Cardinals Advance to Super Bowl Behind Smith's Explosive, Incendiary Performance
The Cardinals and Rams met up for the third and final time this year to decide the NFC Championship game. Things started out poorly for the Cards, as they were forced to punt on their first offensive possession and, on a 3rd and short, Tom Brady ran a nice play action pass and then found fullback Jameel Cook who was embarrassingly wide open and took it an 80 yards for a touchdown, shocking the home crowd into silence.
They would not be quiet for very long though, as the incendiary Steve Smith took the resulting kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. The Cardinals would score two more touchdowns, including an explosive 37 yard pass to Smith.
Arizona was efficiently driving down the field and was in prime position to put the game away by scoring a fourth touchdown right before the half ended, but Jason Campbell got hit before he was able to find a wide open Dustin Keller. The resulting duck was grabbed by Carlos Rogers and returned 90 yards to bring the Rams within 7.
Both teams scored another touchdown in the 4th, but St. Louis was unable to execute an onside kick down a score with under two minutes left allowing the Cardinals to wrap things up and secure the Super Bowl birth.
Rams - 21
Cardinals - 31
The media coverage in the two (virtual) weeks until the Super Bowl will likely revolve around the history between the two coaches involved, who both have Super Bowl experience against each other. Both coaches have tried to insist that it isn't a big deal as it was earlier in their coaching careers and with different squads, but the 24 hour sports news cycle continues to harp on it.