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It is fitting that the final game of 2017 for the Arizona Cardinals would be one where pride was on the line.
You set out the season with Super Bowl aspirations but adjust as the season plays out.
For the Cardinals and their fans, Super Bowl aspirations ended when David Johnson was hurt in game one.
Playoff hopes died in another country when Carson Palmer was lost for the season and the reservation of a lost season was real.
Except, no one told Bruce Arians and his Arizona Cardinals.
With Blaine Gabbert and Drew Stanton starting eight games so far, you wouldn't expect much, but Gabbert went 2-3 and Stanton, well he just wins games, is 2-1 on the season and his one loss was to this Seattle Seahawks team.
Now, the Cardinals behind Stanton, Kerwynn Williams and the ageless Larry Fitzgerald look to get enough offense going against a very injured Seahawks defense. If they can, we've seen the last six weeks, the Cardinals defense is playing at a special level. They'll be without veteran leader Antoine Bethea, who may have been having his best season as a pro, but they've overcome a number of injuries this season.
It also is a chance to end their rivals season.
The Cardinals can guarantee the Seahawks are as miserable as them if they go up to Century Link Field and win.
The Seahawks will be leaning on Russell Wilson, who won't win the MVP because the Seahawks are struggling, but deserves it as much as Chandler Jones probably deserves to be defensive player of the year.
It is an opportunity to finish something the Cardinals didn't expect to be shooting for, .500.
That’s how football works though. You adapt, whether it is during the game or during the season you adapt.
The Cardinals have done that, in doing so, Bruce Arians has put together maybe his best season coaching and put the Cardinals in a position where they are unlikely to find their quarterback of the future in the draft without paying a price.
Yet, for Arians and company, it is not about next year, it is simply about today and today is an opportunity to reach another goal. To end the season of your rival and to head into 2018 looking forward.