The NFC championship will take place on the other side of the country -- and the other end of the spectrum. Arizona's offense is burning nitro fuel again after sputtering to four losses in the final six games of the regular season. In their postseason victories over Atlanta and at Carolina, the Cardinals scored 30 and 33 points.
The only thing enjoying a more impressive rebirth than the Cardinals' offense is their box-office sales. The same team that needed two extensions from the NFL to avoid a television blackout in the wild-card round sold out its allotment of championship tickets Sunday in six minutes.
No doubt some of those ticket holders are fans of the Philadelphia Eagles, who advanced by winning at Giants Stadium on Sunday for the second time this season. It was the sixth victory in seven games for a team that once looked lost.
"The city of Philadelphia is buzzing; this team is buzzing," said quarterback Donovan McNabb, who this season was benched for a game for the first time in his career.
In the game after that benching, on Thanksgiving night, he threw four touchdown passes in a 48-20 throttling of Arizona at Philadelphia. The Cardinals, four days removed from a home loss to the Giants, were rapidly losing altitude.
"We just didn't have our game today," Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner said at the time. "And it was across the board."
Clearly, the Cardinals have recovered, and then some. They also shook the stigma of being the only NFC team not to reach a conference championship game since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.
"When you get to this level, you have to win as a team," Warner said after the latest shocker. "That's what we've done these past two weeks. Nobody believed it. Nobody expected it."
For the Steelers, this is much more familiar ground. This will be their 14th AFC title game. Still, Sunday's win was their first postseason victory in two years, since beating Seattle in Super Bowl XL.
That game was in a climate-controlled stadium in Detroit. Sunday's AFC game will be in the see-your-breath, can't-feel-your-toes cold of Pittsburgh.
"It's always a plus for us," Holmes said of the weather. "We see it every day. We play in it, practice in it. That's Steeler football. That's the way it's always been."
It's not cozy. It's not too different from what Baltimore players are used to. But, hey, it's home.
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sam.farmer@latimes.com
