Wildcard Weekend Day 1

Well, another interesting and unpredictable Wildcard weekend so far!

There must be something about losing teams qualifying for the playoffs, because the 2010 Seattle Seahawks barely scraped by to get into the playoffs with a 7-9 record, but ended up knocking off the 11-5 New Orleans Saints, who happened to be the defending Super Bowl champions. No one saw that coming, and it came as a complete shock to me.

Today did not come as such a shock to me. The Panthers had won their last four games in a row, while the Cardinals had lost four of their last six, including the last two of the regular season. Their morale surely was lower than it needed to be, while Carolina had to be flying high.

And it showed.

The Panthers resurgent defense really shut down the Cardinals yesterday, containing them to a rather stunning 78 yards total on offense, en route to a 27-16 win. Arizona probably would not have made it nearly as close as it was, except that Carolina kept making mistakes and shooting themselves in the foot with silly mistakes in the first half. Despite very limited offensive production, the Cardinals held a 14-10 lead at the half, even though the Carolina Panthers clearly looked like the better team statistically, and were playing better, save for the mistakes.

Once they eliminated the mistakes, they took over the game, not surprisingly. The Panthers wore down the Cardinals, earning a victory that will send them to Green Bay if Detroit wins, or to Seattle if Dallas should win.

The second showdown was a divisional battle between the hosts, the AFC North champion Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Baltimore Ravens, who won the Super Bowl two short seasons ago.

Much like Carolina, Baltimore's defense was truly intense.

For most of the game, the Ravens had shut down Pittsburgh's potentially explosive offense - although it should be noted that Bell was not playing in the game to add a multidimensional element to the Steelers offense.

Still, Baltimore looked to be in complete control, until a turnover late in the game, when they were trying to run the clock out, got Pittsburgh back into it.

Ultimately, however, it did not work. The Raven shad dominated the game, and they were able to pull away towards the end to preserve a solid road playoff win, which also happened to be their first playoff win since winning Super Bowl XLVII two seasons ago.

Having won that contest, the Ravens will now go to New England to face the Patriots, the team that they beat two seasons ago in the AFC Championship to reach the Super Bowl in the first place. And, much like that game, the Ravens will play this game at Foxboro.