Conference championship game capsules

Capsule previews for Sunday's NFC and AFC Championship Games. All times Eastern.

NFC CHAMPIONSHIP
Philadelphia Eagles (11-6-1) at Arizona Cardinals (11-7), 3 p.m.
It's hard to pick against the Eagles, who have beaten Arizona, Dallas, Minnesota and the New York Giants twice during a stretch in which they have won six of their past seven games. But how do you explain the Cardinals playing at home in the conference championship? How do you explain them all of a sudden finding a running game? And how do you explain them playing defense with such abandon that the Carolina Panthers, a team many predicted for the Super Bowl, couldn't run or pass against them? The answer: coach Ken Whisenhunt.
Prediction: Cardinals, 24-19

AFC CHAMPIONSHIP
Baltimore Ravens (13-5) at Steelers (13-4), 6:30.
As the No. 6 seed in the AFC, the Ravens are already looking like the 2005 Super Bowl-champion Steelers with the manner in which they have been winning playoff games on the road. But they need to find an answer to beating the Steelers, something they have been unable to do in the first two meetings. This is the third AFC title game at Heinz Field in eight years, and history will show much disappointment for the Steelers and the home crowd in the previous two losses. If the third time is indeed a charm, it will be for the Steelers, not the Ravens.
Prediction: Steelers, 23-10

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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