Jan 11 2009
Arizona Cardinals defy prognosticators and beat the Panthers
If you could find more than a handful of analysts in the national sports market who picked the Cardinals over the Panthers yesterday in the NFC divisional playoff game you are a better person than me.
The Arizona team dropped 33 on the Panthers in Carolina who answered with 13, 7 of which came in the waning seconds of the game. The key to the win: Jake Delhomme’s colossal meltdown on national TV. Six, count them, six turnovers, five INT’s and a fumble in the pocket.
It was painful to watch except if you are a fans of the desert rats who have put it all together in the last two weeks in a display that seemed improbable only 8 days ago.
They are executing to perfection and the offense is much more diverse than it had been most of the season. Perhaps that is a result of Anquan Boldin’s unavailability but whatever the reason, the running game is alive and well in the Cards’ backfield.
Just as an experiment it would be fun to know how many points the team would have scored had Delhomme had an average day. But we’ll never know and of course don’t need to. The Cards either host the Eagles at home or go to New York to play the Giants in next week’s NFC Championship game. Wow.
