Wow. Anquan Boldin was sitting. DeAngelo Williams is a beast. The Panthers beat the Cards earlier this year. The Cardinals suck away from home and outside the NFC West. Clearly the Panthers would dominate.
And they did score the first 7 points. And the last 6.
But in between the Cardinals scored 33 unanswered points, with 5 interceptions on defense and a fumble recovery as well. Jake Delhomme looked downright terrible. One pass (supposedly) to Steve Smith just appeared to be heaved towards the endzone where Ralph Brown easily picked it off. Others were lobs that came down in Cardinal hands. The only real bad luck play was one pick that went off a Cardinal and off Smith before landing in the hands of Antrel Rolle. But 5 picks in a playoff game? That's Kerry Collins 2000 Super Bowl bad (where he had 4 picks). Just wow.
My series of the game though? Comes from a fantasy perspective. The Cardinals took the ball at the 50 with 10:47 to play nursing their sizeable 30-7 lead. They need to run some clock. So they go to the rookie Tim Hightower. And they do it again. And again. 12 carries later they have a field goal. Granted there were 3 time outs mixed in there, but here's Hightower's stats for the drive:
12 carries, 48 yards, 3 1sts downs and 7:33 off the clock
They were up by a ton, and 4.0 ypc isn't world changing. But impressive he could keep going and getting yards for 12 straight carries and telling that the Cardinals would keep giving him the rock with Edge on the bench. I don't think a 4.0 ypc would translate well against the stifling Ravens or Steelers Run Defense. But hey...nice showing for the rook and I was a big fan of that drive. Game ball would go to Larry Fitzgerald though...anyone who saw his circus catch over 2 Panthers knows that.
Arizona advances...Guess they just held the right...Cards (ooo bad joke)
