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Posted 01/13/2009 at 05:22 PM
The Cardinals aren’t rich with playoff tradition but believe or not these two teams have a post season history. We have to go way back when the Cardinals were playing in Chicago, in 1947 the Chicago Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 28-21 behind the running of their “million dollar backfield” A year later the Eagles got revenge shutting the Cards out 7-0 in blizzard like conditions in Philly.
Let’s jump a generation ahead and discuss this weekend’s matchup. There are plenty of numbers and trends surrounding this game. First of all, on Sunday December 28th, last week of the NFL regular season, the Eagles were 25-1 just to make the playoffs!! Before kickoff you could have gotten the Eagles at 80-1 to win the Super bowl. Tampa lost at home to the Raiders as a 13-point favorite, the Bears blew a 10-point first quarter lead and lost to the Texans, while the Eagles took care of business destroying Dallas at home.
After two consecutive road playoff wins the Eagles are flying high. I have to throw some caution to Philly backers as the Cardinals have covered seven of their last ten games at home. Even worse, teams that defeat the Super Bowl champs have gone 1-9 straight up and 0-10 against the spread over the last 28 seasons.
Another interesting angle in this game is the fact that the Cardinals are lining up as home underdogs. Since 1993 their have been four home underdogs in AFC or NFC championship games. In 1997 we had a pair of conference championship home dogs as Pittsburgh and San Francisco were 2.5 dogs. Both teams lost the game and obviously lost against the number too.
In 2000 the New York Giants were two-point home 'dogs and destroyed the Minnesota Vikings 41-0. In 2004 the Steelers again lined up as home dogs (+3) to New England only to get their doors blown off 41-27. So, home 'dogs in conference championship games don’t fare as well as one would think going 1-3 in the last 15 years.
Pittsburgh was a home dog playing with revenge in 1997 and lost to Denver. Again playing with revenge in 2004 but this motivation didn’t help against the Pats.
The Cardinals will be looking for revenge from a Thanksgiving night loss to to the Eagles, but as we have pointed out teams in this role are 0-2 over the last 11 years.
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