GLENDALE, Ariz. - Kurt Warner wore blue jeans and a red T-shirt with non-English writing to yesterday's press conference, celebrating the next step in his resurrection.
"It says 'The Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl' in Chinese," he said.
You think that was inscrutable.
Fifty-three days after being manhandled by the Eagles on Thanksgiving night, the Cardinals erased history on small and grand scales with their 32-25, comeback victory over the Eagles yesterday in the NFC Championship Game, earning their first trip to the Super Bowl.
The Cardinals have won more playoff games (three) in the last 3 weeks than in the previous 87 years of franchise's existence - and they won them all as underdogs.
"Yes we can," linebacker Gerald Hayes said. "Everybody who doubted us . . . look at us right now. Look at us right now."
Warner threw four touchdown passes, a conference championship game-record-tying three to wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, and then led Cardinals on a 72-yard scoring drive that ate up 7:52 of the fourth quarter and culminated in an 8-yard touchdown pass to Tim Hightower, overcoming a 25-24 deficit.
"We got in the huddle and we knew what we had to accomplish. Nobody was going crazy, hyperventilating or anything like that," Warner said. "We had done some good things today. Now we had to do it one more time."
The Cardinals converted on a fourth-and-1 and a third-and-1, both on runs by Hightower, before the go-ahead score.
Warner faked a red-zone staple, a short out pattern to wide receiver Anquan Boldin (he played despite a sore left hamstring), a play that had worked so well in the regular season, before throwing a screen pass to Hightower on the other side. Hightower bulled over safety Quintin Demps at the 1-yard line.
"We've had the highest of highs and lowest of lows," said Hightower, remembering the 48-20 loss to the Eagles on Nov. 28 and a 47-7 loss at New England 3 weeks later. "We knew it would be a fourth-quarter game."
Warner completed 21 of 28 passes for 279 yards and finished with a quarterback rating of 145.7 while reaching the Super Bowl for the third time in his career. As the St. Louis Rams quarterback, Warner played in the 1999 and 2001 Super Bowls, being named MVP in 1999 after passing for a record 414 yards in a victory over Tennessee.
Of his success against the Eagles' blitzing schemes, Warner said, "You just try to keep them off-balance.
"The whole key is understanding where it's coming from. If you understand where it is coming from, you can attack it with some success. They do such a great job of changing it up, moving it around. That's the battle you face against coach Johnson's defense.
"There were times they got the best of us. There were times we got the best of them. You have to hope you win your share of the battles, and we were able to make good plays when that happened. You know you are going to lose some."
The Cardinals will enter the Super Bowl after playoff victories over Atlanta, Carolina and now the Eagles, in coach Ken Whisenhunt's second season. The Cardinals franchise won the NFL title game in 1947, and won one playoff game after that, in 1998.
"I'm naive enough to think we could have a chance in the first year," Whisenhunt said. "That's the way you have to approach it."
"They can go get their hair cut now," Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said of the unshaven Eagles. *
Poll: Who takes the blame for the loss?
