Are you ready for some football? Jake is.
FORT WORTH, Texas - Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme doesn't pass the initial eyeball test.
Just ask the Cowboys, who chose to stick with Quincy Carter and Chad Hutchinson over signing him as a free agent three years ago.
The modest football pedigree to go along with the Louisiana drawl and the aw-shucks demeanor just doesn't exude winner upon first inspection. Neither frankly does his regular-season play.
But get him in the playoffs and Delhomme delivers like no one in NFL history. No one. Not Troy Aikman. Not Tom Brady. Not Joe Montana. Not Bart Starr. No one, that is, as far the NFL passer rating is concerned.
In completing 98 of 157 for 1,446 yards with 10 touchdowns and two interceptions in six playoff games, Delhomme has a postseason passer rating of 108.4, which is the best in NFL history based on a minimum of 150 attempts.
I'll take the Panthers. I'll be wearing my Panthers sweatshirt (I have more Panther clothes than any other team- love the blue) and Panthers hat and sitting on the edge of my seat cheering.
As far as Denver vs. Pittsburgh, man...that's a tough one. Did Pittsburgh use it all up on the Colts? Did Denver's win come from so many New England mistakes? Does home field matter that much? Pittsburgh, like Carolina, thrives on the road.
Including playoffs, they are 15-3 on the road the last two years. No team in the NFL has a better record than that. They are trying to become the first No. 6 seed to make the Super Bowl and the first team since the 1985 Patriots to win three road playoff games en route to the Super Bowl (Carolina also has that chance in the NFC.)
The Steelers are built for the road, with a pounding running game they use 57 percent of the time, which figures to cut down on the number of plays that need to be changed at the line and the number of overall mistakes.
They are also a team that, for whatever reason, has had trouble getting it done in the biggest games at home, with the Terrible Towels flying and the expectations soaring.
"It was kind of more of a distraction than anything; more ticket requests, a lot of people want to come and watch," receiver Hines Ward said. "With us going on the road, we really don't have to worry about that too much. We just go out there and just concentrate on football."
At the beginning of the year Kos had a football thread- I picked the Super Bowl as Pittsburgh vs. Tampa, simply because I didn't have a clue as to who would prevail in the NFC. But I figured that this might be Pittsburgh's year.
So, for that reason alone, I'll take Pittsburgh. And if they meet Carolina in the Big Game, I'm going to have a major problem picking that one. ;-)