Mitch
Crawled Through 5 FB Fields
For two and a half quarters it looked like the Arizona Cardinals were not only going to earn themselves their first ever Super Bowl berth, but it looked like they were going to achieve this milestone by trouncing each opponent in their path. The Atlanta game was not as close as the final score, 30-24. The Carolina game was a bona fide 33-13 East Coast rout for the Cardinals, versus a team that had gone 8-0 at home. And now the Cardinals, sparked by a dazzling offensive performance from Pro Bowl QB Kurt Warner and All-World WR Larry Fitzgerald, were sitting on a 24-6 lead against one of the most dominant and formidable defenses in the league.
Toward the middle of the thrid quarter, when Adrian Wilson sacked Donovan McNabb causing the ball to roll free and Bertrand Berry pounced on the ball like a pitbull who had just been tossed a t-bone steak...the rout seemed inevitable.
Even when Kurt Warner missed a wide open Anquan Boldin seconds later...and even after the Cardinal defense moments later forced a 3rd and 19...the rout was still looking inevitable.
But then...the Eagles caught lightning in a bottle, as Donovan McNabb threw a perfect 50 yard deep completion to Kevin Curtis, who managed even in that third and very long situation to streak behind the double team of CB Rod Hood and FS Aaron Francisco.
For the next excruciating 19 minutes, the Cardinals suddenly found themselves mired in an epic meltdown, where Eagle receivers were catching everything in sight and streaking into the end zone...20 straight points on 3 TDs, and now the Cardinals, who for two and a half quarters were looking like world beaters, were now behind 25-24.
And all three of the Eagle TDs seemed way too easy...TE Brent Celek caught a short pass in the seam and ran untouched into the endzone as FS Antrel Rolle made a desperation dive at Celek's legs and two other Cardinal DBs fell into each other like dominos. The next TD to Celek, a quick slant into the end zone might have been prevented had CB Rod Hood made a dive to deflect the ball. Alas, Hood made no such move. And the third TD was the most painful as McNabb completed a long 62 yard bootleg bomb to DeSaun Jackson over the outstretched arms of rookie phenom CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. The replay showed that DRC, after applying initially tight coverage on Jackson, inexplicably hesitated and allowed Jackson to bolt upfield...and with DRC's great recovery speed almost caught up to the pass and may have even grazed it with one finger slightly, but Jackson secured the pass after several bobbles. The cameras panned over to McNabb who was performing a grinning, two handed mock six-gun assault of the Cardinal sidelines.
Fortunately the Eagles looked a little disorganized setting up for their first 2 point conversion of their season and the Cardinal defense was solid on the play (causing a holding penalty to boot) and the conversion was unsuccessful.
Thus...a shocked and dismayed stadium that was once as electric and loud as the greatest grand finale of fireworks on the 4th of July.
At this point...all the myriad images and ghosts of past Cardinal nightmares...sent a pall over the crowd and every long suffering Cardinal fan everywhere. The Cardinals, even though they had astonishingly managed to find themselves in their first NFC Championship game ever, were now going to be nationally villified and stigmatized once again for being, well, "the same ol' Cardinals."
It didn't matter that in the first half the Cardinals looked absolutley unbeatable...by any team, at any time...the Cardinals were flying so high at the best possible time, and if anyone, even all of the pundits who gave the Cardinals no chance to win for three weeks straight, had doubts about the Cardinals, no one could possibly not be awed by the remarkably explosive display of championship football the Cardinals were staging in that first half and the first half of the third quarter. No Cardinal team has EVER looked so dominant and so precise and so incredibly fierce.
But...all this was going to be forgotten...wasn't it?
Wasn't this going to be the biggest Cardinal heartbreak ever?
For the next nearly eight minutes of clock time...we watched a still somewhat conservative second half offense mount the greatest drive in Arizona Cardinal history. There were perfunctory two to three yard running plays...and short passes to RB Edgerrin James (turned into an 18 yard gain up the left sideline) and TE Leonard Pope...both of whom had hardly been thrown to in over half a season. Warner, who had looked uncomfortable over center the whole second half, as clearly he's far more comfortable in the shotgun...and even on running plays Warner has been getting tripped up several times the past two games and lunging to the turf while stretching out the ball to James or Hightower.
When was the fatal fumble going to happen?
But Warner threw two three-step drop passes to Fitzgerald, who did all he could to scrape out every possible inch.
And then there was Hightower. On third and short Hightower ran left and pounded the ball to within three inches of the first down...
And then there were Whiz and Haley...Whiz gave the nod to go for it near midfield with 7:32 left...and Haley, having remembered how the Eagles' defense had stopped the Giants on several 3rd and 4th and ones in the Meadowlands the previous week...versus the Giants' outstanding o-line and thunder back Brandon Jacobs...so Haley, calls a risky but very smart play to run a lead off-tackle, off-end play...
And then there was FB Terrelle Smith, whose sweet but sadly dying mother had told him that she had a vision of him playing in the Pro Bowl or the Super Bowl this season...well, Smith, a rugged FB on a primarily passing team did not get a whiff of the Pro Bowl, but...he made the block on this lead play that gave Hightower the edge and a 6 yard gain.
And then there was Kurt Warner...playing mostly from over the center, completing 5 for 5 passes on THE DRIVE, for 57 yards.
And then there was Hightower down the stretch...who pounded the ball for another first down deep into Eagles' territory...and was running like a man possessed.
And then the play of the day...on third and goal from the 8 yard line, Warner, now in the shotgun, thank goodness, fakes a quick screen right to Anquan Boldin, turns quickly left and throws a dart right past a blitzing Eagle into the hands of Hightower who bolts behind four solid clear-out blocks by Gandy, Wells, Sendlein and a pulling Lutui, and with a head of steam lowers his shoulder to absorb heavy contact at the two and a half yard line, keeps his feet moving in textbook fashion and lunges forward over the goalline for the most important and clutch TD in the history of the Arizona Cardinals.
Then there was the nifty 2 point conversion pass from Warner to TE Ben Patrick, another player no one had thrown to in a game for months. Warner's first option on the play was the FB, but he was double covered, and Warner did then what he does so well, he went to his next progression, quickly spotted Patrick and threw a quick dart, right on the money.
Warner finished the day 21/28, 278 yards and 4 TDs...no ints and no fumbles. This...against a Jim Johnson defense which virtually no QB cracks.
Then there was Neil Rackers...who for some head scratching reason was pooching kickoffs all day (is Will Demps really that big a threat?...and even so, is anyone a threat if the kicker kicks it deep into the endzone?)...Rackers nails this one deep...and the Eagles start at the 20.
Then there were more three man rushes (why?), and still some wide open WRs...like Brian Westbrook (why?)...but, guys like Chike Okeafor (best game as a Cardinal) and Adrian Wilson kept playing their hearts out.
But then there was the crowd...the thunderous red nest of Cardinal fans...who caused as much havoc for the Eagle offense as anyone else...
And then there was Rod Hood who appeared to grab Kevin Curtis on 4th and ten...but no flag...
And then back to Hightower who again ran like a man possessed and nearly got the Cardinals the first down...
And then there was the injured Ben Graham who punted the ball perfectly out of bounds to the 11 yard line...
And then there was Darnell Dockett who picked off the last Eagle desperation lateral..wow...
And then the red confetti rained down in place of all the old ghosts...
And then rained the tears...
Adrian Wilson...the Pro Bowler who stayed...who wanted to be part of the solution, just as his two sacks were on this extraordinary day...
And then there was the Bidwills...
And then Terry Bradshaw and Aeneas Williams...
And the Hallas Trophy...
And Michael Bidwill in his Cardinal red blazer and tie and praising the team the coaches and most of all the fans!
And the Whizard of AZ! Still cool as a cucumber...man is this guy something!
And then Warner and Fitz hugging at the podium...
The Cardinals are SUPER...
They did not panic...as Whiz said...
And they did not fold...
They did what Champions do...
They stared adversity in the eyes and persevered...
Like taking on the most intimidating FS in football, Brian Dawkins, and lowering the shoulder and hitting him as hard if not harder...or bouncing off him as Fitz did on his first TD, a TD, like Hightower's last one...that was NOT going to be denied!
These Cardinals did it that hard way...they were tough and physical against the league's most physical defense.
It all goes back to the very first thing Whiz did when he arrived...he got the Bidwills to build a new training room and facility and they went and hired strength and conditioning coach/guru John Lott. And look at how relatively healthy the Cardinals have been this year, particularly on both lines. Credit the coaches for setting the tone and the players for believing and putting in the work. This is the most physical Cardinal football team on both sides of the ball ever...by far...the old 70's Dierdorf/Dobler line was tough as nails, but the other side of the ball then was not.
Thus, the hard work that Adrian Wilson was talking about, were all those mornings, afternoons and evenings in the weight room on the training bikes...and all the hard work they've been doing on the field and in the film room...
This Cardinal team is not only the toughest it's ever been, it's the gutsiest and the best prepared...like knowing to run wide on 4th and inches...and having the guts to do it...and the skill, precision and toughness to finish in SUPER fashion.
What I admire too is how classy these Cardinals are...Kurt Warner keeps preaching "stay humble"...and these Cardinals are just that. They are SUPER humble and SUPER hungry.
Toward the middle of the thrid quarter, when Adrian Wilson sacked Donovan McNabb causing the ball to roll free and Bertrand Berry pounced on the ball like a pitbull who had just been tossed a t-bone steak...the rout seemed inevitable.
Even when Kurt Warner missed a wide open Anquan Boldin seconds later...and even after the Cardinal defense moments later forced a 3rd and 19...the rout was still looking inevitable.
But then...the Eagles caught lightning in a bottle, as Donovan McNabb threw a perfect 50 yard deep completion to Kevin Curtis, who managed even in that third and very long situation to streak behind the double team of CB Rod Hood and FS Aaron Francisco.
For the next excruciating 19 minutes, the Cardinals suddenly found themselves mired in an epic meltdown, where Eagle receivers were catching everything in sight and streaking into the end zone...20 straight points on 3 TDs, and now the Cardinals, who for two and a half quarters were looking like world beaters, were now behind 25-24.
And all three of the Eagle TDs seemed way too easy...TE Brent Celek caught a short pass in the seam and ran untouched into the endzone as FS Antrel Rolle made a desperation dive at Celek's legs and two other Cardinal DBs fell into each other like dominos. The next TD to Celek, a quick slant into the end zone might have been prevented had CB Rod Hood made a dive to deflect the ball. Alas, Hood made no such move. And the third TD was the most painful as McNabb completed a long 62 yard bootleg bomb to DeSaun Jackson over the outstretched arms of rookie phenom CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. The replay showed that DRC, after applying initially tight coverage on Jackson, inexplicably hesitated and allowed Jackson to bolt upfield...and with DRC's great recovery speed almost caught up to the pass and may have even grazed it with one finger slightly, but Jackson secured the pass after several bobbles. The cameras panned over to McNabb who was performing a grinning, two handed mock six-gun assault of the Cardinal sidelines.
Fortunately the Eagles looked a little disorganized setting up for their first 2 point conversion of their season and the Cardinal defense was solid on the play (causing a holding penalty to boot) and the conversion was unsuccessful.
Thus...a shocked and dismayed stadium that was once as electric and loud as the greatest grand finale of fireworks on the 4th of July.
At this point...all the myriad images and ghosts of past Cardinal nightmares...sent a pall over the crowd and every long suffering Cardinal fan everywhere. The Cardinals, even though they had astonishingly managed to find themselves in their first NFC Championship game ever, were now going to be nationally villified and stigmatized once again for being, well, "the same ol' Cardinals."
It didn't matter that in the first half the Cardinals looked absolutley unbeatable...by any team, at any time...the Cardinals were flying so high at the best possible time, and if anyone, even all of the pundits who gave the Cardinals no chance to win for three weeks straight, had doubts about the Cardinals, no one could possibly not be awed by the remarkably explosive display of championship football the Cardinals were staging in that first half and the first half of the third quarter. No Cardinal team has EVER looked so dominant and so precise and so incredibly fierce.
But...all this was going to be forgotten...wasn't it?
Wasn't this going to be the biggest Cardinal heartbreak ever?
For the next nearly eight minutes of clock time...we watched a still somewhat conservative second half offense mount the greatest drive in Arizona Cardinal history. There were perfunctory two to three yard running plays...and short passes to RB Edgerrin James (turned into an 18 yard gain up the left sideline) and TE Leonard Pope...both of whom had hardly been thrown to in over half a season. Warner, who had looked uncomfortable over center the whole second half, as clearly he's far more comfortable in the shotgun...and even on running plays Warner has been getting tripped up several times the past two games and lunging to the turf while stretching out the ball to James or Hightower.
When was the fatal fumble going to happen?
But Warner threw two three-step drop passes to Fitzgerald, who did all he could to scrape out every possible inch.
And then there was Hightower. On third and short Hightower ran left and pounded the ball to within three inches of the first down...
And then there were Whiz and Haley...Whiz gave the nod to go for it near midfield with 7:32 left...and Haley, having remembered how the Eagles' defense had stopped the Giants on several 3rd and 4th and ones in the Meadowlands the previous week...versus the Giants' outstanding o-line and thunder back Brandon Jacobs...so Haley, calls a risky but very smart play to run a lead off-tackle, off-end play...
And then there was FB Terrelle Smith, whose sweet but sadly dying mother had told him that she had a vision of him playing in the Pro Bowl or the Super Bowl this season...well, Smith, a rugged FB on a primarily passing team did not get a whiff of the Pro Bowl, but...he made the block on this lead play that gave Hightower the edge and a 6 yard gain.
And then there was Kurt Warner...playing mostly from over the center, completing 5 for 5 passes on THE DRIVE, for 57 yards.
And then there was Hightower down the stretch...who pounded the ball for another first down deep into Eagles' territory...and was running like a man possessed.
And then the play of the day...on third and goal from the 8 yard line, Warner, now in the shotgun, thank goodness, fakes a quick screen right to Anquan Boldin, turns quickly left and throws a dart right past a blitzing Eagle into the hands of Hightower who bolts behind four solid clear-out blocks by Gandy, Wells, Sendlein and a pulling Lutui, and with a head of steam lowers his shoulder to absorb heavy contact at the two and a half yard line, keeps his feet moving in textbook fashion and lunges forward over the goalline for the most important and clutch TD in the history of the Arizona Cardinals.
Then there was the nifty 2 point conversion pass from Warner to TE Ben Patrick, another player no one had thrown to in a game for months. Warner's first option on the play was the FB, but he was double covered, and Warner did then what he does so well, he went to his next progression, quickly spotted Patrick and threw a quick dart, right on the money.
Warner finished the day 21/28, 278 yards and 4 TDs...no ints and no fumbles. This...against a Jim Johnson defense which virtually no QB cracks.
Then there was Neil Rackers...who for some head scratching reason was pooching kickoffs all day (is Will Demps really that big a threat?...and even so, is anyone a threat if the kicker kicks it deep into the endzone?)...Rackers nails this one deep...and the Eagles start at the 20.
Then there were more three man rushes (why?), and still some wide open WRs...like Brian Westbrook (why?)...but, guys like Chike Okeafor (best game as a Cardinal) and Adrian Wilson kept playing their hearts out.
But then there was the crowd...the thunderous red nest of Cardinal fans...who caused as much havoc for the Eagle offense as anyone else...
And then there was Rod Hood who appeared to grab Kevin Curtis on 4th and ten...but no flag...
And then back to Hightower who again ran like a man possessed and nearly got the Cardinals the first down...
And then there was the injured Ben Graham who punted the ball perfectly out of bounds to the 11 yard line...
And then there was Darnell Dockett who picked off the last Eagle desperation lateral..wow...
And then the red confetti rained down in place of all the old ghosts...
And then rained the tears...
Adrian Wilson...the Pro Bowler who stayed...who wanted to be part of the solution, just as his two sacks were on this extraordinary day...
And then there was the Bidwills...
And then Terry Bradshaw and Aeneas Williams...
And the Hallas Trophy...
And Michael Bidwill in his Cardinal red blazer and tie and praising the team the coaches and most of all the fans!
And the Whizard of AZ! Still cool as a cucumber...man is this guy something!
And then Warner and Fitz hugging at the podium...
The Cardinals are SUPER...
They did not panic...as Whiz said...
And they did not fold...
They did what Champions do...
They stared adversity in the eyes and persevered...
Like taking on the most intimidating FS in football, Brian Dawkins, and lowering the shoulder and hitting him as hard if not harder...or bouncing off him as Fitz did on his first TD, a TD, like Hightower's last one...that was NOT going to be denied!
These Cardinals did it that hard way...they were tough and physical against the league's most physical defense.
It all goes back to the very first thing Whiz did when he arrived...he got the Bidwills to build a new training room and facility and they went and hired strength and conditioning coach/guru John Lott. And look at how relatively healthy the Cardinals have been this year, particularly on both lines. Credit the coaches for setting the tone and the players for believing and putting in the work. This is the most physical Cardinal football team on both sides of the ball ever...by far...the old 70's Dierdorf/Dobler line was tough as nails, but the other side of the ball then was not.
Thus, the hard work that Adrian Wilson was talking about, were all those mornings, afternoons and evenings in the weight room on the training bikes...and all the hard work they've been doing on the field and in the film room...
This Cardinal team is not only the toughest it's ever been, it's the gutsiest and the best prepared...like knowing to run wide on 4th and inches...and having the guts to do it...and the skill, precision and toughness to finish in SUPER fashion.
What I admire too is how classy these Cardinals are...Kurt Warner keeps preaching "stay humble"...and these Cardinals are just that. They are SUPER humble and SUPER hungry.
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pecker suckers. its a bird killing. your not cardinals your just a bunch of wood peckers .
