I get on here and read the gameday thread and I read four entire pages of "OMG my heart is pounding, I can't take this, I lost years of my life, my head is gonna explode"
The few highlights I have found only show Rashad pushing the guy out of the endzone. Nothing on Deone's play before that or Tyrann's before that.
Talk radio is just buzzing about how great that ending was, Bickley saying it was his 5th greatest moment in that stadium, Vince saying his heart was pounding out of his chest.
Sounds like I missed out on something pretty special and rememberable.
I was actually going to start a thread about this (and I still may) but I wanted to say it was so much more than that.
In my opinion this team
grew the last 9 minutes of this game. They may have believed before, but now they
know. This game will be in the back of their minds come later in the year.
Our offense had been inept until then, the whole second half really (aside from Fitz's great TD), and we continually gave Philly the ball around midfield. The Eagles last two drives of the game spanned an incredible 13 plays each. Our Defense had every reason to fold.
Their first 13 play drive spanned 78 yards and chewed up 7:05 in clock. It was their longest drive of the game, starting with 9:01 on the clock and ended with 1:56 remaining. That drive was the one that was supposed to put us away. Somehow we held on the goal line with only an inch needed for a first down and maybe a half a foot needed for a TD. That is after being gassed and having every possible excuse to fold. We held, and I think that's almost as incredible as the rest of the game, frankly.
Our possession following that is the one with the bomb to Brown. That drive lasted .35 seconds. On 3rd and 5, most teams opt for the first down to keep the game alive, obviously. BA said they'd called that play twice before but Palmer never had enough time. Palmer is a freaking glacier to make that throw. Some people give BA the credit, but Palmer is the one who has to throw it; just like the game-winning throw in Seattle last year to Floyd after throwing 4 INT's--Palmer is an assassin. He's so soft spoken in interviews and on the field, he looks so tame, but the dude has ice water in his veins and a killer mentality. The guy really goes for the jugular. Doesn't care about stats at all, cares about winning.
The Eagles last drive, after our D got a whopping 35 seconds rest, following a long, draining previous drive, was another 13 play drive, spanning 64 yards. For them to hold is nothing short of miraculous. Don't care who we've lost (but let's not forget, we lost our #1 corner in this game on top of the others). This team is so well coached.
And I don't just mean X's and O's, they've been coached in belief. They've been coached in each other. BA said after the game they're a family, want to play for each other, like a band of brothers. And he said it in the locker-room after the game as well as in the post game interviews--I heard at least 2 players echo that after he said it. So Buchanon breaks up a pass, Matheiu makes a pass defense (and the knee is fine, he sky'd and wanted the INT, as crazy as that is considering where he was on the field), and then Johnson pushes him out of bounds to end the game. One thing not mentioned is that Johnson's guy was underneath, and he saw Matheiu fall down in coverage and re-routed to the TD attempt, just in time to push him. That is family, brand of brothers type stuff, and having your man's back. Without him re-routing we lose. All 3 dudes broke up passes, which is a testament, again, to coaching. Everyone we have on the field is expected to make plays. And these coaches have instilled the belief that they can and will make plays.
I made this sound much more boring, by far, than it actually was. But that is an indication of what those drives took out of me as a fan. I've been watching football a long time, but I don't recall a Cardinal bomb like that to win a game, and then a defense, as depleted as ours, after two mammoth drives, holding the way they did. Not only the final possession, but the really long, time consuming 13 play drive they had prior to that should have finished us. Even if it didn't finish us that drive (as it should have), it should have definitely finished us the final drive, but it didn't.
Two quick notes: we held the highest scoring team in the NFC to 20 points. And we held them to 3 4th quarter points.
This team is something special. I'm not afraid to say it, but I'm hesitant because I
never do. I know some of you are thinking it and just don't want to say it, but I will. I'm old enough (44) to know better--not as old as some of you dinosaurs, but still. I know our Cards are something special because we play as a team, because we win in different ways, with different people, despite injuries. We have a superb coaching staff. BA has 23 assistants, Whiz had 14. BA learned something coaching Temple, all those years ago, when he said he couldn't delegate. He coaches the coaches. And he's a great coach.
My favorite soundbite is, I believe, Johnson, coming off the field after the win, right at BA and screaming, just screaming, "We never quit, Coach! 60 minutes baby! We never give up!!" and giving BA a huge hug.
