For two full weeks I would walk around my two jobs, walk around Mill Avenue, walk around my neighborhood. It didn’t matter who was aI was talking to I would say the saying I never thought I would say, “did you know the Arizona Cardinals were in the Super Bowl?? I made a crazy prediction on draft night in 2006. I had no clue it would come true and that the way it would come true. Matt Leinart in 2008 threw one touchdown pass, Kurt Warner threw 30. I was living a dream, we all were living a dream…
Super Bowl 43 buildup had some great storylines. Could the Steelers become the first franchise to ever win six Super Bowls. Could Ken Whisenhunt get revenge on the team that did not hire him to be the predecessor to his mentor. Could Kurt Warner complete one of the biggest turnarounds to a career in NFL history. Could Larry Fitzgerald overtake Jerry Rice 1989 postseason as the greatest postseason a wide receiver has ever had. There was many other storylines coming into this game (example could the Cards be the worst Super Bowl champion ever or this being legendary commentator John Maddon’s final game he would ever call). The great thing was it all had to do on the field, no off field drama here.
The Steelers would get the ball first and would drive right down the field. It would be third and goal from the Cardinals one yard line. Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger would roll out and see an opening. Darnell Dockett would meet him right before the goal line but Big Ben would reach out and extend the ball, touchdown!!!! But Ken Whisenhunt would challenge the call. His knee appeared to be down before he reached for the plane of the goal line. Coach Whiz was right and the call was overturned. In a rare conservative call from Steelers coach Mike Tomlin he decided to take the points instead of going for it from inside the redbirds one, 3-0 Pittsburgh.
After a Cards punt the Steelers would again go on a long drive. Big play of the drive was a 25 yard completion to Santonio Holmes (this would sadly become a theme on this night). This time the Steelers would punch it in on a Gary Russell one yard run, 10-0 Pittsburgh, appears this could be a long night..
The Cards would respond with a great drive of their own to prove this was going to be a game afterall. Anquan Boldin would catch a huge 45 yard catch and run to get to the Steelers one yard line. The next play Kurt Warner does a play action pass and finds an unlikely target in the endzone for the touchdown, to backup tight end Ben Patrick. Great trivia question, who caught the first ever Super Bowl touchdown for the Arizona Cardinals, yes the answer is Ben Patrick…
Late in the first half the Cards defense would make a play as defensive tackle Bryan Robinson would tip a Roethlisberger pass that Karlos Dansby would intercept at the Steelers 37 giving the Cards a chance to take the lead going into the half. The Cardinals would get all the way down to the Steelers 1 with 18 seconds left in the half. A yard away from a halftime lead, then James Harrison happened…
James Harrison was a late bloomer going undrafted out of Kent State. Harrison had been on and off the Steelers roster since 2002 but did not become a starting outside linebacker until 2007 (six years after he finished college and at the not so young age of 29). In 2008 Harrison became the best defensive player in all of football having 101 tackles and 16 sacks, winning defensive player of the year. Harrison was known for wreaking havoc in the back of the field not down the field. On this play Kurt Warner threw a slant to Anquan Boldin who appeared to be wide open but Harrison jumped into the passing lane intercepting the pass. A turnover at the end of the half at the opponents 1 is devastating enough but what would happen after the interception would make this the biggest game changing play possibly in the history of organized football. About six different Cardinals had a chance to make a play on Harrison as he scampered down the field but it wasn’t until Harrison got to the Cards three that Larry Fitzgerald and fellow wide receiver Steve Breaston would take down Harrison, still Harrison was able to lean forward and hit the pylon for the touchdown. 100 yard interception return to end the half, what appeared to be a 14-10 Cards lead going into the half instead was a 17-7 Steelers lead at the half, oi vey.
Outside of a Jeff Reed field goal by the Steelers on a defensive penalty ridden drive in the 3rd Quarter by the Cardinals defense the third Quarter was uneventful so let’s go to the 4th where it’s now 20-7 Steelers and the Cardinals are starting to run out of time. There is now under 13 minutes left and it’s 3rd and 8 for the Steelers at midfield when Darnell Dockett would make a play sacking Roethlisberger to give the Redbirds just a glimmer of hope. Dirty Kurt would then get to work gaining 86 yards on 7 straight completions to get again down to the Steelers one. Instead of going to the middle of the field Kurt would smartly throw a fade to Larry Fitzgerald. Ike Taylor is one of the bigger corners in the league at 6’2 215 lbs but even his size was no contest for Larry legend as Larry would snag the ball out of the air for the score.
With the score now 20-14 as the teams would exchange punts with Darnell Dockett getting his second sack of the Quarter to thwart another Steelers drive. The Cardinals Ben Graham (a lefty punter which I always loved and would kick the ball with the nose facing down which was so different and unique) would pin the Steelers at their own 1 yard line. 3:34 left in the game and the Cards with a great chance with a 3 and out. 3rd and 10 now and Big Ben would complete a dagger of a 18 yard pass to Santonio Holmes to get the Steelers the possible game clinching first down.. But there was a flag on the play… Holding on the Steelers Center Justin Hartwig, since the flag occured in the end zone by rule it’s a safety!!! 20-16 Steelers now, and the Cards getting the ball back!
The Cards would start with the ball on their own 36 with 2:53 left to play. Do or die time now, four down territory, a touchdown is the only solution at this point being down 4. It’s 2nd down and 10, Dirty Kurt throws a slant to Larry Fitzgerald and Larry starts streaking down the field in as runs right in between Taylor, Harrison and safety Troy Polamalu, before you know it Larry is all alone as he’s streaking to the end zone. In this moment you can’t help but think about all of the bad teams, beginning with the Timm Rosenbach and Joe Bugel years, Jake Plummer, Pat Tillman, all the empty seats at a sun baked Sun Devil stadium, the new stadium vote as we all frantically waited to see if the Arizona Cardinals would continue to exist, Nathan Poole’s catch at the horn to knock the Vikings out of the playoffs, the Matt Leinart draft pick, the Denny Green postgame rant, 27-7!!!!! It all swung through every Cards fans minds as Larry would streak into the endzone. There is a moment in everyone’s life where you remember where you were. When your first child is born, the day you graduate high school, the day you get married, every Cardinals fan and every Arizonan who jumped on the bandwagon in the winter of 2009 knew where they were as Larry Fitzgerald would raise crossed the plain of end zone. Raised his arms in the air and jumped awkward with a chest bump with Anquan Boldin and then get mobbed by Cardinals teammates. This to this day this is the best sports moment of my life, unfortunately there was still 2:37 left to play..
After a holding on first down the Steelers have 1st and 20 at their own 12. This looks very plausible the Cards could win right now. But then Roethlisberger to Holmes for 14, then to Holmes for 13 to covert a big third down, then to receiver Nate Washington for 11 now with the Steelers at midfield all of your nightmares are coming into your brain in rapid fire. Is this really going to happen??? Then the play that would bring our nightmares to reality. 1:02 left and the Steelers at the Cards 46 yard line and still not even in field goal range yet, Big Ben would complete an out pattern to Santonio Holmes at the Cardinals 35 but Safety Aaron Francisco who appeared to be lined to make the tackle slipped and what appeared to be about a 12-13 yard gain ended up being a 40 yard gain all the way down to the Cardinals 6, now it’s danger time… 2nd and goal with 42 seconds left now. Big Ben goes back to pass has all day but cannot find a receiver open anywhere. He flings it towards the right back plyon, it looked like he was trying to throw it away, there were three Cards in the area but the only player who could reach the ball all stretched out was Santonio Holmes, Francisco would try to force him out but he would tap his left toe and right toe (allegedly, it is really close probably not enough to over turn sadly), touchdown, 35 seconds left and the Steelers are back in front, 27-23.
Kurt Warner would get the Cards down to the Steelers 44 with 15 seconds left and a shot at a couple of hailmary’s and we have Larry freaking Fitzgerald, a chance is real!! Dirty Kurt goes back to pass and buys time in the pocket, as he rears back to throw it Steelers linebacker Lamar Woodley would hit Dirty Kurt and Kurt would fling the ball forward a couple of yards where Steelers nosetackle Brett Kiesel would land on the ball, fumble Steelers ball, game over. There would be a review and it was close to whether Kurt was throwing the ball but the call stands, two tough breaks at the end of the game, Steelers win…..
It was a glorious season going to the Super Bowl but the Harrison pick six and Aaron Francisco falling down and the defense giving up 88 yards in 1 minute and 55 seconds and Santonio Holmes making a circus catch made this one a tough one to swallow. Somehow the Cards had improbably made it to the Super Bowl and had a chance to taste the glory of a championship only for it to be taken away, life can be cruel sometimes..
2009
Kurt Warner was a free agent after the 2008 season and the Cards would let him test free agency. He would visit the 49ers but would eventually come back to resign. The public would bash Rod Graves and the Bidwill family for even letting things get to that point. But the core was back together trying to defend their NFC West and conference championship. The only main player to leave from the 08 season was Edgerrin James who would get released in the offseason. He was major bust in Arizona running for 3.6 yards per carry and only 16 touchdowns.
For the season the Cards would have an up and down campaign but would do something they had never done since moving to Arizona, win 10 games!!! That’s right the Cards would go 10-6 with the highlights of the season being a second straight NFC West title and a signature 30-17 Week 13 Sunday night win over the 10-1 Vikings that proved this Cardinals team wasn’t just back but better than the previous edition of the Dirty Kurt led birdgang. Why wouldn’t we think that, the defense was far better than 08 as they only gave up over 24 points 3 times with one of them being a meaningless 33-7 loss to the Packers in Week 17 (sidenote this was the last time the Cardinals had ended the regular season playing a team outside of their own division). Matt Leinart played most of the game and was dreadful in this meaningless game throwing a notable pick six to Charles Woodson. It was former Boston College great Brian St. Pierre who threw a late touchdown to Larry Fitzgerald to avoid the shutout. The Cards weren’t really trying to win in Week 17 against the Packers, but guess who would be coming back to Arizona the following week… you guess it those same red hot 11 win Green Bay Packers..
The Packers were led by up and coming young star Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, you may have heard of him. Back in 2009 Rodgers was only in his second year as the starter but man did he prove that he was a star in the making throwing for almost 4,500 yards with 30 touchdowns and a 103.3 passer rating. Rodgers career has been so legendary that the 103.3 passer rating (is only his 8th best season). There has only been 34 Quarterbacks to have posted at least one better season than Rodgers 2009 campaign, Rodgers himself has had 7 better seasons than his 09 campaign including the two best QB seasons by passer rating (2011, 2020) in NFL history.
So now since the Cards know what they are going up against let’s get started…
The game would start as well as it could for the red sea as Aaron Rodgers would throw an interception on the game’s first play to Dominque Rodgers-Cromartie. A quick Tim Hightower touchdown made it 7-0 Redbirds. Two plays later the Cards Karlos Dansby would make a big play stripping the ball from Packers receiver Donald Driver, a Kurt Warner touchdown to young wide Receiver Early Doucet who would bounce off two tacklers lose his helmet and still get into the endzone to make it 14-0 redsea!! After a Cards field goal made it 17-0 before the end of the 1st Quarter it appeared that it was party time…..
After another touchdown to Early Doucet the Packers would kick a field goal before the half but the score was still 24-10 Cards at the intermission..
The third Quarter would start off with a Cards drive resulting in a Larry Fitzgerald 33 yard touchdown where Larry would collide with the Packers Charles Woodson with Woodson falling down which allowed Larry to catch the ball over the middle and jog to the house without a yellow and white uniformed player anywhere near Larry legend. The Packers would respond with a touchdown of their own and then the play that completely got the Packers back in the game would occur. The Pack would try a surprise onside kick which they would recover. Aaron Rodgers now in the zone would immediately take the Pack down the field for another touchdown to cut a game still in the third Quarter down to only a touchdown deficit (31-24).
Dirty Kurt would not stop however as he would lead another touchdown drive capped off with a Larry Fitzgerald touchdown to put the Cards up again by 2 scores. But the Packers could not be stopped as they would score another touchdown and then finally the Cardinals would have a drive stall and they would be forced to punt. Rodgers would again lead the Pack on another touchdown scoring drive (their fourth in less than a Quarter) to put the game at even steven (38-38).
Kurt would bounce back though take the Cards down the field and capping it off with his 5th touchdown of the game a dime right down the middle to unheralded wide out Steve Breaston to give the Cards a 45-38 lead with 5 minutes to go. Of course Aaron Rodgers would lead the Pack on a 5th consecutive touchdown drive to tie the game at 45. But with two minutes to go Dirty Kurt would easily get the Cards into field goal range setting up Neil Rackers for the chip shot 34 yarder for the win…
Neil Rackers was one of the best kickers in the game during his 7 years with the Cardinals, especially from long range. But in clutch moments we saw Rackers choke again and again. This was maybe the biggest choke of all as he hooked the 34 yarder so far left that I think he would have missed this kick as an extra point. To overtime we go and you know who would win the toss, not the Cardinals..
Aaron Rodgers would go 28-42 for 423 yards and 5 touchdowns on this day. But he much rather would have gone 28-41 for 488 yards and 6 touchdowns. On the first play of overtime Rodgers would miss a wide open Greg Jennings behind the defense for what would have been the game winning score, crisis averted. Now we shift 3rd and 5 at the Packers own 25 yard line. Rodgers would go back to pass and would not find an open receiver and be forced to hold the ball for a second longer. This allowed slot corner Michael Adams (picked on by Rodgers all day) to get home on a corner blitz and strip the ball free. The ball would kick off Rodgers right foot and into linebacker Karlos Dansby’s awaiting hands who would take the ball the other way for the improbable game winning defensive score….
That’s football, the Packers offense had dominated the Cardinals defense for over four Quarters but three killer turnovers is what did them in. Michael Adams did grab Aaron Rodgers facemask on which should have been a Cardinals penalty and kept the Packers with the football but as they say who cares. Kurt Warner would have his last great moment in what would become a hall of fame career. Warner had more touchdowns (5) than incompletions (4). However, the Cardinals NFC title defense would get thwarted in New Orleans the following week in a 45-14 rout in a game we would rather not spend much time on. Kurt Warner left the game in the second quarter with a concussion. Matt Leinart was predictably terrible in relief. Kurt Warner would retire two weeks after this game. Anquan Boldin would get traded to the Ravens as GM Rod Graves knew the Cards couldn’t pay big money to two wide outs. The run was only two years long and it was already over. Matt Leinart did play okay in his one start in a 20-17 loss at the Titans in a game that had Leinart attempt to get his revenge over Vince Young for what happened in Pasadena almost four years prior only to have Young throw a touchdown to Kenny Britt on the games final play to steal victory from Leinart once again. But for two years the former USC great had hardly seen the field. He was now already going into his 5th year but finally the Arizona Cardinals were going to be Matt Leinart’s football team….
2010
Final cut day comes around after the Cards looked kind of sluggish in the preseason. Matt Leinart would be one of the players cut. We saw the tealeaves in 07 and 08 but even at this point with all of the evidence that Matt Leinart was never going to be Ken Whisenhunt’s guy how could we have not seen this coming. The Cardinals are going into the season with former Browns legend Derek Anderson as their starting Quarterback, wonder how that would go….
Trading narrow wins with blowout losses the Cards sat at 2-2. Derek Anderson overall though was absolutely terrible. Ken Whisenhunt in a move of desperation would go to undrafted rookie and local product Max Hall for a Week 5 home matchup with the former Super Champs New Orleans Saints. In a game that defies logic the Cardinals would win 30-20. This may have been the most fluky win in Arizona Cardinals history. They got two missed short field goals from the Saints, an offensive lineman recovered a fumble for a touchdown, a scoop and score by the defense for a touchdown and Drew Brees would throw a pick six late to seal the game. Max Hall was not good, 17-27 for 166 an int. But hey he won so let’s give him another start. In his next two starts he would complete 12 total passes with a passer rating under 40 so yeah that didn’t work, so let’s go back to Derek Anderson..
After their sixth straight loss to drop the Cards to 3-8 Derek Anderson has had about enough of the reporters. After a reporter asked why Anderson was laughing and smiling on the sidelines with offensive lineman Deuce Letui in a 27-6 Monday night blowout home loss to the 49ers Anderson would respond as so.. “I’m not laughing about this you think this is funny I take this s*** seriously, real serious I put my heart and soul into this s*** every week, I’m just telling you right now what I do every single week!! I put my heart and soul into this, I study my ass off, I don’t go out there and laugh it’s not funny, nothing’s funny, I don’t want to go out there on Monday night football and get embarrassed in front of everybody, Deuce and I were talking.” After reporter asked what he was talking about he walked out. Anderson would get benched for the rest of the season for rookie 5th rounder John Skelton after another home loss to the Rams the following week. Derek Anderson would never play another down for the Cards again. The Cardinals would finish the season at 5-11, same ol Cards are back Jack!!!
2011
With no franchise Quarterback on the roster the Cardinals would go shopping for a signal caller. They would work out a trade with the Eagles trading starting corner Dominque Rodgers-Cromartie and a second round pick for Kevin Kolb. Kolb was the Eagles starter at the beginning of 2010 but would get injured in the season opener and former Falcons great and pet enthusiast Michael Vick would go supernova in relief leading the Eagles to an NFC East title and MVP consideration, obviously Kolb would never get his job back. As a talented 2nd round pick with high upside Rod Graves would overpay to get his guy. Not needing a Quarterback anymore the Cardinals would take the best player available on the board at 5th overall. It would be one of the best draft picks the Cardinals would ever make, sure you heard of him. Cornerback out of LSU Patrick Peterson.
Peterson would explode onto the scene taking four punt returns to the house in the first 8 games of the 2011 season. We thought at this point Peterson would be the best punt returner in the history of football. Peterson would remain a good return man throughout his career but after a 99 yard punt return to win the game in a 19-13 overtime victory over the Rams in Week 9. Pat P as the fans would call him never took another punt for a touchdown in his career. Peterson would make 8 pro bowls and be a 3 time first team all pro at cornerback. Because of his controversial comments towards the end of his career in the desert Peterson may not make the Cardinals ring of fame, but I think it would be a crime if he didn’t. Outside of Aeneas Williams, Peterson was not just the best corner, but the best defensive player the Arizona Cardinals have ever had.
So the Cards beat the Rams 19-13 in overtime in thrilling fashion. That would be the Cards first win since Week 1 and get them to 2-6. But the Cards would get hot late in the season. They would upset Michael Vick’s Eagles in Philadelphia 21-17 in Week 10. In Week 13, The Redbirds would beat the Cowboys in overtime by the same 19-13 score they beat the Rams by four Weeks prior. This time with a 52 yard screen pass taken to the house by Running back Lerod Stephens-Howlings. However, the following week against the 49ers Kevin Kolb would get injured for the second time this season putting in again that 5th Rounder out of Fordham John Skelton.
Just a little but Northeast of the Valley Tim Tebow was pulling out miracle win after miracle win for his Denver Broncos which garnered a colt following in the Rocky Mountains. Well in Glendale Arizona we had our own mania that wasn’t as national but still, I got sucked into it. I thought that John Skelton was going to be a franchise Quarterback. Skelton would help the once 1-6 Cards get to 8-8. Why not Skelton at the time, Skelton threw for 300 yards a game over the final four games of the 2011 campaign. The Cards would have won their final six games possibly if it wasn’t for Early Doucet falling down on his rout (which he was wide open) a possible game tying touchdown opportunity in their lone loss in the final six games (a 23-16 Week 16 loss at the Bengals). Skelton did have 7 interceptions in those last four games and he was very inconsistent, but hey the Cards were a good watch at the end of the 2011 season. They were again on the rise. They had a shutdown corner. Larry Fitzgerald had another great season. They have a solid starting running back in former first round pick Beanie Wells. 2012 could be the year the Cards make the jump back to the playoffs..
2012
Kevin Kolb took over for an ineffective John Skelton and would lead the Cardinals to a 20-16 comeback victory over the Seattle Seahawks. A game started by a rookie making his debut and would become pretty known pretty quickly around the league (Russell Wilson). Some years we can kind of breeze by without much drama, an example would be the awful 2002 season. Some seasons we can talk about in great detail for various reasons for either comical or glorious reasons, 1998, 2006, 2008 comes to mind. The 2012 season I am going to discuss five games and only five games, these five games defined the mega highs and what would be the jaw dropping lows that would be a weird and some would say boring (because the offense was the worst in football), but I will not say boring at all, but more of a weird 2012 season…
Week 2
I had been dating my girlfriend Stephanie for a little over a year. We had just moved in together, we have since been married for 8 years now so I guess it worked out!!! We took a mid September trip to Vegas (our now home but at the time we lived just outside of Denver). I was at the Ceasars Palace Sportsbook watching the various games on the cornucopia of televisions around the beautiful casino. One of the games on was the Cardinals at the mighty Patriots. The Cards were a 14 point underdog but on this day the Cardinals were controlling the game to the dismay of bettors all over the casino. After a Kevin Kolb touchdown run to put the Cards up 20-9 with 11 minutes to go it looked like the redbirds were going to get one of the most shocking upsets in team history and get themselves to 2-0 and prove to the world they are a legit Super Bowl contender. But the Pats at the time had a guy who was at the peak of his Super powers (who am I kidding he’s still at his peak somehow because he’s a freaking alien), god’s favorite son.. Tom Brady. Brady would throw a touchdown to tight end and future WWE superstar Rob Gronkowski with just over two minutes to go to get the Pats to within two. But the Cards would hold the lead with a safety Kerry Rhodes pass breakup on the two point conversion attempt to keep the score at 20-18. The Cards would be appear to be running out the clock out on their next possession when a disaster would occur. Running back Ryan Williams just trying to get a couple of yards and keep the clock running with under two minutes to go would fumble the ball and the Pats would recover already in game winning field goal range. The casino is going crazy, there is a Boston man behind me jumping up and down and I still remember to this day what the annoying Brady enthusiast would say in his thick Boston Accent, “Oh Ryan Williams is such a choke ahtist!!! Of course the Pats ahe gonna win!!!” Guess what, the Pats did not win. Stephen Gostkowski who had been money all day making four long field goals would miss a 42 yarder that was so wide right you would have though Neil Rackers put on a Pats uniform and ran out there. Cards win 20-18!!!
Week 4
The Cards would fall down 13-0 early in the game to the visting Miami Dolphins. The redbirds would fight back though to take a 4th Quarter lead. Then after the Cards took that brief lead the Dolphins would come back and take the lead right back with a Ryan Tannehill To Brian Hartline touchdown with also the two point conversion to go up 21-14. The Cards would have a 4th and goal to go at the Dolphins 10 with 25 seconds left and still down 7. Kevin Kolb would go back to pass and would throw a dime to the left corner of the endzone that receiver Andre Roberts would make a sensational catch with both feet down for the game tying touchdown. We are going to overtime!! In overtime Ryan Tannehill would throw an interception to safety Kerry Rhodes that would setup a 46 yard field goal that kicker Jay Feely would nail. Jay Feely is not Neil Rackers ladies and gentlemen. The Cards are 4-0, let’s get those playoff tickets ready baby!!!!!
Week 6
Bills Cardinals games I usually go to, one of my best friends is a die hard Bills fan. This however was a dreadful football game to attend. After Kevin Kolb got sacked nine times in the Cardinals first loss of the season the prior week he would get sacked six more times. With the Bills leading 16-13 in the fourth quarter of a game many would have tuned out of already, Kolb would get leveled on yet another bills sack and would injure his chest and ribs and be laying on the ground for close to ten minutes. The stadium was silent and we didn’t want to say it but that was the moment the 2012 season would officially go to proverbial crap. Jay Feely would hit an improbable 61 yard field goal to tie the game only to miss a 38 yarder just minutes later to send the game to overtime. In overtime John Skelton would throw an interception that would setup a chip shot Rian Lindell game winning field goal for a Bills 19-16 win. The Cards were still 4-2 but the season felt over already at this point.
Week 13
Remember the Cards Cowboys game in 2002 and the Cards Bucs game in 1992. Those were my candidates for the least watchable games in Arizona Cardinals history. Well, Sunday December 2nd in East Rutherford New Jersey has become the new candidate for worst game in Arizona Cardinals history. The Jets would beat the Cardinals 7-6 in a game so unwatchable that I would enjoy watching a Pelican poop on a buoy more than watching this crap. Ryan Lindley (more on him later were going to wait a couple of seasons before we talk about him in great detail) went 10-31 for 72 yards and an interception. Somehow his 28 passer rating was higher than the Jets starting Quarterbacks passer rating. Mark Sanchez (fresh off fumbling a ball off his right guards ass cheek, yup that happened the previous week) went 10-21 for 97 yards and 3 interceptions for a 21.4 passer rating. The Sanchize would get benched for Greg McElroy (not to be confused with Elroy from the Jetsons) who would lead the Jets on their only scoring drive to take the lead for good. Still the Cards who got all of this good fortune on defense would only muster six points and five first downs. None of us will ever get those three hours of our lives back. 8 losses in a row after a 4-0 start but hey onto the next week right…
Week 14
The Cards beat the Seahawks in Week 1. Unfortunately, this was a vastly different Seahawks team than the Cards met three months prior and it would be shown emphatically on the field. Couldn’t be that bad right??? How about a 58-0 loss!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is not Alabama against Cold Stone Tech this is two pro football teams and the Cards lost 58 to freaking 0. Hey the Cards doubled their first down total to 10 in this game!!! But they had 8 turnovers and half the time couldn’t even get a play call in (seriously watch the replay on youtube if you can stomach it, was the most humiliating performance in Arizona Cardinals history). The Cards were down 38-0 at the half and 51-0 at the end of the third Quarter. Ken Whisenhunt’s fate was sealed with this loss and we all knew it.
The Cards would finish the 2012 with a 5-11 record. It was the 13th time in 25 seasons (or more than half) the Cardinals lost at least 11 games during their time in Arizona. This team was a team on the decline with no real future. GM Rod Graves would also be shown the door at the end of the season. Sometimes when things are the bleakest you is when you need to look into the horizon and dream. We all did as the red sea needed to dream because that’s all we had. Director of scouting Steve Keim would get promoted to GM. Former Colts interim coach Bruce Arians would be named the new head coach. The Cards would trade a seventh round pick to the Raiders for veteran Carson Palmer to be a likely stop gap Quarterback (that’s what the Cards do!!). All of these moves seemed so mundane compared to past moves. The Boomer Esasion’s and Emmitt Smith’s splashy pickups of past seasons. We all didn’t think anything of these changes at the time. Who knew that this would be the beginning of a new age. This would be the beginning of the Cardinals becoming a real team, who knew what we were in store for…