Cardinals destroy and dismantle the Panthers
Deion Sanders, on the NFL network, said the Carolina State police were looking for Jake Delhomme because he murdered his team. Nobody, including myself, gave the Arizona Cardinals any opportunity to beat the Carolina Panthers. We all thought that the victory we saw when the Arizona Cardinals destroyed the Dallas Cowboys was all about the Dallas Cowboys’ flaws and not about the good things the Arizona Cardinals were doing on the field. When the Cardinals beat the Atlanta Falcons, the Falcons just hadn’t played well. Also, the Arizona Cardinals played some truly awful football when they went east. So, clearly, the Cardinals, going East would mean disaster for the Cardinals.
Yet, the smart football folks should’ve been able to break down the film against the Atlanta Falcons and discover a few of the things that the Arizona Cardinals were doing that were positive.
I’ve said this before and I will say again. At the end of the year and in the playoffs, defense matters. Defense is king. The primary job of the offense in the playoffs is not to hurt your own defense (ask the Tennessee Titans). Do not turn the ball over. Jake Delhomme was a one-man turnover machine. When he threw his third interception, Daryl Johnston, doing the national color commentary, said, “I just don’t know what he is seeing on the field.” Delhomme continually put his defense in that position. In a nutshell, this is why the Arizona Cardinals will be playing next weekend and the Carolina Panthers will be sitting down.
The Carolina Panthers did not have or did not display anything that resembled a stout defense this year. Their defense was average. The loss of Kris Jenkins in the middle was a huge blow to this team. It may have been possible that the Panthers could have overcome some of the early turnovers if they had a better defense. When the game was on the line, throughout the second quarter, the Panthers could not get any pressure on Kurt Warner and they had no answer for Larry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald personally torched the Panthers’ secondary. He had eight catches for 166 yards and one touchdown.
Defense wins championships. The Arizona Cardinals brought the suffocating defense. Now, if you were an Arizona Cardinals, fan wouldn’t it be nice if the Philadelphia Eagles were able pull out a victory in the Meadowlands. That would mean you would host the Eagles next week in Arizona. Wouldn’t that be sweet!
