(My Sportsbook) - Tommy Lasorda, best remembered as the former manager of baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, once said that "pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it's because you've started to think of failure."

A popular ideology so far in this season's playoffs is that the Arizona Cardinals are playing with house money. While expected to at least contend for an NFC West title, the division's overall weakness in addition to the Cardinals strong play made a capturing the crown a realistic and easy-reached goal.

One has to wonder how high the bar was set for Arizona heading into the playoffs. Few expected the Cardinals to knock off the Atlanta Falcons at home in the Wild Card round, but they did it. Even less of the population thought fourth-seeded Arizona stood a chance in Carolina this past weekend against the second-seeded Panthers. Again, the Cardinals surprised.

So, has this surprise success put more pressure on Arizona? After all, despite hosting the Philadelphia Eagles in this Sunday's NFC Championship after downing the Panthers, 33-13, the Cards are still looked at as the underdog.

"Everybody has hopes and dreams inside a locker room, and it's no different for us," safety Adrian Wilson said on Arizona's official site after the win over Carolina. "We believed once we got into the playoffs that we could win."

Head coach Ken Whisenhunt also doesn't think the Cardinals are satisfied just yet.

"I felt even going back into (training) camp that we had a good core group of guys and that...it was going to be a process that we had to go through," Whisenhunt said at his Monday press conference. "That's the great thing about the playoffs. You get in and you never know what can happen. And we're very excited to be here, but I think that we've shown at times this year that we're a team that is capable of playing at that level."

So while Whisenhunt and Wilson are saying the right things, one has to wonder just how the Cardinals would feel if they are forced to walk off their home field on Sunday with a defeat in the franchise's first-ever appearance in the NFC Championship game.

A first-round exit would have been disappointing, but something to build on. A loss to Carolina would have been what everyone expected. The Cardinals, who have won two playoff games in the same season for the first time in club history, have now come too far to turn back. Forget playing with house money now, the Cards are all in.

Regardless of what happens, the Cardinals have at least announced to the league that they are now a team to be taken seriously, and a win over the lower-seeded Eagles would further advance that statement. After all, Philadelphia finished with the same number of regular-season wins (9) as the Cardinals despite playing in a tougher division, and actually had one fewer loss thanks to a tie with Cincinnati.

Whisenhunt was asked on Monday if he was surprised his club was playing in the NFC Championship game in just his second year as a head coach.

"I'm not surprised, that was the plan," he said with a smile on his face. "That's why you do it, right?"

DEFENSE DOMINATES AGAIN, RUN GAME STILL A FACTOR

Arizona's defense enters this test against the Eagles red-hot. The unit has faced pair of dangerous rushers over the last two weekends in Atlanta's Michael Turner and DeAngelo Williams of Carolina. However, the two were limited to a combined 105 yards, with only Turner finding the end zone once.

The Cardinals allowed the Panthers to score on their first drive of the game, but the defense held after that with Arizona posting the next 33 points. That was possible thanks to Arizona forcing a club playoff-record six turnovers, including five interceptions, as well as just 20 yards allowed over the next six Carolina drives following its score.

Rookie Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and fellow cornerback Ralph Brown each had a pick to continue surprising postseason runs. Rodgers-Cromartie has an interception in both of his postseason appearances and six in his last nine games. Brown, meanwhile, is becoming a postseason hero, with three interceptions in five career playoff games.

"All the little things that's involved in being a good, disciplined defense, they're doing now," Whisenhunt said on Monday about his defense, which helped the Cards win on the East Coast for the first time this season (1-5).

The Cardinals' running game, which was missing for most of the regular season, also showed up again on Saturday. Arizona ran the ball 43 times, with Edgerrin James getting 20 carries and rookie Tim Hightower posting 17. James ended with 57 yards and a touchdown and Hightower ran up 76 yards on the ground.

It is not surprising that the Cardinals, who had so much success this year despite being a one-dimensional passing offense, have turned to strong defense and a solid run game to help things along. After all, Whisenhunt saw plenty of those two phases while serving on Pittsburgh's coaching staff.

"I believe that the biggest challenge that you face is getting your team to believe they can win doing it the way you want it done," said Whisenhunt. "That's something that takes time. I think we made great progress with that last season and that certainly helped us this year."

It will have to help for at least one more weekend.

INJURY UPDATE

Whisenhunt said on Monday that tight end Stephen Spach is out for the rest of Arizona's playoff run due to an ACL injury. Although he feels confident with Leonard Pope and Ben Patrick at that spot, Whisenhunt added that they will still bring a player in this week. That turned out to be veteran Jerame Tuman, who was signed on Tuesday when Spach landed on injured reserve.

More importantly, the club still doesn't know if wide receiver Anquan Boldin will be able to return from a hamstring injury that he suffered versus Atlanta and also kept him out of the Carolina game.

"Obviously we're a week further along in the process of that hamstring getting better, so hopefully he'll be able to do something this week," Arizona's head coach said of Boldin. "But we'll see as the week progresses."

Larry Fitzgerald didn't miss his counterpart versus the Panthers, hauling in eight passes for 166 yards. Fitzgerald broke Roy Green's franchise playoff record of 113 receiving yards, set in 1983.

HOME FANS GETTING EXCITED

The Eagles' upset win over the top-seeded New York Giants gave the Cardinals something they didn't think they would get -- another home playoff game.

When the Cards hosted the Falcons on Wild Card weekend, the club had trouble unloading tickets and the game was in danger of a blackout before the fans finally came through.

However, Arizona fans wasted no time securing their seats for this Sunday's game, as the contest sold out in about six minutes. That will help keep the Eagles faithful out of Glendale, as Philadelphia is a team whose fans travel well.

"It's what you hoped from the community," said Whisenhunt. "I think there was a little bit of a lag before our last playoff game, because people weren't sure about tickets or what was going on and obviously we didn't play great a couple weeks up to that, so it is what you want and that's the reason I'm excited we have a home game."

A home test is important for the Cardinals, as they have gone 6-2 during the regular season in each of their two seasons with Whisenhunt on the sidelines.

HISTORY VERSUS THE EAGLES

Arizona will be happy that it is the Eagles who must travel out west for this Sunday's game instead of the Cardinals coming back to the East. As mentioned, the Cards were 0-5 next to the Atlantic this year before the win in Carolina, and that skid included a blowout loss in Philadelphia on Thanksgiving Day.

Working on a short week, the Cardinals were routed 48-20 by the Eagles. Quarterback Kurt Warner threw three interceptions in that one, while the club rushed for just 25 yards on 10 carries.

Whisenhunt said the trip to Philly was a tough one, as the club was coming off a physical game with the Giants before leaving on Wednesday to play the following night.

Much like the Giants did this past Sunday, the Cards need to shut down Philadelphia running back Brian Westbrook. In that night affair on Thanksgiving, Westbrook ran for 110 yards and two scores while also catching a pair of TD passes.

"It's tough to watch the tape now," said Whisenhunt. "But the one thing that's comforting is that we're a different team now then (the club) that played that game."

Despite playing in just their ninth postseason contest this past weekend, the Cards do have some playoff history versus the Eagles. The franchise's first- ever playoff win came in an NFL Championship matchup versus Philadelphia on December 28, 1947, a 28-21 victory.

However, the Eagles returned the favor in December of the following year, notching a 7-0 win over the Cardinals in the 1948 title game.