two. That’s fine.

But the Eagles should be comforted that they have a heady player in their backfield.