Cardinals Fans deserve Super Bowl Victory update 1-29-09
January 28th, 2009 Filed Under Arizona Cardinals Super Bowl
Below the Rim: Cardinal fans deserve Super Bowl victory
By Chris Potter
Last Updated:4:01 PM EST 1/28/09
Imagine being a fan of the Arizona Cardinals.
In the 88 years prior to the 2008 season, the franchise had won a grand total of two playoff games. Yup, that averages out to one playoff victory every 44 years. The reality happened to be worse. Cardinals fans saw 10 different presidents occupy the White House in the 51 years between playoff wins in 1947 and 1998.
And you thought Bills fans have it rough? The Cardinals had only given their faithful one winning season since 1984. Try getting excited to root for that level of mediocrity season after season.
Not only did Arizona define the term "playoff drought," but the franchise became synonymous with losing, filling the same niche as the Los Angeles Clippers in basketball and, until recently, the Tampa Bay Rays in baseball. During that long stretch of futility, calling Arizona a Super Bowl contender would have been nothing more than an oxymoron.
Then along came the 2008 edition of the Cardinals. Coming off an 8-8 campaign under first-year head coach Ken Whisenhunt, Arizona was lightly regarded in most preseason power polls, mired in a nine-year absence from postseason play. A Super Bowl bid seemed about as likely as Vanilla Ice suddenly becoming cool again.
Arizona was able to take advantage of the weakest division in football (with apologies to the AFC West, which ran a close second in the ineptitude department). The Cardinals ultimately claimed the NFC West title with a 9-7 record, securing a home playoff game for the first time in more than half a century.
Many pundits promptly labeled them the worst team in the history of the playoffs. To be fair, Arizona’s performance over the final three games of the season, a stretch in which the Cardinals dropped two of three and were outscored 103-55, hadn’t done much to dispel the contention.
But none of that mattered once the Cardinals got in front of those victory-starved fans in the opening round. Arizona knocked off a fellow upstart in the Atlanta Falcons, then traveled to Carolina and demolished the heavily favored Panthers, 33-13.
The Cardinals returned home for an NFC Championship showdown with Donovan McNabb’s Eagles. Arizona overcame a second-half rally to cap off one of the most improbable Super Bowl runs in recent memory, finally rewarding one of the most downtrodden fan bases in all of sports and showing underdogs everywhere that there just might be a light at the end of the tunnel.
Although the Cardinals season is already successful beyond all expectations, it is yet to be determined if this Cinderella tale remains true to form and has a storybook ending
The game will be a classic clash of conflicting styles of play. Pittsburgh’s defense was the NFL’s best in 2008, regularly shutting down both the running and passing games of the opposition. The 3-4 scheme of defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau has given quarterbacks fits, as blitzes often result in QB’s picking turf out of their face masks, more dazed and confused than Matthew McConaughey’s character in the movie of the same name.
The Steelers formidable defense will be put to the test against the prolific offense of the Cardinals. The Eagles, no pushovers themselves, attempted to pressure Kurt Warner into making mistakes, but the veteran QB calmly stood in the pocket and picked them apart. If Warner has similar success against the Steelers, that vaunted defense will suddenly look very average. The two-time MVP has an embarrassment of riches to work with at the playmaking positions, led by Larry Fitzgerald.
The Steelers are favored, but the dream will continue. Take the Cardinals to go all the way, 27-20.
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