Super Bowl Set: Arizona & Pittsburgh

One team headed to Tampa is a surprise, a big surprise. The other club with a spot in Super Bowl LXIII is a familiar face, a very familiar face.

The Arizona Cardinals will make the franchise’s first appearance in the NFL Championship Game in 60 years as the NFC representative after their 32-25 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Their opponent will be the Pittsburgh Steelers, making the franchise’s seventh trip to the Super Bowl and second in the last four years after a bruising 23-14 victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

The Cardinals and Steelers will tee it up somewhere around 5:30 p.m. CST on Sunday, February 1 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The game will be broadcast on NBC.

For statistics and other details on both games, click here for the Cardinals-Eagles, and you can click here for the Steelers-Ravens.

Pittsburgh will try to become the first NFL franchise to win a sixth Super Bowl. Right now, the Steelers, 49ers and Cowboys all own five Lombardi trophies.

Arizona’s trip to Tampa dropped the number of NFL franchises who have never been there to five: Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville and New Orleans.

It was an emotional victory as evidence by the picture at the right of FB Terrelle Smith and DT Gabe Watson after the game at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.

The Cardinals entered the playoffs with the least amount of momentum of any of the 12 teams, but they were able to overcome thanks to a strong defensive effort and the play of their 37-year old quarterback, Kurt Warner. A Super Bowl MVP from almost a decade ago with St. Louis, Warner engineered a 72-yard drive to win it with his fourth TD pass of the day.

The winner was an eight-yard pass to rookie RB Tim Hightower. Warner then hit TE Ben Patrick for the two-point conversion.

“I want to say thanks to all of you guys,” Warner told the crowd during the post-game celebration. “When nobody else believed in us, when nobody else believed in me, you guys did and we’re going to the Super Bowl.”

Back on Thanksgiving night, the Cardinals were blown out by the Eagles 48-20. They rolled into the playoffs having lost four of their last six games to finish the season at 9-7 and the No. 4 seed on the NFC side of the tournament bracket.

“It was a great team win for us,” said head coach Ken Whisenhunt, who in two seasons since joining the team has turned a losing culture into a championship environment.

With post-season victories over Atlanta, Carolina and the Eagles this is the Cardinals winningest season of all time with 12 victories. They’ve already surpassed their total of successful games in the playoffs dating back to when the playoffs began in 1933.

“It’s been a tough number of years here in Arizona,” Whisenhunt admitted.

The key for the Cardinals was the unstoppable WR Larry Fitzgerald, who had nine receptions for 152 yards, including two big catches on the drive that won the game. Fitzgerald set a single post-season record with 419 receiving yards, surpassing the record set by Jerry Rice in the 1988 playoffs.

The Steelers victory over the Ravens was the defensive battle everyone expected. It was a bruising game with numerous players leaving the field because of injuries, including Pittsburgh WR Hines Ward (knee) and Baltimore RB Willis McGahee, who left the field on a stretcher after a vicious hit by Steelers safety Ryan Clark. The Ravens reported he was conscious and had full movement in his arms and legs.

These teams had two touchdowns each. McGahee had TD runs of one and three yards for the Ravens. On the other side, QB Ben Roethlisberger connected with WR Santonio Holmes for a 65-yard score and S Troy Polamalu returned an interception 40 yards for the other Pittsburgh TD.

The Steelers defense forced four Ravens turnovers, including three interceptions by QB Joe Flacco, his first of the post-season. Overall, Baltimore had just 198 offensive yards.