Written By Jon Beason

January 10, 2009

Everybody’s hyping up the playoffs, but for me the key is not to get caught up in everything that’s going on and what’s at stake. If you’re distracted you can’t play focused, you can’t play fast and be yourself.

I’m just thinking about playing ball, practicing hard every day and winning another game.

After the last two games, I kind of feel like our defensive tackles, Maake Kemoeatu and Damione Lewis, were a little underappreciated. I didn’t know how bad it could get without those two starters in there. The good part is we got some young guys some playing experience in big games up front, and they did a pretty decent job, but it was a big difference not having those guys up front.

That goes back to the Giants game when they were able to run against us after halftime. I’ll tell you this, it’s about 50-50 who I would want to play if we beat Arizona. We want another shot at the Giants to prove we can beat them. But it would be great to play the NFC Championship Game at home. It’s the biggest game you can have at your place because the Super Bowl is at a neutral site, and we’re playing really well at home this season.

With Kemo and Damione back against Arizona it’s going to be like old times. The Cards are going to try to run the ball but we know they really want to throw it. They ran early against Atlanta but then for two quarters did nothing but throw.

Larry Fitzgerald is great in space, when the ball is in the air no one goes harder or is more consistent. But I think the most dangerous guy is Anquan Boldin because he can make people miss and turn short throws into touchdowns. If he doesn’t play, that’s a huge factor in their big play ability.

The Cardinals have been doing a lot of talking in the media. They don’t have much respect for us and it’s obvious that they don’t fear us at all. All I have to say is that words never hurt anybody. What you say means nothing, it’s all about action.

The Cards should expect to see a lot of action on Sunday.

All-Pro linebacker Jon Beason of the Carolina Panthers writes a blog for playerpress.com at www.jonbeason.com.