COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

STEELERS 23 RAVENS 14 It was not pretty but the Steelers are on their way to the Super Bowl for the seventh time in franchise history where they will look to become the most successful franchise in NFL history with a sixth Super Bowl title. How did Pittsburgh get back to the Bowl? They beat up the rival Baltimore Ravens in snowy and cold Pittsburgh Sunday night.Offensivley the Steelers had trouble at times navigating through the tough Ravens defense, but they found ways to eat up enough clock with short passes and a decent running game. But the story of the day had to be the Steelers defense. (What else is new!) The Steelers defense dominated the Ravens entire offense, putting tons of pressue on rookie Joe Flacco, who was completely flat tonight. Statistically, Flacco was 13 of 30 for 141 yards and three interceptions, which comes out to a quarterback rating of 18.2. Still, the Ravens found a way to hang around. Entering the fourth quarter down 16-7, the Ravens took advantage of good f...

CARDINALS 32 EAGLES 25 If it seems unseasonably cold around where you live it is because Hell has frozen over, and the planets have realigned. The Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl! That's right; this is not a typo; the Arizona Cardinals are going to Super Bowl XLIII. BOXSCORE . The Cards are indeed the Cinderlla story of 2008-2009 after a come-from-behind 32-25 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at University of Phenoix Stadium in Glendale Arizona. The Cards showed great heart after blowing a 24-6 halftime lead only to see Donovan McNabb light it up in the second half to take a 25-24 lead lat e in the fourth quarter. Most teams would crawl under the benches when a better team like the Eagles makes a great comeback, but not this version of the Cardinals. Kurt Warner, who was brilliant all day, completing 21 of 28 passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns, engineered a 14 play 72 yard drive for the winning touchdown. On second and 10 from the Arizona 27, Warner hit Larr...

BALTIMORE RAVENS (13-5) @ PITTSBURGH STEELERS (13-4) It is good thing that this game will be higlighted in prime time on Sunday night, because it is the type of game that you keep the kids away from watching. No the game is not rated TV-MA, but considering the number of bone-crushing hits that are to occur in this one, it might as well have a rating. The Ravens and Steelers hate each other with a passion. It is a rivarly that goes all the way back to when the Ravens used to be the Cleveland Browns, before moving to Baltimore in 1996, as the Browns and Steelers always met to clash for a division title in the old AFC Central. Since the Ravens came into existence, the theme has stayed the same, especially this year. In week 15, the Steelers stood at 10-3 and the Ravens were just a game behind at 9-4. The winner would not only win the AFC North, but would have the inside track on the number two seed in the AFC playoffs. The Ravens had the upper hand for three quarters as they built up a 9...

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (11-6-1) @ ARIZONA CARDINALS (11-7) If someone came up to me on Thanksgiving night, November 27, and told me that the prime time game between the Eagles and Cardinals would be a preview of the NFC Championship game some two months later, I would consider this person insane. But it is true the Cards and Eagles are here and have earned it every step of the way. After stumbling down the stretch and finishing at 9-7, noone expected much noise from the Cardinals in the postseason. They failed to win games on the east coast, failed to run the football effectively and failed to stop any opposing offense during the regular season. Something changed in the playoffs. The Cards discovered a ground attack with Edgerin James rushing for 73 yards on Atlanta in the wild card playoffs. Kurt Warner was decent in the game, completing 19 of 32 passes and throwing two touchdowns as Arizona outlasted the Falcons 30-24. However, it was their performance against the Panthers that is the b...

EAGLES 23 GIANTS 11 The clock has struck midnight for the New York Giants and their defense of a world championship. A year ago, the Giants were the hottest team in football, capturing the attention of all New Jersey and New York fans as they triumphed over the unbeaten Patriots. Today, the Giants were chumps, losing their fourth game of their last five and playing mistake-filled football all afternoon. All the good will that the Giants created over the last year is now gone. The critics of Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin will be back very soon, especially after today's performance. Eli Manning looked a lot like the Eli Manning that was villified by New Yorkers from 2004 to the mid-season of 2007. Manning undershot his receivers all day long; his passes floated listlessly in the air, hitting the ground in front of desperate receivers who had to come back to the ball in order to catch it. It didn't help that receivers Steve Smith and Domieck Hixon kept dropping passes, making it ob...

CARDINALS 33 PANTHERS 13 Every year a team seemingly comes out of nowhere, that nobody talks about, finds a way to not only win in the postseason but make histroy by doing it. The Cardinals, who are the NFL's oldest franchise and one of six teams to have never played in a Super Bowl will be going to the NFC Championship Game for the first time ever. The Cardinals dominated the Carolina Panthers 33-13, as they tormented Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme, picking off the quarterback five times and stripping him for a fumble. As a result, the Cards scored 23 points off Carolina turnovers on the evening and look like world beaters after everyone counted them out before the playoffs started. If you need to know how much the Cards were expected to lose today, in the New York Post the paper listed the betting lines to win the Super Bowl for each of the remaining eight teams; the Cardinals were 35-1! After a quick start by Carolina, the Cardinals settled down and set the tone. The Cards a...

RAVENS 13 TITANS 10 History worth repeating? Eight years ago the Ravens had to beat the 13-3 Tennessee Titans in the divisional round to get on the roll that would take them to their first ever Super Bowl title. Well, in 2009, it appears that it is happening again. The Ravens took advantage of key Titian turnovers and missed opportunties to beat the Titans in chilly Tennessee 13-10 Saturday evening. The Ravens once again displayed a physical and unforgiving brand of defense. They were all over quarterback Kerry Collins, forcing the quaterback in key mistakes and hitting him even without recording a sack. With the score tied at seven in the second quarter, the Titans were marching right down the field on an impressive eight minute drive that started at the Tennessee one yard line. Collins had completed five straight passes on the drive including a 24 yarder to Justin Gage to spot the ball in Baltimore territory. With the Titans now at the Raven 32, and in position to get some points on...

EAGLES (10-6-1) @ GIANTS (12-4): Oh! So now after an unimpressive victory against the Vikings, the Eagles are suddenly this year's version of the 2007 New York Giants. Nothing could be more ridiculous. Sure there are some parallels: Coach Andy Ried has come under fire for his teams under achieving performances, just like Tom Coughlin did a year ago. Philadelphia fans are ready to run Donavan McNabb out of town, just the way Giant fans were ready to run Eli Manning out of town a year ago before winning the Super Bowl. But to go so far as to claim that an Eagles team that lost to the Redskins three weeks ago, an Eagles team that forgot the overtime rules in a tie against the Bengals at mid-season, an Eagles team that allowed a bad Minnesota Viking team to hang around for three and a half quarters of last weeks wild card game is as hot as the Giants were last year is a total joke. The Eagles are playing good football, but they are not the hottest team in the NFL, that distinction bel...

CHARGERS (9-8) @ STEELERS (12-4): Everyone is going bananas over how hot the Philadelphia Eagles have been the past month, but the fact remains that the Eagles are not the hottest team in football right now, that title belongs to the San Diego Chargers. For the last five weeks San Diego has won ball games with a huge amount of emotion and guts. They have fought, scratched and crawled through each of their games, capturing a divison title at 8-8 and beating up the Colts a week ago. The Chargers success really got going in week 16 on a trip to Tampa Bay. The Bolts who struggled all season on the east coast, not only beat the Buccaneers, they came from behind in the second half and turned that game into a 48-24 laugher. Credit has to go to Phillip Rivers, who has really been the most deserving league MVP. Rivers threw for 4,009 yards and 34 touchdowns in the regular season. He is the heart and soul of San Diego and he proves it each week with one gutsy performacne after another. Darren Sp...

Some consider divisional weekend in the NFL playoffs the best week of football since it pits the so- called top seeds against some red hot wild card winners from the week before. This is the week people start to look for upsets. Which top seed will go down? Which wild card team will run the table? These questions and more will be asked in this weekend, as the NFL paints the pitcure for the final four. RAVENS (12-5) @ TITANS (13-3): Eight years ago the Ravens were in a very familiar position. After winning their wild card game against the Denver Broncos that year, the Ravens traveled to Tennessee to take on the defending AFC champion Titans. Everyone expected Tennessee to run all over the Ravens; instead, the lasting image from that divisional playoff game is Ray Lewis running back a Steve McNair interception for a touchdown as Baltimore romped Tennessee en route to their first ever Super Bowl title. This year, Baltimore is hoping for similar magic. The Ravens defense is as n asty as t...

2009 is now here and so is the NFL postseason. It doesn't matter how the 12 survivors for the run at the Lombardi Trophy got to this point, they are here. Unlike past years where the Patriots and Colts dominated the AFC, the conference is wide open in 2008-2009. The Patriots are not in the postseason, in their place is the suprising Miami Dolphins led by rookie coach Tony Sparano and Jets cast away Chad Pennington. Pennington was named Comeback Player of the Year and came in second in the MVP voting this year. He deserves it. After being kicked to the curb by the New York Jets, Pennington took a 1-15 Miami team and made them into division champs. The Colts are still in the postseason, but as a wild card. The Tennessee Titans have made it to the playoffs as AFC South champs with very little in the way of offense, and a punishing defense. Meanwhile, in the NFC, the defending champion New York Giants are still the best in the conference. They own 12 wins, and the number one seed. If t...

Here are the formuli that could get the Jets into and out of the playoff party this season: 1) If the Jets win against Seattle and Miami, they win the AFC East based on a better conference record (8-4) than the New England Patriots, even if New England wins out as well. 2) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins win out and finish at 11-5, the Jets would be 10-6, or 9-7, and probably out of the playoffs. Both New England and Miami would make the playoffs, with the Dolphins as a divison winner and the Patriots as a wild card. The Patriots make the postseason if Baltimore loses one of its final two games. 3) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins and Jets split, then the Patriots win the AFC East. The Jets will have to hope that they beat Miami to win that tie-breaker and, further, hope that they have a better conference record than the Baltimore Ravens in order to clinch the sixth seed. 4) If the Patriots and Ravens win out and the Dolphins and Jets split their final two games, then ...