Palmer > Warner
Dude was tough as nails and a true leader. Loved that era of cards football
Warner who took us to the Super Bowl
Palmer
Of all the factors that led to the
Arizona Cardinals'
49-15 loss to the
Carolina Panthers in Sunday's NFC Championship Game, the biggest trudged into an interview room inside Bank of America Stadium wearing a sharp navy blue suit and a predictably glum expression.
Cardinals quarterback
Carson Palmer knew how bad his night had been. The flight home, the offseason of second-guessing, all the questions that would arise in the wake of it probably would be even worse.
This one, as he was more than willing to admit, was on him.
Sure, you can point to other reasons for Arizona's blowout loss. The
Cardinals' top-flight defense couldn't contain
Panthers quarterback
Cam Newton, and
Pro Bowl cornerback
Patrick Petersonmuffed a punt at a critical juncture in the second quarter. But Palmer had six turnovers attached to his name when this contest ended. He picked the worst possible time to suffer through his worst game of the season.
The really sad part is that this was supposed to be the year when Palmer put all those issues -- along with the theory that he wasn't capable of taking a team deep into the postseason -- behind him. Now all those questions are right back in his face, as his team tries to make sense of what went wrong in this contest.
"I kept digging us into a hole," Palmer said after completing 23 of 40 passes for 235 yards with one touchdown,
four interceptions and two lost fumbles. "And we couldn't find a way to get out of it."
The worst possible scenario for Palmer was exactly the one that played out on Sunday night.