The Cardinals have been a show throughout most of the regular season with some of the biggest moments scattered about this year in the NFL. Their impressive 13 wins in the 17 week NFL season is one for the record books and will certainly sit in the minds of Cardinals fans as the greatest success they’ve seen going into January. However these late January games in football have no connection to any other game in months past. All teams start with zero wins, and one loss is all it takes to put the story and the dreams to bed for good. If the Cardinals want to continue their season, they must win against the battle tested Packers and their MVP Aaron Rodgers.
More Injuries To Green Bay WRs
This season the Pack have not had the kind of offensive success as they have been accustomed to since the arrival of one Aaron Rodgers at the quarterback position. Only 3,821 passing yards by the former MVP was certainly not the projected stats for Rodgers going into the playoffs. However most of those projections also had Jordy Nelson healthy for the regular season. That dream ended in the preseason when Nelson tore his ACL against the Steelers and since then the wide receiver corp has been very patchwork to say the least. The leading receiver for the Packers was the hoodie wearing James Jones who not only made the act of wearing a hoodie under football pads fashionable but also found a resurgence to his career after leaving the Pack for the Raiders. Coming back to Green Bay allowed him and Randall Cobb, who caught 79 passes for 829 yards, to help keep the offense rolling through the air. However now it looks like those two will have a harder time carrying the load at wide out with the injury to Davante Adams who will not be suiting up for the game against the Cardinals. At this point the Packers will have to start dipping into some younger talent and maybe go with more two tight end sets than they would be comfortable with, but with these lack of numbers in healthy pass catchers the normally high flying Packers may be forced into flying a little lower to the ground with a heavy running game and quick passes rather than deep routes against the Cardinals defense.
Remembering Last Meeting
The last time these two teams met it was not a contest. The Packers were outclassed, out coached and obliterated on the field. The defense for the Cardinals certainly gave by far their best performance of the season that day in December by wrapping up Rodgers for the same amount of sacks in that game as points they surrendered. The old veteran Dwight Freeney showed signs of the days when people considered him perhaps the best pass rusher in football as he utilized the old swim move well in that contest as he collected a strong three sacks against the Pack with fumble included in that performance. Even though the offense for the Cardinals wasn’t particularly impressive as it had been in normally the team didn’t need them to be. No Cardinal ran for over 50 yards in that game and Palmer only threw two touchdowns. But Michael Floyd did some serious damage to the Packers secondary with 111 yards receiving on just six catches. Yet something seems different since that game. The Packers offense in that game was not even close to being at a Super Bowl level and yet after struggling for a half against the Redskins they suddenly showed a kind of burst that has become common knowledge to those who watch the Pack in the playoffs. It is not likely the Cardinals get the same Packers they got in December, but if they can get even a quarter of the success they found in that contest in this rematch they may just find themselves on the winning edge.
Home Sweet Home For Cards
The Cardinals have certainly found themselves a good solid footing at University of Phoenix Stadium. This season they were able to find the winning formula six out of eight times at home but their success in the postseason has been the main talking point for those looking forward to this matchup. The Cardinals have not lost at home in the postseason since they moved to University of Phoenix Stadium. There were two wins in the 2008 season against the Falcons and Eagles on the way to Super Bowl XLIII with another win against the Packers in an overtime thriller that will go down in the annals of NFL play. However the other home win that everyone wants to include in that 4 – 0 record was the 1947 championship game against the Eagles. Needless to say that has nothing to do with the Arizona Cardinals but the precedence for the team in University of Phoenix Stadium is very impressive to say the least. And more so many of those games they were listed as the underdog. If the team wants to continue that success at home they will need a quick start as they have gotten in all their other wins at home and a strong defensive effort to finish the game. But the Packers I’m sure remember their last game on that field and they certainly will be going over the last time that stadium brought them in for a playoff game. Look for the Packers to wrestle with some serious demons and keep the game tight going into late Saturday night.
The game will be played in Arizona at 6:15 PM on NBC this Saturday. The battle to begin the journey to the Lombardi Trophy for the Cardinals is going to be a tough one. It is unlikely they get the same kind of Packer squad they got in late December as Rodgers and company seem to just change gears come postseason play. In the end it might be a lot closer than some fans are hoping and the week layoff has at times hurt more teams than helped them. We’ll see come Saturday.
Prediction: Packers – 31 Cardinals – 33