Sunday
AFC Championship
3 p.m., Ch. 2
NFC Championship
6:30 p.m., Ch. 5
There is fear in Philadelphia, according to Fox NFL analyst Cris Collinsworth. Eagles fans are scared. It is as if the Philadelphia faithful have morphed into fatalistic Red Sox rooters.
Two times in the Donovan McNabb era, the Eagles have been a victory away from the Super Bowl. Two times they have lost.
“It is sort of ironic to me in this game that the home team, the Eagles, have all the pressure,” said Collinsworth, who will work the NFC Championship on Ch. 5. “They have been to the championship game twice and twice they have been turned away. Last year, they got turned away at home.
“The people in Philly right now are almost afraid to talk about it. They are almost afraid to think about this team going to the Super Bowl. Whereas Carolina, if they go and get beat by 50 points, it has been an off-the-charts successful year. Who would have believed it? Jake Delhomme? Who would have believed the way he has played? They can go in loose and play and take their shot. To some extent, I think there is a little advantage to that.”
Panthers at Eagles is the conference championship nightcap. The opener pits Peyton Manning’s Colts vs. Bill Belichick’s Patriots, a classic confrontation of offense against defense.
“This is great pitching against great hitting or any analogy you want to use,” Collinsworth said.
Collinsworth thinks the AFC game will be decided by Patriots QB Tom Brady.
“My opinion of Tom Brady keeps going up,” Collinsworth said. “I have to admit I didn’t think a whole lot of him the first time I saw him. Then you watch him through that [2001] season and you watch him in the Super Bowl and you watch him continue to grow. He is really an accurate passer, a Phil Simms kind of guy. He puts the ball exactly where he wants it to go. I think, ultimately, he probably more than any other player on the field decides the game.”