Cardinals cut the Pack (eventually)

Article by Rob Newell

There were mixed fortunes for the NFC West teams involved in this weekend’s divisional round matchups, but the division champion Arizona Cardinals eventually booked their spot in the coming weekend’s Championship round with a thrilling 26-20 win at home over the Green Bay Packers following Overtime.

 

This was a game that many thought following their Week 16 matchup might just be another blowout victory for the Cardinals, but this was a different Green Bay Packer team, with some of their defensive pieces back.  Oh and of course this team has Aaron Rodgers, and despite the fact that when Randall Cobb went down in the first quarter, Rodgers was missing his top four receivers, when you have Rodgers you have a chance.

 

His Arizona counterpart Carson Palmer was looking for his first career postseason win and at times looked a little tight, but as the game wore on and it time for a big play, Palmer was able to relax into the game and he of course had all of his receivers available and combined they just may be the best trio in the game, in the form of course of John Brown, Michael Floyd and the Hall of Famer in waiting Larry Fitzgerald.

 

Takeaways from this game of note, after a slow start the Arizona Cardinal defence stepped up and stopped the Packers from 13-7 down right up to the final minute of regulation time.  Then facing a 4th and 20 from their own 5 with 55 seconds on the clock, Aaron Rodgers was in his element, with regulation time ending not for the first time this season on an immaculate Rodgers Hail Mary pass, this time to Jeff Janis.  One of two TD’s for Janis on the day as he stepped up with 145 yards from 7 catches.

 

Is there a better team than the Packers at coming down with Hail Mary balls, either they are so well coached that they spend time working on this as a drill or they are incredibly lucky?  Either way Rodgers did it again and tied this game up at 20 each and forced Overtime.  This directly led to what will no doubt become known as Coingate or Tossgate as the referee was seemingly unable to toss the coin properly in a coin flip that resulted with Arizona getting the ball.

 

When the pressure is on your big players step up and has there ever been a better big time pressure player than Larry Fitzgerald.  If Jeff Janis had a day for Green Bay then Fitzgerald was simply magical.  On the day 8 balls for 176 yards including the huge 75 yard play to the Packers 5 yard line when for all the world Palmer looked like he was going to be sacked, Palmer instead just about spun out of it and found Fitzgerald who had found space and the rest was inevitable as he beat 6 Packers before just being tackled 75 yards downfield.  Not to be denied two plays later, both passes to Fitzgerald and the game was over and Arizona are heading to Carolina in what should be a game worthy of the Super Bowl itself.

 

In the other game the other NFC West team Seattle Seahawks deserve credit for winning the second half of their divisional round game 24-0.  Given they have struggled in many games in the fourth quarter they would normally be overjoyed at such a strong late game showing, however the fact they were soundly embarrassed in the first half by 31-0 meant this late game effort was doomed to fall short.

 

Therefore the NFC kings are dead, long live the new kings will it be Carolina Panthers the number one seeded 15-1 team or the Cardinals no 2 seed at 13-3. Next Sunday sure is going to be fun.  The Seahawks will be kicking themselves that they will not be part of it.

 

Maybe Russell Wilson and teammates were still frozen from their time in Minnesota last week and even the return of Beast Mode could not thaw them out as Carolina dominated on offence and defence in the first half.  When the Panthers have a big lead strange things happen though and they could easily have lost 4 games this season in very similar circumstances as teams have come back to tie or take the lead from seemingly dead situations.   Wilson is too good to keep quiet for an entire game though and the second half was all Seattle and he got it back to a one score game which seemed fair before the game, but the way the two teams got to their points was a little surprising.

 

One point of note, this defeat could well be the last time Marshawn Lynch takes the field for the Seahawks, given his salary cap hit next year if he comes back and the emergence of Thomas Rawles in relief of Lynch this year, indications are Lynch is done in Seattle, shame it wasn’t a bigger game from the Beast Mode if this turns out to be true.