One of the cruel things about sports is that even great players don’t always go out on top.
Kurt Warner completed 17-of-26 pass attempts for 205 yards on Saturday, but the Saints blew out the Cardinals 45-14 to end Arizona’s bid to repeat as NFC champions. Warner also threw an interception, took one hellacious hit from Saints’ DE Bobby McCray and spent most of the afternoon looking completely out of rhythm. His performance was a stark contrast from his 379-yard, five-touchdown effort in the Cardinals’ 51-45 win over the Packers last week in overtime.
Following the loss to the Saints, Warner said that he doesn’t have a target date for his retirement decision, although he noted that it wouldn’t be a long process. Knowing how classy Warner is, he won’t announce a decision before the Super Bowl, as to not take any attention away from the final two teams.
The fan in me hopes that Warner will return next season. He proved again this year that he can still perform at a high level and the Cardinals’ window of opportunity is far from closing. But given how involved he is with charities and special projects off the field, nobody will be surprised if he decides to hang up his cleats for good in the offseason.
If he does decide to call it a career, there’s nothing left that he has to prove. He’s been the consummate professional and one heck of a player.
Arizona Cardinals at New Orleans Saints
4:30 pm ET
TV—FOX
If last week’s wild card game between Arizona and Green Bay is any indication, the Cardinals are having a difficult time stopping the opposition. And when the opposition is the New Orleans Saints, who boast the top offense in the NFL, you have to believe this game today could get ugly. Pair that with the fact that the Cardinals racked up 51 points last Sunday against the NFL’s second ranked defense, and that New Orleans is 25th overall in team defense (26th against the pass), and there is more fuel to the shootout theory here. Of course, the game plan for each team should be to try and run the ball to control the clock, and if that’s the case, the Saints have a decided edge with their sixth ranked rushing attack. Remember, though, the key word in “game plan” is “plan,” because it’s not likely the Packers or Cards expected to play an arena league game last week. In other words, you can bet Kurt Warner and Drew Brees will wind up airing it out in this one, with those speedy receivers on both sides reducing the game to a track meet. And really, that’s how this game should be. As for the outcome, we’ll give the rested home team a slight edge. THE PICK: SAINTS 52, CARDINALS 49
Baltimore Ravens at Indianapolis Colts
8:15 pm ET
TV—CBS
Speaking of rested players, there is going to be a mutiny in Indianapolis tonight if the Colts lose this game. Head coach Jim Caldwell and owner Bill Polian have been adamant about their belief that resting Peyton Manning and other regulars during most of the final two games, instead of pursuing a perfect 16-0 record, was the prudent thing to do. And while playing those guys would have been a huge risk (see Welker, Wes), you have to believe it was even riskier to not play them. Meanwhile, the Ravens, who come in with a solid ground game that is ranked fifth in the league, are just the kind of team that can give the Colts and their 24th ranked run defense fits anyway. John Harbaugh wants to run Ray Rice all day long and keep it away from Mr. Manning as much as possible, and he’d love to run the ball 52 times like he did against New England. When the Colts do have the ball, they are ranked dead last in rushing offense but second in passing. So guess what they’re gonna do? But the Ravens were in Tom Brady’s face all game last week, and you can expect Ray Lewis and company to try and do the same to Manning, who also has to worry about ball-hawking safety Ed Reed, voted Safety of the Decade earlier this week by USA Today. The Colts are extremely talented and didn’t win 14 games by accident, but that resting players thing is going to bite Caldwell and Polian in the butt. THE PICK: RAVENS 23, COLTS 20
Arizona Cardinals (10-6, 6-2 away) at New Orleans Saints (13-3, 6-2 home) Kickoff: 4:30PM ET Odds: Saints –7
Prediction:
The Saints have plenty to be concerned with entering this game, none bigger than the fact that they’ve stumbled into the playoffs by losing their last three regular season games. Meanwhile, the Cardinals have the momentum after beating the Packers last week and the more recent postseason experience after earning a trip to the Super Bowl last season.
That said, people tend to forget how good New Orleans was in the regular season. And now that they’re at full health, we’re going to see a different Saints team this Saturday then we did in the final three weeks of the season. Defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis appears healthy, which will help NO stop Beanie Wells and Arizona’s running game. With Ellis in the lineup, the Saints are a different team and one that can force opponents to be one-dimensional. Kurt Warner is excellent at making reads and getting the ball out of his hand quickly, but he and the rest of the Cardinals’ offense will have a harder time scoring in the red zone than they’re used to. New Orleans has the second best red zone defense in the league and safety Darren Sharper has shined when the Saints have their backs against their own goal line.
According to Adam Schefter via his Twitter page, the Cardinals don’t expect wideout Anquan Boldin (ankle/knee) to play against the Saints on Saturday.
As crazy as it sounds, Arizona might be better off.
The mere thought that the Cardinals are better without Boldin in the lineup sounds ridiculous. He’s an underrated playmaker that makes teams pay for double-teaming Larry Fitzgerald. He has the size and speed to win one-on-one matchups with a defender of any size and he’s a load to bring down in open space. Of course the Cardinals are better with him.
That said, over the last two seasons the Cards are 6-1 when Boldin didn’t play. And as the Wall Street Journal points out, they’ve averaged 33.9 points per game without him in the lineup, compared to the 24.5 PPG and 17-13 record with him. They also racked up 41 points in the one regular season game (vs. the Bears) that he missed this season and 51 points last week against the Packers, so the numbers would indicate that they’re better off without him.
But this is one of those times when numbers can be misleading. Arizona has survived without Boldin because they have an abundance of depth at the wideout position. Steve Breaston has shown the ability to be a playmaker when he starts and Early Doucet showed last week that he could be a star in the making. Fitzgerald aids both receivers by commanding double-teams, and having a quarterback in Kurt Warner that can deliver the ball in a timely manner so his wideouts can make the catch in stride and pick up yards after the catch is critical as well.
Can the Cardinals win without Boldin? Absolutely – and they’ve proven it. But are they better? That’s debatable. The numbers would suggest that they are, but teams are always better when they have their full complement of weapons, especially during the postseason.
To get you ready for the Cardinals-Saints’ Divisional Round tilt in the “Big Easy” this Saturday, here’s a preview of the game via a mock dialogue between an Arizona and a New Orleans fan.
Saint Fan: I bet Sean Payton couldn’t sleep after watching the Packers rip apart the Cardinals’ defense last Sunday! Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, James Jones and Jermichael Finley lit you guys up and we have similar weapons in Marques Colston, Jeremy Shockey, Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem. I can’t wait to see what that group will do against Arizona’s brutal secondary this Saturday!
Cardinal Fan: Last week was an anomaly – the Cards’ defense won’t play that bad two weeks in a row. Ken Whisenhunt and his staff have already dissected what went wrong and are working to correct the problem. Besides, tackling was the main issue last week, which is correctable.
Saint Fan: Payton just won coach of the year and is one of the brightest offensive minds in football. If Mike McCarthy figured out how to rack up 40-plus points on Arizona, then Payton might double that.
Cardinal Fan: This isn’t the regular season – it’s the playoffs.
Saint Fan: Wow, you’re just figuring this out now?
Cardinal Fan: Hear me out; Whisenhunt is 4-1 in the postseason as the Cardinals’ head coach. He has already been to the Super Bowl and thus knows what it takes to get there. There’s no doubt Payton is a great coach, but there’s a lot more at stake for him this weekend with the Saints being the No. 1 seed and expected to reach the Super Bowl after running through the competition for most of the season.
Saint Fan: Yeah, but let’s give defensive coordinator Gregg Williams his due. His aggressive style has changed how the Saints run their defense and he deserves just as much credit for our team’s success this year as Payton does.
Cardinal Fan: Oh, you mean the same Gregg Williams-led defense that can’t stop the run? Once we establish the ground game with Beanie Wells, Kurt Warner is going to pick your fading defense apart with his precision passing. Plus, once we get inside the red zone we’re nearly unstoppable. We’ve scored touchdowns on 70.4 percent of our trips inside our opponents’ 20-yard line, which is the best in the league.
- Everyone loves Kurt Warner, right? Well, no. DEADSPIN has a story from a former California Pizza Kitchen hostess who had a run-in with Warner during his time in St. Louis. And it wasn’t pretty.
I don’t know how long YouTube will have this up before the NFL gets its greedy little hands on it, but here are the highlights from the Cardinals’ thrilling win over the Packers on Sunday.
That was easily the best spectator game of the season.
For the casual NFL fan, Wildcard Weekend was a bust. Unless you were a Jets, Cowboys or Ravens fan, the games were boring and highly un-entertaining. (Unless you like one team completing dominating another, that is.)
Kurt Warner never ceases to amaze me. What he did against a solid Green Bay secondary was pretty extraordinary – even for him. He completed 29-of-33 passes for 379 yards, five touchdown passes and every time the Cards needed a score, he managed to get them into position to do so. If this is indeed Warner’s last dance, it looks like he’s going to leave everything out on the floor.
After throwing an interception on the first play of the game, Aaron Rodgers put on a show himself. He completed 28-of-42 passes for 422 yards and four touchdowns. There will be plenty of Packer fans that will say that Brett Favre would have won this game. But even the fiercest of Brett backers had to marvel at how Rodgers went toe-to-toe with Warner today and almost came out victorious.
I realize his fumble in overtime will haunt him and Green Bay in the offseason (he also overshot a wide open Greg Jennings on the first play of overtime that would have won the game), but don’t forget this was his first career playoff appearance. And with this being his first ever postseason appearance, he played incredibly well and once again proved that the Packers have a bright future. Keep in mind that Arizona got the benefit of a couple of calls in overtime that aided in Rodgers and Green Bay’s demise. The refs could have called a helmet-to-helmet hit on Rodgers on the second play of the drive, as well as a face mask penalty on the game-winning touchdown recovery.
Arizona’s next loss could mark the last time that quarterback Kurt Warner plays in an NFL game.
He always could change his mind, but this likely will be the 38-year-old Warner’s final NFL season, according to sources close to the quarterback.
Warner has been voted to five Pro Bowls, won two NFL MVP awards, one Super Bowl and became the second quarterback in history to throw more than 100 touchdown passes for two NFL franchises.
Earlier this season, Warner suffered a concussion that raised questions about his future.
While there’s no doubt he’d like to go out on top with a Super Bowl victory, Warner has nothing left to prove. He’s had a great career and if this is his final season, he’ll exit as one of the classiest players to have ever suited up in the NFL.
Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots
1:00 pm ET
TV—CBS
Last season, the Ravens began their playoff journey as a wild card by upsetting the AFC East champion Dolphins, and then upsetting the top seeded Tennessee Titans, before losing to the eventual champion Steelers in the AFC championship game. This season the Ravens went 10-6 and eked into the playoffs in Week 17, but their losses have mostly been close games, including a 27-21 defeat in New England in Week 4. The Ravens’ fifth ranked rushing attack is led by RB Ray Rice, and they will once again use their stout defense (ranked third overall) to try and stop Tom Brady, Randy Moss and company. The Patriots will try to run the ball to control the clock and keep it away from Rice, and also try to use said running game to allow Brady and his receivers to stretch the field. Of course, everyone knows that Wes Welker is out for the season after jamming his knee into the Reliant Stadium turf last Sunday. But did anyone expect rookie WR (and 7th round draft pick) Julian Edelman to catch 10 passes for 103 yards and run up and down the field looking like a Welker clone doing it? Not really. Still, Brady didn’t have guys named Lewis, Suggs and Reed lining up on the other side last week, and those guys in purple jerseys could force him into making a few mistakes. The bottom line, however, is that the Patriots are 8-0 at home this season, and a Bill Belichick coached team is a tough out in the playoffs. THE PICK: PATRIOTS 26, RAVENS 17
Green Bay Packers at Arizona Cardinals
4:40 pm ET
TV—FOX
Amazingly, this game is the third contest of the weekend that is a rematch of a Week 17 game, and like the Philly/Dallas game, this one is also in the same building, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona. Will it be the same outcome though? Last week, the Packers played all of their starters in annihilating the defending NFC champs 33-7, but Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt did not use star QB Kurt Warner after the first quarter. Still, how much of that crap about tipping your hand before playing an opponent again do you believe? This is the NFL, and the team that executes their game plan usually wins. Packers’ coach Mike McCarthy believed that letting Aaron Rodgers and his receivers stretch the field against the Cardinals’ 23rd ranked pass defense, as well as mixing in a heavy dose of Ryan Grant and Ahman Green to run the ball and keep it away from Warner and Matt Leinart was an effective strategy. Of course, McCarthy’s Packers boast the #1 rushing defense in the NFL and the #5 passing defense, so they feel like they can stop whoever is trying to move the ball against them anyway, especially if star CB Charles Woodson suits up after aggravating a shoulder injury last week. Remember, though, that the Cardinals are recently playoff tested, and came within a brilliant Santonio Holmes touchdown catch from winning it all less than a year ago. THE PICK: PACKERS 33, CARDINALS 30
