Matty's Rookie of the Week

Hello everyone and welcome to the special conference championship edition of Matty's Rookie of the Week. The conference championship saw some of the hotter rookies like Joe Flacco and Domonique Rodgers-Cromartie fizzle a tad, but others came on strong and helped lead their teams when all seemed to be lost and a trip home was in the future. So, without further delay, lets get into the trenches and find out who I have as my rookie of the week!

Matty's Rookie of the Week:

Tim Hightower, RB
6'0" 224 lbs
Richmond
5th round pick, 149th overall
11 rushes, 33 yards and 1 reception, 8 yards and 1 TD

I must say, it was incredibly hard to decide who was going to be my rookie of the week. Up until about the 3rd quarter I had been dead set on using DRC again, but then he got beat by DeSean Jackson for that long TD and it seemed like a new ROTW had emerged but then on a game winning drive, Tim Hightower had two absolutely huge plays that I believe were the difference in sending the Cardinals to the Super Bowl. On fourth and a long one at about mid-field, the Cardinals decided to hand off to their running back and after last weeks stuff fest against the Giants, it didn't look good for this poor running team but Hightower managed to get that important first down. Then, on third down the Cardinals ran a screen that the Eagles defensed perfectly and with pure grit and moxy, Hightower got the ball into the endzone to give the Cardinals enough to make it past the Eagles.

So, congratulations are in order for Mr. Hightower, way to go bud. Despite your pathetic 2.8 yards per carry average during the season you turned it on when it counted. Be sure to come back in two weeks for the Matty's Rookie of the Week SUPER BOWL EDITION!