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Arizona Cardinals Column
By:
Rod Goebel
4/29/10
The
Arizona Cardinals caught a break when top rated nose tackle Dan
Williams fell to them at the bottom of the First Round. They will
need him for their 3-4 scheme. Many draft experts had Williams
rated higher, in fact the Cards had him ranked 11th on their draft
board. Needless to say, Whisenhunt was thrilled to find the
Tennessee nose tackle still available at the 26th pick!
With Karlos Dansby gone, the Cardinals got a good value in the
Second Round with Darryl Washington, a linebacker from TCU. In the
Third Round the Cards drafted a receiver from Citadel. It is the
teams hope that Andre Roberts will fill the vacancy of Anquan Boldin…..
Big shoes to fill! In the Fourth Round the Cardinals worked to
improve the line with OLB O’Brien Schofield and in the Fifth Round
they traded up to get John Skelton, a 6’5” quarterback from
Fordham University . He has a very strong arm but has been erratic.
The Cardinals may look to him as a project that could be a gem down
the road. The Sixth Round brought Jorrick Calvin, a DB from Troy
U. and in the final Round the Cards picked up Jim Drey, a Tight End
from Stanford.
After two straight years of winning the NFC West Division the
Cardinals had to watch their NFC division opponents picking early
and often in the draft bolstering their own rosters. Many of those
“in the know” felt that the Seattle Seahawks had the best draft of
all NFL teams.
The St. Louis Rams had the first overall Draft Pick and selected
Sam Bradford, thought to be the best quarterback of the Draft, so
with his help the Rams could be a real contender in the coming
years. The San Francisco 49ers had two First Round picks which
they used to strengthen their offensive line with Anthony Davis and
Mike Iupati.
Given that the Cardinals are going into the new season without Kurt
Warner BUT instead with a well rested quarterback that should know
the system and has strong potential as being a franchise QB, I am
cautiously optimistic that Matt Leinart and the Cardinals will have
a shot at winning their third NFC West Conference. However, should
Leinart not prove this year he can be the QB the Cardinals have
been paying him to be…. It may be time to cut ties with the former
USC quarterback.
Go Cards!
1/13/10
Legendary!
THAT
is what Sundays Wild Card game was!
With a
51-45 win over Green Bay in Overtime a record was set the
HIGHEST amount of points scored in ANY NFL playoff game!
My
daughter, Tracy and I arrived early to the stadium to take
in the tailgating festivities and were shocked when a semi
trailer cab pulled up next to us painted with Green Bay
colors and the Big G icon!
So for
us it was “GAME ON” right then and there!
Were
we intimidated? Well.. Yes! Many of my fellow tailgaters
were as well. (We did not have the fog horn blast of
confidence they were sporting!)
Lucky
for us, our nerves were settled a bit with the quick lead in
the first quarter of 17-0 and by halftime it was a
comfortable lead of two touchdowns thanks to an interception
and the accurate throwing arm of
Kurt Warner. (24 to
10)
Halftime entertainment of “Three Doors Down” calmed
us further so we were not prepared for a quick comeback by
Aaron Rodgers and the Packers!
With
the help of an on side kick, Rodgers led his team to two
touchdowns in the 3 rd quarter matching the Cardinals two
touchdowns. The fourth quarter is where Rodgers got “scarey
good” guiding his team to three touchdowns to the Cardinals
one! (Score tied at 45-45). Warner drove the Cardinals
near the Packers 16 yd line giving Rackers a shot of winning
the game in regulation for a 34 yd. kick for the win. Oddly,
Rackers missed sending the game into overtime!
He who
wins the overtime coin toss wins the game, we all know that
is usually the outcome. You could hear a GASP come
over the crowd as Green Bay won the toss and elected to
receive!
To
this point the whole game had been lights out offense,
neither teams defense was stopping the other team. Things
looked bleak for the Cardinals unless the Cards defense
could stop Rodgers! On one of the first two plays from
scrimmage Rodgers slightly overthrew a receiver (Greg
Jennings) streaking down the field that had outrun his
defender. that would have been game over.. Packers win… so
close!
Thankfully, on
third and six, (the Cardinals defense showed signs of why in
a bygone time they were called the Cardiac Kids), Michael
Adams quickly got to Rodgers, stripped him of the ball,
whereby Rodgers kicked the ball upwards enough to allow an
alert Karlos Dansby to grab the ball and run for 17 yards
and a touchdown for the WIN!
(A
side note here--- Although the refs seemed to be spotting
many penalties committed by the Cardinals up to this point…
some deserving and some not so deserving, it did appear to
me that Adams could or should have been called for a face
mask on Rodgers in stripping him of the ball
I’m just saying)
A
legendary finish which had Warner completing 29 of 37
passes to seven different receivers for 375 yards
which gave Warner a 154.1 passer rating which is near
perfect!
Equally impressive was Warner’s counterpart, Aaron
Rodgers, completing
28 of 42 passes,
for an amazing 403 yards!
Next
stop for the Cardinals is a Divisional Playoff game with the
New Orleans Saints,
the fourth seeded Cards against the first rated Saints
Both
teams have explosive offenses so it should be another high
scoring shoot out!
New
Orleans has also been known as “The Big Easy”, here’s
hoping that on Saturday when these two teams met there will
be nothing easy for the New Orleans Saints!!!
Go
Cards!
12/29/09
Last week
the Arizona Cardinals clinched their SECOND consecutive NFC WEST
TITLE with a Detroit win and the 49er's loss in Philadelphia.
At 38 years old, Kurt Warner, passed for 313
yards on Sunday against his former team, the St. Louis Rams.
This 31-10 win was the Cardinals SEVENTH consecutive win against
the St. Louis Rams!
The
Cardinals (10-5) reached 10 regular season wins for the first
time since 1976, 12 years before the franchise
moved to Arizona!
There were THREE major accomplishments reached during this
game!
--Early
Doucet , a rookie receiver from last season caught
his first touchdown pass.
--The pass
he caught was the 100th passing touchdown thrown by
Kurt Warner for the Cardinals making Warner only the
second NFL quarterback in history behind Fran Tarkenton to have
100 passing yards for two different NFL teams!
--With a
sack of Rams QB Keith Null in the fourth quarter,
Adrian Wilson became only the 10th player in NFL
history to have 20 sacks and 20 interceptions in a career!
Wilson had made his 23rd interception earlier in the game!
I had
attended the game with my brother in law, his son in law, and
his two young boys, Benjamin (6) and Wesley (3) years old. They
are both BIG Cardinal fans and on the ride back to Northern
Arizona Wesley said he IS GOING to play for the Cardinals when
he is older!
It could happen!
With the
last regular season game being against Green Bay on Sunday we
are in a unique situation where the last regular season game AND
the first NFC Playoff game could actually be against the same
team!
(Both just 7 days apart)
Again... It could
happen!
Another Playoff season for the Big Red!
Go Cards
AND
Happy New Year!!
12/10/09
As most of you know that read my
columns, I have had season tickets for the Cardinals since
they moved to the Valley.
I am going to now say something I have
NEVER been able to say.... The Arizona Cardinals are 8
and 4, let’s let that sink in, they have WON 8 games
and only lost 4 ! I do not believe they have had those
stats since the mid 70's!
Even more impressive to me at this late
point in the season is that of 32 teams in the NFL, there
are only 5 teams with a better record than the Cardinals!
The Colts and Saints are undefeated at
12-0 while the Vikings, Bengals and Chargers have a few games on
the Cards.
The Cardinals are clearly showing that
they deserve the respect of other teams in the league!
A couple of things that stood out for
me in the dominating win against the Minnesota Vikings
and Brett Favre:
-The University of Phoenix stadium had
64,121 fans with many thousands being Vikings fans that had to
be disappointed to see the Cardinals win the game by 30 to 17.
-After suffering a concussion two weeks
earlier Kurt Warner passed for 285 yards and
three touchdowns!
-The offensive line did a fantastic job
of protecting Warner.... high praise for Jeremy
Bridges. He was making his first start at left tackle and was
facing Jared Allen (one of the leagues PREMIER pass rushers)
Allen, who has 12 ½ sacks to his credit, did not have one Sunday
against Warner and rarely even touched him.
-Being an Anquan Boldin
fan, I was thrilled to see him getting so many passes thrown his
way!
Everyone’s favorite, Larry Fitzgerald
was being double AND even triple covered at times which set
Anquan up for two touchdown passes, one being his long of the
season for 34 yards!
While Brett Favre had only 3
interceptions ALL SEASON , the Cardinals Defense picked
him off for TWO in this game! Two sacks that I noted
against Favre, one was second round pick of 2008, Calais
Campbell, I felt he made a rookie mistake by slamming Favre to
the ground but in his excitement I suppose it is understandable.
Another sack by veteran player Bertrand Berry looked as though
he was easing Favre down on his butt as to not hurt him. Very
classy move for Berry since Favre was going down anyway! I would
like to think that when defenders are going at Kurt Warner they
would use Berry’s technique over Campbell’s! After all,
these two Future Hall of Famers are not in there twenty’s or
thirty’s anymore!
A VICTORY
in Monday nights game against the San
Francisco 49ers AND the Arizona Cardinals will clinch their
second consecutive Division Title!
Go
Cards!
10/30/09
Looking
GOOD at 4-2 !After a
frustrating start against conference opponent San Fran. 49ers,
and a loss to Peyton Manning and the Colts, both HOME games, it
was a cause for concern for many of us long time supporters!
Primarily because last years home games were the Cards "bread
and butter"!
However, with the exciting win over the
Giants IN New York, the Cardinals have shown that they CAN win
consistently on the road (3 straight) as well as on the east
coast (2).
The team also shows great determination
these days as when DRC tipped a ball directly into the
outstretched arms of Hicks where he sprinted into the end zone
for an easy 6 points just before half time!
A few years back the Cards would have
been deflated and had a very hard time of getting back into the
game.
I am certain that there are two factors
that we can attribute to this turn-around, the key factor is
Coach Whiz and the positive attitude he has brought to the team,
the other is the teams strength and conditioning coach, John
Lott! As mentioned in an earlier article, It is no fluke that
the injuries have been held to a minimum.
I am also VERY impressed with the teams
new Defensive hire! Coach Davis has shown some great defensive
plays! He must have a tremendous amount of confidence in the
teams C B s and Safteys to have still blitzed Eli late in the
fourth quarter for what could have been a score to tie the game.
I love that attitude (which seems new
to the Cards) of playing TO WIN as opposed to playing NOT TO
LOSE.
Keep it up guys!
The Cardinals have earned respect after
last years Super Bowl appearance and are showing everyone the
team was not a fluke, they do deserve to be taken seriously!
On a different note..
On October 22nd I attended a dinner/auction
celebrating the NFL career of
Randall McDaniel.
He graduated in "83" from Agua Fria in Avondale while I had
graduated in "74". I have got to say that this is a man of
real values. A man that very much reminds me of what we are
seeing in Fitzgerald and Warner!
During McDaniel’s 14 NFL years, the
first 12 with the Vikings, all of which he was selected to play
in the Pro Bowl and was named ALL PRO following his first nine
seasons! As far as durability, can you imagine playing in the
NFL for 14 seasons and only missing two games!
As to his character, after learning he
was being inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame this year, it was a
former coach, mentor that McDaniel asked to present him, his
former Athletic Director from Agua Fria. Coach O.K. Fulton was
honored to be asked and became a little choked up upon hearing
Randall say "Mr. Fulton was proud of what I did as an athlete,
But he never focused on that, He cared about me as a student and
as a person. He told me that sports were part of who I was, but
not who I was. He told me to take advantage of all the
opportunities sports had to offer me- but not let sports define
me or my future."
McDaniel has followed in Fulton’s
footsteps as an educator and serves as a
special-education teacher for second-grade students in a
Minneapolis suburb.
8/8/09
2009 Draft
1.)
Chris
(Beanie) Wells RB from Ohio State
2.)
Cody
Brown OLB from UCONN
3.)
Rashad
Johnson S from Alabama
4.)
Gregory
Toler CB from St. Pauls College
5.)
Herman
Johnson OG from LSU
6.)
Will
Davis OLB from Illinois
7A) LaRod
Stephens Howling RB from Pittsburgh
7B.)
Trevor Canfield OG from Cinn.
Beanie
Wells, the final draft pick was signed to a five year contract
just before the Cardinals Training Camp opened in Flagstaff,
Arizona. The running back out of Ohio State had been projected
as a High First Round Pick. He dropped to the Cardinals at the
31st pick because many thought he had a tendency to
be frequently INJURED.
THE
GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
The Good
With the
signing of Beanie Wells, the Cardinals organization did what
they had not accomplished in MANY years! A first round
draft pick in training camp on the first day!
The Bad
During
the first workout, just 15 minutes before the workout ended,
Beanie Wells suffered a left ankle injury during a run play.. He
is only expected to miss 4 or 5 days of practice but that
certainly did not help matters with him trying to show he is
not an injury prone back.
The Ugly
Draft negotiations….
There had
been times in the Cardinals history where they would waste a
First Round pick on a player that would threaten not to sign
primarily for money reasons, most notably Kelly Stoeffer in
1987. Thankfully with the signing of Coach Whisenhunt and Russ
Grimm a few years back and the influence Michael Bidwell and Rod
Graves have had on the direction of the team the new draft
signings have been going smoothly over the past few years!
However,
the San Francisco 49ers have that very problem on their
hands with Michael Crabtree. He is a very
promising wide receiver that had been projected as a top 5 pick
in Aprils draft. From what I know of him he seems to be a smart
guy so perhaps it is his agent or the people around him
that are telling him to hold out for a contract that will pay
him as if he were a 5th, 6th, or 7th
pick in the first round as opposed to a 10th pick,
which is where the 49ers drafted him..
There have
been rumors that if he is not signed to a contract similar to
those higher picks he will sit out this season and re enter the
draft next year! BIG MISTAKE
Myself, as
well as many long suffering Cardinals fans are very thankful
that we are not sitting in the same boat as Mike Singletary and
the 49ers!
Go Cards!
6/13/09
NFL Football Hall of Fame
Canton, Ohio August 8th 2009
It was just reported in the Arizona
Republic and the West Valley View that Randall McDaniel’s
choice for who he would like to present him at the 2009 Hall of
Fame is O.K. Fulton. Coach Fulton had been coach or
Athletic Dirctor at McDaniels High School (Agua Fria) from 1963 to
1986 and had been a mentor to many of the students from Agua Fria
which is located west of Phoenix.. McDaniel graduated in 1983
and went on to play at A.S.U.
McDaniel was the 19th overall
pick in the first round of the NFL draft in 1988 by the Minnesota
Vikings. He earned All Rookie Honors and started 13 straight Playoff
games for the Vikings. He also embarked on a streak of 202
consecutive starts that continued from his second year through the
end of his career!
Mike Russo, sports editor of the West
Valley View quoted Fulton as saying "I was humbled and thrilled to
death!" Russo quoted McDaniel with the following as to how he came
to choose Fulton. "I thought of a couple of coaches and even my best
friend, but there was truly no one better than Mr. Fulton to
represent where I came from and how I got there," he said "Many
people have helped me get where I am- in sports, in college, in the
NFL and in my second career in education- but as I really thought of
a person who impacted the direction of my life from the beginning, I
kept coming back to Mr. Fulton. He was the first person, outside of
my family, who saw me as a whole person, NOT just an athlete."
Coach Fulton will be a presenter with the
likes of Chris Berman and other well known sports names.
I am confident he will do Arizona and
my high school, Agua Fria, proud!
4/27/09
I am
thrilled with the Cardinals first Pick (at 31) in the NFL Draft!
They drafted Chris “Beanie” Wells, a recent scouting report
listed him as an effective downhill runner with good vision and
the ability to move the pile, also good lateral moves. He was
listed as being difficult to bring down however durability was a
concern. Overall, I feel he was the best running back in this
year’s draft!
However, let me share with you two opposing views from an Az.
paper just hours after the draft.
“I’ll
call beanie a bust right now, he will never play more than 6
games with the cardinals, and i would be surprised if he gets
more than 100 yards in more than 2 games. Redbird fans get ready
for a bigger wuss than Leinart”. Posted by
“Iforgiveyourstupidity”
I
however agree with the following post….
Slow? average
speed? uh.....did you see how average his speed was in the first
drive of the championship game against LSU? Slow enough to go 70
yards UNTOUCHED. And did you get to watch ANY of his games
against Michigan? He averaged over 200 yards a game and had five
TDs of over 50 yards against Michigan in those three games.
Wells might be alot of things but at 235 lbs you won't find a
single RB in the NFL faster than him. If you aren't happy
getting Chris Wells, the consensus #1 high school playear in the
nation coming out of Akron, Ohio you wouldn't be happy with Jim
Brown! No he won't be Jim Brown but this guy is a hammer who can
grind out first downs. And if you havn't watched OSU play he can
take it to the house on ANY play. The fact he won't be 'the man'
on the Cards is a great thing. Nobody is going to be keying on
him allowing him to be very effective. Initially he and
Hightower may split time but by the 6-8th game he'll be the
starter. Great guy who was never in any kind of trouble at OSU.
Comes from a stable family background, anything but a Clarette
type. If there's a knock on him he gets dinged up now and then
but I doubt Whisenhunt will be giving him 25+ carries every game
the way OSU did. He'll be fresh getting 15 or so carries and the
clowns whining about him will look like the clowns they are. He
may miss a game or two but how many NFL backs play every down of
every game for 16 games? The Cards offense will be #1 in the
league next year as long as they keep Bolding and Warner doesn't
get hurt. Posted by “dlaw61”
More on the
addition picks coming soon
4/1/09
What a
GREAT SEASON.
Rarely
are the teams strength and conditioning coaches mentioned but I
have got to say that the Cardinals are very fortunate to have a
man like John Lott on board! With the Cardinals being one
of the healthier teams in the NFL last year I feel a lot of
credit goes to LOTT. The training regiments he has
developed with the players have been very successful.
The
team has resigned Kurt Warner to a two year 23 million
dollar contract which he had easily deserved after his big
numbers last year. Completing 401 of 598 passes for 4,583 yards,
30 touchdowns and only 14 interceptions in the regular season,
while setting multiple franchise records in the process! His
playoff numbers were even better. He completed 92 of 135 passes
for 1,147 yards, 11 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions in the
postseason games.
His
passer rating was 112.2!
I sure
hope that Warner can stay healthy next year but if not,
Matt Leinart is proving to be a great team player.
When Leinarts day does come he will be one of the best
quarterbacks with the least miles on him! He will have learned
from a future Hall of Famer and should have a
knowledge of the game and defenses beyond his playing years!
When the time comes for Leinart to lead this team I think we may
see some of the QB magic from his USC days!
It sure
is looking like the 10th overall pick of Leinart a
few years back may really pay off compared to his counterparts
from that years draft, Vince Young (not playing) and Jay Cutler
(not happy).
2/3/09
THE ARIZONA CARDINALS MADE IT TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!
First and foremost a BIG Thank
You is in order to the entire Cardinals organization!
Starting with the BIDWILL FAMILY,
AND ROD GRAVES for their wisdom in hiring
KEN WHISENHUNT AND RUSS
GRIMM!
ALSO A BIG THANKS TO DENNIS GREEN,
Coach for the Cardinals from January 04 to January 07. It was
Coach Green and his recruiting staff that signed Edgerton
James, an unrestricted free agent in the Spring of 2006.
Other key players signed by Green that helped make this playoff
run possible were LARRY FITZGERALD, KARLOS DANSBY,
DARNELL DOCKETT, ANTONIO SMITH, ANTREL ROLLE, JJ ARRINGTON,
ELTON BROWN, LEONARD POPE, & DUECE LUTUI.
These players all turned out to
truly be "what he thought they were!"as well as "who he thought
they were!", that being excellent motivated players!
When Fitzgerald galloped through the
Steelers defense like a thoroughbred, scoring a touchdown that
capped the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, the Cardinals
were only 157 seconds from immortality. They were 157 seconds
from ending the second-longest drought in professional sports.
Then the magic disappeared. Destiny,
like most everyone else in the stadium, was wearing black and
gold.
"Some say we could not top last
year’s Super Bowl," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.
"But the Steelers and Cardinals did
that tonight."
In the end, in my view the loss
to the Pittsburgh Steelers (27 to 23) came down to too many
penalties by the Cardinals allowing the Steelers to continue
drives. On a personal note, a few penalties which should have
been called against the Steelers at critical times were not.
I feel badly for Kurt Warner, what
will this loss do to him?
"I don’t know if I am going to play
next year," he said. "I haven’t thought about that. I’m going to
enjoy what we accomplished as a football team. I’m going to
enjoy this great game we just played in, and I’m going to take
some time away from the game and make that decision."
Will it leave a bad enough taste to
make him want to avoid the agony of defeat again? Warner has a
life outside football fuller than most. Seven kids. His
Charities. His faith.
Or will it leave him hungry for
more?
The Cardinals want him back and
likely will offer a two year deal somewhere in the neighborhood
of $18 million. That’s a hard paycheck to pass up, especially
when you still have many more years to do the things you want to
do.
Again, as a long time fan I want to
thank the Bidwill family, this season represents a huge victory
for them. When campaigning for Proposition 302, team
President Michael Bidwill said a state of the art facility
was the missing bridge between his team and a championship. I
thoroughly believed him because I had the team mail me stats and
information on the stadium Proposition and gave a 8-10 minute
speech in Toastmasters trying to rally support in favor of the
stadium. I was thrilled for the fans and team that it passed!
Now, three years after the doors to
that new stadium opened, the Cardinals made it all the way to
the Super Bowl. The Bidwill family kept a promise, and
that has done wonders for its image and legacy in Arizona!
THANK YOU CARDS FOR THIS ELEVATED,
ELEVATOR, "ELLOFA" RIDE!
My thanks to Paula Boivin and Dan
Bickley (Arizona Republic) for some items used in this column.
1/22/09
A
Cardinals win on the road in Carolina and the Cardinals could be
playing another HOME playoff Game against the Philadelphia
Eagles! IF, the Cardinals could beat Carolina , the MEDIA said
the Cardinals would FALL in that game but as it turned out, the
CARDS did not FALL that way!
Part two
of getting a second home Playoff game for the Cards
continues....
Now, I
have been a die hard Cardinals fan for 20 years BUT I became a
serious Band Wagon fan of the Philadelphia Eagles on January 11th!
If the Wild Card Eagles could defeat the #1 seeded NFC Super
Bowl Champs in the Meadowlands on that day, then the Cards (4th
seeded) would host the Eagles(6th seeded) in Glendale, Az.
The
Eagles were serious underdogs but I believe with ALL the Arizona
Band Wagon fans supporting the Eagles in their quest to advance
to the NFC Championship game, it was just enough to help them
soar over the Giants!
So here
we are, The Arizona Cardinals very first hosting of the NFC
Championship game!
It goes
without saying that my band wagon days are over, back to my
"true love" (okay now Sandy, true love by NFL standards) ... My
true love, the Arizona Cardinals!
This
will be the first hosting of such a game in the past 61 years!
Wasn’t Truman President then?
I have
been tailgating before Cardinals games (for these many years)
with good friends Rex and Karen. Together we have been through
the good (Vince Tobin) and the bad (Buddy Ryan & the Ryanettes)
in hopes of making it to the Big Dance... The Super Bowl!
Here we
are, early Sunday morning outside of the University of Phoenix
stadium knowing that if the Cards beat the Eagles in the short
60 minutes of this game then we (the Cardinals) are going to the
Super Bowl!
The
first half could not have been more enjoyable! A trick play
(flee flicker from Warner to Fitzgerald) and a lot of good
running by the "Edge".
Now the
second half I was a nervous wreck! This half started out with
the cards having a 24 to 6 lead. The Eagles came out determined,
McNabb was throwing well and his receivers were able to hold on
to the ball. Also their blitzing of Warner was starting to work
for them.
I have
to tell you that after (all these) years of "supporting" the Arizona
Cardinals, I was very worried that the "New" Cards were going to
revert to the "Same old Cardinals" by letting this moment get
away from them!
However,
being down 25 to 24 with over 10 minutes to go our proud "New
Arizona Cardinals" controlled the ball and the clock driving for
what would be the winning touchdown!
We have
a terrific Calm, Cool, Confident Coach in Ken Whisenhunt and
some outstanding players that no matter the outcome of Super
Bowl XLIII in Tampa, deserve some RESPECT!!
By the
Way, my tailgating friends really came prepared that day, Karen
had two bottles of Champagne on ICE!
Thanks
Karen and Thank You to the entire Cardinals Organization for
this wild ride!
One more
WIN
1/7/09
Has ANYONE seen my voice?
It was last heard from in Section
108 around the 48 yard line at the University of Phoenix
Stadium!
Wow!
This was by far the loudest I have
heard the Cardinal fans since the team moved to Arizona!
Few fans stayed in their seats
during most of this long awaited home playoff game, the first of
its kind since 1947 when they were called the Chicago Cardinals.
Rarely did most fans sit for
defensive plays and many remained standing for the offensive
plays.
The Arizona Cardinals earned some
long awaited RESPECT by beating the Atlanta Falcons 30 -
24 in front of a sellout crowd of 62,848 Fan-atics.
Prior to the game the media had
called the Cardinals "the worst division winner in history", in
fact a blowout loss to the Falcons in the first round was
predicted by many. I applaud the Cardinals players and coaches
character , preparation, and attitude for the way they played
this game!
The Falcons have a feared rushing
attack with over 152 yards per game, mostly provided by Michael
Turner, the second leading rusher in the league. However he was
held to only 42 yards by the Cardinals defense. Kudos to the
Cardinals defense for making plays, tackling well and
hitting hard!
While time of possession was nearly
identical the turnovers offered up by the Falcons and a few key
third down plays by the Cardinals made the difference in this
long awaited Cinderella story!
With that exciting Eagles win over
the Vikings in Minnesota the Eagles will be playing the
Defending Super Bowl Champs and our Cardinals will take on the
second seed Carolina Panthers this week.
The Cardinals had played the
Panthers very well on the road back on October 26th
so I am expecting that they will give them a very solid game in
Carolina!
Concerning Voice lost in Section 108.
REWARD OFFERED if found prior to Saturdays game against
the Carolina Panthers!
12/30/08
First, The Arizona Cardinals are
in the PLAYOFFS!
By beating the St. Louis Rams a few
weeks back, they won the NFC West Division! I would like to
think that the Cardinals were coasting as to not have any key
players injured while playing at home against the Vikings and in
a blizzard against the Patriots.
But, I think not. I was embarrassed
for the team with both of those games. Frankly, I hope the team
will not see any more snow in future games! It is a given that
the Arizona Cardinals do not DO snow.
Thankfully once back at home
against the Seahawks the Cardinals looked very good in the last
three quarters with Fitgerald making spectacular catches and
Edgerrin James breaking thru the scrimmage line with some
explosive runs!
As many sports reporters and local
fans have been heard to say, we may have caught a break with the
first round of the playoffs against the Atlanta Falcons. The
team has an exciting rookie QB but he is still a rookie. Matt
Ryan has been terrific for the Falcons but perhaps his lack of
experience will be an advantage for the Cardinals. I worry a
bit about the Cardinals defense and the cornerbacks (excluding
Rogers-Cromartie) but if they can play well, along with getting
Anquan Boldin back into the mix, I like the Arizona Cardinals
chances in winning their first Playoff game in Arizona!
Go Cards!
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