The Arizona Cardinals will be hosting the NFL’s National Conference Championship game after finishing a lowly 8-8 for the regular season. The Eagles, who only got into the playoffs because 14 planets aligned, 3 teams lost, and they beat the Cowboys (thank god!) in the last game of the season, were dead to rights, wouldn’t even be in the playoffs! Now they are traveling to Phoenix to play the Cardinals for the NFC championship!

The other #6 seed, from AFC, the Ravens, beat the Titans, though somewhat controversial, the bottom line is they are going to the championship to play the only remaining top seed the Steelers. So, what can we learn from this mess?

1. If your zone isn’t working, CHANGE IT! Translated to generic coach speak, if your plan isn’t working, you have to have plan B and the guts to pull the trigger and go to it. How many times were the Panthers going to watch Fitzgerald run between the corners and safeties before they got out of the zone or at least put a man on him! He had 180+ yards in the first half!

2. Tis better to take one step backwards and regroup, than to totally implode. How many easily intercepted passes did Eli Manning and Jake Delhomme throw while veterans Donovan McNabb and Kurt Warner took what the defense would give them and at a sack when they had too.

3. It’s the system stupid. For years I have watched the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers dismantle opponents. When both played my Redskins it was painful to watch as they inflicted painful blows all night long. The players change, the systems work. Have a great system and plug your players in to execute it.

4. You have to play good enough to absorb a bad call. Don’t whine about the bad calls that you get, deal with them, move on, and play so good that the call’s don’t matter.

5. Anybody can be anybody on any given day. This is so true, especially in youth sports. You never know who is going to show up! A coach that can mentally convince his kids they are winners has a much more likely shot at winning than a coach full of superstars that never gel. We never have the best teams, but we believe.

6. Team defeats individual effort every time. It doesn’t matter who the stars are if they have no supporting cast. A star w/ a cast can thrive, a star on an island starves.

7. Offense wins games, defense wins championships. Defense, defense, defense. In baseball it is all about pitching and fielding, defense, defense, defense.

What did you learn watching hours and hours of playoff football?

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