NFL Championship weekend

Philadelphia at Arizona (+3.5) - The Eagles would seem to be the easy and obvious choice here. We're used to thinking about the Eagles as a tough, physical defensive team. They played in the NFC East. They've been to NFC Championship games, they've been to the Super Bowl. The Cardinals have been a punch line franchise. If the Eagles were to advance to the Super Bowl again, it would not be a surprise. All that said, the Cardinals have played outstanding defense in the playoffs to go with excellent skill players. They've got the home field advantage. They've got a QB who has been to more Super Bowl's than the Eagles' QB. It feels like a risk, and it's easy to imagine this pick being obviously wrong before the first quarter ends, but I'm going to take the Cardinals to make their first visit to the Super Bowl.

Baltimore at Pittsburgh (-6) - Is there a way that both of these teams can lose? As a Patriot fan, there's little that displeases me more than Pittsburgh succeeding. But I hate the Ravens, and will for as long as Ray Lewis is there. I'd rather not see either of these teams proceed. Unfortunately, one of them will. I think that Pittsburgh beats the Ravens for the third time this year, and meet the Cardinals in Tampa in two weeks.