If their team loses to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII, Arizona Cardinal fans can thank Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News for it.

The torch really has been passed now. The best player in the NFL plays for the Arizona Cardinals, and his name is Larry Fitzgerald. He’s the reason the Steelers will not become the first franchise to win six Super Bowls this time around.

The Cardinals, leaving the Detroit Lions as the only team to participate in all 43 seasons without reaching a Super Bowl, will become the 18th franchise to win their first.

These Cardinals aren’t the best team in the NFL, and they weren’t anything close to it during the regular season. But suddenly their defense stops every team’s running attack. Suddenly, their secondary that got beat up so often makes all the right plays.

Kurt Warner is playing as if he’s 27, not 37, and the biggest reason for that is a game-breaking and game-changing receiver that the Steelers will not be able to cover.

It has been six decades since the Cardinals won a title and four decades since I decided as a kid they were going to produce a superior product than the Cowboys.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of years being wrong on that one.

That’s why it feels so good now to be right.

After Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution jinxed the Falcons by stating that they would beat the Cardinals in the wild card round three weeks ago, I warned Gary Myers of the New York Daily News that he crimped the Giants by claiming there was no way the Eagles would beat the G-Men in the divisional round.

And now this – Cowlishaw, a former Cardinal fan, is doing the same thing to ‘Zona for the Super Bowl. NFL columnists are 0-2 this postseason when they write an article claiming one team will emphatically beat their opponent. Now Sir Jinx-A-Lot the III is about to make NFL columnists 0-3 in the postseason.

Looks like I’m going with the Steel Curtain when I make my Super Bowl prediction next week. Thanks, Cowlishaw.

Gary Myers of the New York Daily News criticizes Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin for several poor decisions he made in his team’s playoff loss to the Eagles on Sunday.

Coughlin had a big decision to make when the Giants won the toss. He took the ball and went into the 20 mph wind in the first quarter. Manning has proven he can’t handle the wind at Giants Stadium, so Coughlin should have deferred and had the wind behind Manning to open the game. Manning never got into any rhythm after a tough first quarter.

After Ahmad Bradshaw returned the opening kickoff 65 yards to the Eagles’ 35, Manning dropped back to pass on first down. Steve Smith was wide open at the Eagles’ 15, but Manning’s pass was wobbly and Smith couldn’t get it.

The Giants eventually settled for a field goal. After holding Philly on its first possession, the Giants were forced to start on their own 13. After seeing the pass to Smith fail to navigate its way through the wind, Coughlin should have ordered Gilbride to give the ball to Brandon Jacobs to get the Giants away from the end zone.

Gilbride sent in a play-action pass. Manning rolled right and sailed it over the head of Domenik Hixon, right to Asante Samuel, who finally picked off Manning after dropping that huge one on the Giants’ game-winning drive in the Super Bowl. He returned it to the Eagles’ 2, setting up Donovan McNabb’s touchdown run.

It made no sense to throw in that spot.

When the Giants trailed 20-11 early in the fourth quarter, Coughlin lost a third down replay challenge when he thought Ward had a first down at the Giants’ 44. He went for it on fourth and inches. Manning failed on a quarterback sneak. Johnson anticipated it.

“A quarterback sneak is as elementary as it gets,” O’Hara said. “And to not be able to get a few inches on a fourth down, that is inexcusable.”

Why not let Jacobs, who is 6-4, 264, try to bully his way to the first down?

I find it rather ironic (and almost comical) that Myers criticized Coughlin’s decisions on Sunday, yet he was the one last week that prolifically wrote that there was no way that the Eagles would beat the Giants. It’s almost like Myers wrote his latest column in anger that Coughlin made him look bad on his prediction.

Either way, Myers is right in his observations. I fail to see why taking the ball at the start of the game is a wise decision when you know your offense will be working into the wind. Put your defense on the field first, force a punt and then you have momentum, field position and the ball first in the second half. And even if the Eagles march down the field and score, you have an entire game to come back. I also felt that Jacobs was underused and a sneak with Manning was questionable at best, but it’s also easy to play Monday morning quarterback and question everything a losing team did wrong.

Gary Myers of the New York Daily News puts the crimp on the Giants this weekend, writing that there’s no way the Eagles will go into East Rutherford and knock off the G-Men.

This will be an NFC East slugfest Sunday at Giants Stadium because it always is.

Giants 23, Eagles 13.

It should be noted that last year, right here in your Daily News, I not only predicted each of the Giants’ four playoff victories, including the huge upset of the Patriots in the Super Bowl, but had the margin of victory just about on the nose each week. Just wanted to point that out.

The Giants were the best team in the NFC all season despite losing to the Eagles and Cowboys back-to-back in December. But when they faced their only must-win of the season on that Sunday night against the Panthers in the battle for the No. 1 seed in the 15th game, they rallied to send the game into overtime and then won it.

This is a tough-minded team. Doesn’t mean the Giants are sure things to repeat as Super Bowl champions, but they do have a lot of heart, and it’s going to take a near perfect game from the Eagles to knock them out of the playoffs.

The Giants are the best at finding a cause that doesn’t even exist and not letting go. Even after winning the Super Bowl and going 12-4 and being picked by many to run through these playoffs and win it all again, they still feel disrespected. It’s ridiculous, of course, but it works for them.

Fair enough, but let’s take a look at the facts:

A) The Giants haven’t played a complete game in over a month. (Week 13 in a 23-7 victory at Washington to be exact.)
B) Eli Manning hasn’t passed for over 200 yards since Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg.
C) The Eagles have the third best defense in the NFL, including the fourth best run defense.
D) Philly has already proven they can beat the Giants in New York.

I’m not saying it’s a slam-dunk Eagle victory, but this is no time to be predicting wins days before the game.

One last thing Myers might want to chew on is that Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote before the Falcons’ playoff game last week that they would beat the Cardinals in Arizona. He poured a big cup of jinx all over the Falcons and I’m afraid Myers might have just done the same thing to the Giants.