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		NFL playoff report By David Zizmor January 13, 2010

	Arizona at New Orleans: This should be a very entertaining game, not sure if this is going to be a defensive match up because neither of these teams have been fantastic on defense especially lately before these teams were fantastic on offense. Arizona proved it last week against Green Bay with a win 51-45, it was just a ridiculous overtime game that was the highest score in playoff history. Arizona definitely proved that they are a team to be reckoned with. The New Orleans defense if they play anything like New Orleans defense did last weekend it's going to be a rough one. On the flip side New Orleans is one of those teams that could play point for point with the Cardinals. Arizona is out there with quarterback Kurt Warner whose had a fantastic Pro Bowl season with Larry Fitzgerald, Steve Breaston, Reggie Wells, and Tim Hightower. Anquan Boldin may or may not be available, that didn't seem to make that much of a difference as wideout Early Doucet stepped in in place of Boldin and scored a couple of touchdowns himself. New Orleans has its own set of fantastic players quarterback Drew Brees one of the best quarterback in all of the NFL and getting a look at the rest of the team they have Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush in the back field, they have Marques Colston, Devery Henderson, Robert Meachem at the receiver spot, they have Jeremy Shockey playing tight end. The Saints have as many offensive weapons as anybody in this league. These guys, it's going to be a rock em, sock em, battle and one of the big differences is on the offensive line. The Cardinals did a great job of keeping the Packers off Kurt Warner, Arizona was able to get some pressure on Aaron Rogers last week. One thing the Cardinals are not sure if they’re going to be quite as successful passing. Brees is a little more adept at getting rid of the ball quickly and he's a little smarter that way with a little more experience and Rogers is a young QB and he's not all that quick to get rid of the ball sometimes he holds onto it to make the big play. Baltimore @ Indianapolis: The Colts are a great team they do a fantastic job and their only losses came at the end of the year and then they started benching all their players all their starters in the two games otherwise this team is still undefeated. It's looks like Baltimore is not up to the task and you have to remember that the Ravens and the Colts played earlier this season the weekend before Thanksgiving on November 22 and the Colts just managed to squeak out a win 17-15. The Ravens are going to come in a little confident and they played a really good game last weekend to move onto the playoffs and they know they can hang with the Colts. On the flip side it's one thing to play against the New England Patriots who were banged up, Randy Moss was hurt, Wes Welker was out of the game. Tom Brady is still is coming off an injury from last year and he is definitely not the same Brady he was it will definitely take a little bit longer for him to recover. Let's face it the Patriots had a zero running game their running game had zero impact and it was so much easier for the Ravens to play defense. The Colts they have a full complement of wide receivers nobody is hurt everybody is ready and while their running game isn't particularly good their still a threat with Joseph Addai and Donald Brown who have had decent seasons and you can't sleep on them because if you let them go they can cost you the big run. Dallas at Minnesota: The Vikings have a huge chip on their shoulder and the one those reasons is running back Adrian Peterson who has 4484 yards rushing in his first three seasons only Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Jamal Lewis, and LaDainian Tomlinson had more. How they'll match up this week Sunday with Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo who has a lot of weapons entering this game Marion Barber, Felix Jones, Tashard Choice, and it's been known that Choice has taken a snap or two in a pinch. Romo will also be looking for Miles Austin and Jason Witten, Patrick Crayton, and Roy Williams. Romo might fake the offense with a throw to third string tight end John Phillips like he did in a play in their game against he Eagles last Sunday. The Cowboys come in hot in the last four weeks they have scored 12 touchdowns, six catches and six running, all scored by running backs, Barber three, Jones two, and Choice one. The Cowboys used a lot of weapons to get this far the real test is coming for them this Sunday in Minnesota at the Hefty Dome. The Vikings led by legendary quarterback Brett Favre who was one of ten quarterbacks who threw for 4,000 plus yards which helped pace his success in getting the Vikings to this season's post season. The offensive line protected well throughout the campaign outside of a few rough games in the month of December. The Cowboys defense are coming to Minnesota who allowed the fewest yards rushing in the league this season in a game that should be a nip and tuck and a back and forth ball game. The Cowboys were so furious on defense that they held the Eagles in last Sunday's playoff game just to 56 rushing yards in 13 attempts. Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell pushed the Vikes to be more aggressive after they lost three of four games in December. They're loss to the Chicago Bears was a heartbreaker and Bevell said that he's pushing for more passing. Bevell says the team is moving much quicker up field and the rhythm of spreading the ball to all different spots of the field have helped the Vikes get back some of that old swagger that Favre is going to need going in on Sunday against the Cowboys. New York Jets @ San Diego Chargers: Antonio Gates and Vincent Jackson two of the Chargers receivers and are bigger than every corner and safety in the NFL and are the big reasons why the Chargers are in the position that there in. Gates and Vincent have hands like glue these guys are great receivers down field and in the back field LaDainian Tomlinson has not been his old self. This is the guy who scored 25 touchdowns in a single season. He's still the man near the goal line and he still has a nose for the end zone and more importantly their mixing it up between Tomlinson and running back Darren Sproles who is one of those Dave Megget-Brian Westbrook type half backs who can offer a tremendous change of pace and really could confuse defenses and is fast as anybody with the ball in his hands. Sproles is a guy you really have to look out for. The New York Jets has everybody was kind of skeptical about this team, they came into the playoffs as a wild card and they finished at 9-7 and frankly people were a little annoyed that they even made it into the playoffs because they're last two games have been against the Colts and the Bengals and in game number 15 against the Colts the Jets were losing and the Colts sat their entire starting lineup and all of a sudden the Jets end up winning. Then the next week Cincinnati finds out they've clinched their home field playoff games and they benched pretty much all of their starters and the Jets end up winning. So a lot of people felt that the Jets backed into the playoffs because they played two teams that were playing mostly their second stringers. The Jets were able to take advantage of that just by sheer luck. It just happened that they played those two teams in the last couple weeks of the regular season to their advantage. Granted they took advantage of it when they had the opportunity but people were still a little bit up in arms about it. You know what the Jets proved it that their a pretty good team, they went into Cincinnati and won pretty easily last weekend. They showed off their running game, they showed off their style defense, and they proved that they could win even with a rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez. David Zizmor is covering the NFL playoffs this week for Sportstalk Radio