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Arizona Cardinals Finish Off the Seahawks and the Season with 34-21 Win

The Arizona Cardinals closed the 2008 regular season, the same way that they Edge10_medium
started the season, defeating a NFC West rival. They finished the season with a winning record for the first time in a decade and a perfect 6-0 against the NFC West. The Cardinals will host a home playoff, for the first time in more than half a century this Saturday when the Atlanta Falcons come to town. As for this game though, simply put the Cardinals did what they had to do to win. It wasn't a dominating win or an overly pretty game but it was effective. This game was supposed to provide a momentum boost to the slumping Cardinals and certain phases of the game did look energized. The running game and offense as a whole looked much better than they have in recent weeks and scored 34 points, they're seventh game scoring at least 30. The defense was a mixed bag. At times they looked like world beaters and at times they looked like a unit that couldn't get out of it's own way.

Star-divide

The running game had a 100 yard rusher for the first time in nearly two months. Coincidentally the last 100 yard rusher exploded onto the scene when he replaced Edgerrin James in the starting lineup, but it was Edge who ripped off 100 yards yesterday. He did it on just 14 carries and he had three carries over 10 yards, including a 35 yard scamper (a new high for him as a Cardinal). J.J. Arrington officially "started" the game but he only touched the ball three times, not counting two kickoff returns. It remains to be seen if this was a sign of things to come or just an aberration against a team with no reason to put up much of a fight, but for one game it was nice to see this team be able to move the ball on the ground. They'll need at least some production from the running game if they want to advance in the playoffs.

Fitz11_medium

Kurt Warner finished off his best season since 2001 with 263 yards and four touchdowns. In true KW fashion though he did also have two turnovers (one fumble and one pick), but even that couldn't slow down the Cardinals on this day. Larry Fitzgerald was the star though with several "WOW" catches including a beautiful 38 yard touchdown and an incredible one-handed catch (with his left hand no less). Steve Breaston also had a great game with 91 yards on five catches and a touchdown, but the biggest catch came was a seven yard bubble screen with just :53 seconds left on the clock. Breaston entered the fourth quarter 71 yards short of 1,000 for the season but with 70 yards on three receptions he was on the door stepDefense_medium with less than a minute to go in the game. The Cardinals got the ball back after an interception from DRC and a quick pass from Leinart to Breaston went for seven yards and ensured that the Cardinals would have three 1,000 yard receivers. Matt Leinart played the final quarter and completed five of eight passes for 83 yards. Overall the quarterbacks spread the ball around to nine different receivers, with four guys pulling in at least four balls.

The defense was decent but not anything spectacular. The good news is that they forced three turnovers, but the bad news is that they gave up three touchdown drives of 60 yards or more. The Seahawks had one other drive of 64 yards that resulted in a missed field goal but their other six drives amounted to 19 plays for 21 yards. Antonio Smith recorded the only sack for the Cardinals but Karlos Dansby might have made the biggest defensive play of the game. His strip of Maurice Morris early in the second quarter set the offense up at the 12 yard line and gave the Cardinals their first lead of the game. Ralph Brown also had a very solid game recovering the fumble caused by the Dansby and picking off Seneca Wallace's second pass of the game. Not to be outdone was Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie who hammered the final nail in the Seahawks coffin when he plucked a tipped pass out of the air on the Hawks final drive and would have scored a touchdown, if not for fumbling the ball out of bounds.

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Overall, another solid game from the Arizona Cardinals against an NFC West rival. The Cardinals will have to play better next week to advance in the playoffs but this game accomplished it's purpose: building momentum and establishing confidence. Thoughts on this game and the regular season as a whole?

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NFC West Roundtable: Offense

Jul 2009 from Field Gulls - 18 comments

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5-10, 8-8, 9-7.....

I said it a few weeks ago and I stand by it… every year Whiz coaches the Cardinals get better.

It was nice to see Edge. I know we’ve all been saying it for at least four weeks but it was about time they brought Edge into the mix. It seems crazy to me that we have all been saying play a RB committee with the three of them for weeks, and all of a sudden Whiz decides to pull it out. I don’t know why he pulled Edge from the Pats game, when he was being very productive. But, it’s just nice to see a running game, some power I, and some offset I formations.

Did you guys see next years schedule?

Taken from azcardinals.com/home.php:
The Cardinals now know their 2009 opponents. Not only will the Cards have home-and-away series with each of their three NFC West foes – Seattle, St. Louis, San Francisco – but they will also have home games against Houston, Indianapolis, Green Bay, Minnesota and Carolina.

The Cards’ non-division road games include Tennessee, Jacksonville, Chicago, Detroit and the New York Giants.

What do you guys think our record will be next year against those quality opponents?

by CardsFan08 on Dec 29, 2008 9:59 AM MST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Gawds, let's get through the post-season, draft, FA, mini-camps, OTAs, and Flagstaff and I'll wager a guess.

We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!

by Hawkwind on Dec 29, 2008 11:51 AM MST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

yea it's impossible to know how good or bad those teams will be by next Sept let alone this time next year

Teams like Houston, Green Bay, Minny, Carolina, Tennessee, Jacksonville and Chicago could be anywhere from 4-12 to 12-4 next year. The only sure things on the schedule that we know right now is that Indy and the Giants will be good and the Lions will probably be bad. Other than that it’s all a crap-shoot, including how good or bad our division opponents will be.

by RedBirds to the SB on Dec 29, 2008 12:04 PM MST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

don't forget us...

We’ve could be potentially playing next year without :
Kurt Warner, UFA
J.J. Arrington, UFA
Edgerin James, Possible Cap Casualty
Terrelle Smith ,UFA
Anquan Boldin, Possibly Traded
Leonard Pope, UFA
Ben Patrick, ERFA
Bertrand Berry, UFA
Monty Beisel, UFA
Karlos Dansby, UFA
Eric Greene, UFA
Antonio Smith, UFA

And I’m sure that’s not all of them. It will be a very interesting offseason.

by hevchv on Dec 29, 2008 12:22 PM MST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

that looks like a pretty complete list

Elton Brown is another guy but if he couldn’t crap the lineup yet, he’s probably as good as gone.

by RedBirds to the SB on Dec 29, 2008 1:04 PM MST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Must keeps on the list

Kurt – Leinart can sit another year while we try for another play off run.
JJ – The kid has earned the shot.
Berry – Is a beast.
Dansby – How do you let a guy with the kind of season he has had go. Maybe the Jets want him?

by badmatty53 on Dec 30, 2008 9:00 AM MST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

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