Weekend Review: Are the Cardinals Screwed?

So last week my boss called a meeting with my department to discuss the fact that our production is down because everyone has been spending time doing non-work things at work. Therefore he fired one person whose production was worse than awful and told the rest of us that he was going to be watching more closely at what we do and tracking our production, which is why I'm writing this post at 10 o'clock at night instead of at work. I will no longer be able to write the posts at work (you know, cause I'd like to keep my job) so there is no guarantee when the posts will be written but I will try to do them when I get home at night as long as I don't have a shit ton of homework. Anyways, now that I got that out of the way, on to the actual post.

Coming into this weekend, the Arizona Cardinals were thought of as one of the best teams in the NFL. Though they won, they lost the most important player on their team, Carson Palmer. Everyone know that quarterback is the most important position in football, especially in recent years. While Drew Stanton has enjoyed success early in the year, it's hard to believe that he will be able to lead this team deep in the playoffs. The Cardinals have a great defense that will win them some games but there will be games that require Stanton and the offense to put up 30 or more points and it's just not realistic to ask that from a guy who has only attempted 280 career passes, with 8 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. The most likely scenario is the Cardinals find a way to squeak into the playoffs as a wild card and lose the first round. The most unfortunate thing for the Cardinals is that if Palmer would have stayed healthy and they got the top seed, they could have had the unique opportunity of having home field advantage throughout the playoffs including the Super Bowl, which is hosted in Arizona this year. At least they gave him a $50 million contract extension last week.

Two other quick notes about the weekend before I get into the NFC North review, how the hell did the Jets beat the previously red hot Steelers and how are the Falcons, at 3-6 I may add, only one game out of first place in the NFC South. The Steelers looked like they were on their way to being a strong contender in the AFC after Ben Rapethisburger threw for 23854 touchdowns in two games, yet somehow they only had 6 points with about 3 minutes left in the game thanks to turnovers by Big Ben and Antonio Brown. They did score a crazy touchdown at the end to pull the game close before losing at the end because they were offsides when they recovered the onside kick. I wish I could have watched the whole game, because this makes absolutely no sense to me. Oh holy shit I just realized something, not only are we living in a world where the Detroit Lions are in sole possession of first place, but the Cleveland Browns are in first in their division two. This is a joke isn't it? Where are you Ashton? When it comes to the Falcons only being a game out, I don't even know what to say. They have looked like one of the worst teams in the league and it looked like their coach would for sure be fired at the end of the year. Now they have the chance to beat the Panthers this week, and if the Saints lose, the 4-6 Falcons would be leading the division. Seriously what the fuck!? I never thought I'd say this but I believe the NFC South is now without a doubt the worst division in the NFL.

So this was separation week in the NFC between the top two teams and the bottom two teams. Starting at the top, the Lions pulled off another comeback win over the Dolphins, making that three on the season (vs. Saints and Falcons as well). The Lions look like they are finally more disciplined and may be able to live up to their potential for the first time since 2011, when the made the playoffs and got smoked by the Saints. These come from behind wins are games that the old Lions would have lost, yet Jim Caldwell has this team believing they can win any game they are in. The scary thing is that the Lions are finally starting to get healthy (although Reggie Bush got hurt again on Sunday), so now their star filled roster will be even better. With only 7 games remaining for each team in the division, the Lions look to be in a race with only the Packers for the division, and it may just come down to their week 17 meeting in Lambeau. Speaking of the Packers, they destroyed the Bears on Sunday night in a game that was practically over halfway through the first quarter. Chicago’s defense was awful as always, and Jay Cutler was awful as always against the Packers. I’ve said it multiple times in these posts so I’m not going to spend too much time harping on it again, but Jay Cutler isn’t a competent quarterback. He has incredible talent around him and a supposed quarterback guru in Marc Trestman and yet he has not gotten any better, in fact he seems to be getting worse. Chicago simply looked like they quit after getting down 14 early and from then on it was just an embarrassment for them. The Packers, on the other hand, played a great game, although I would say a majority of the credit for this game goes to the Bears being awful. However, Rodgers did have two touchdown passes in the first half that only him and a handful of other quarterbacks can make to help give the Packers the lead from the start. Going forward the Packers have a schedule that works out very nicely compared to the Lions. The Pack have only 3 road games, at Buffalo, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay, none of which are terribly difficult games. They do have a few tough home games like this week against the Eagles, but any time they are in Lambeau they are expected to win. Whereas the Lions still have to go to Arizona, to New England, to Chicago (I’m imagining by week 16 they can’t be this terrible), and to Green bay on the last week of the season. I fan in me has every reason to believe that the Packers will end up winning the division and the Lions will end up in a wild card spot heading into the playoffs. The other team in the division, the Vikings, were on bye this week. As I’ve said before, they have a tough schedule going forward so unless they pull off some very surprising upsets, the Vikings will not be battle with the Packers and Lions for the division title. But hey, they might finish higher than the Bears, and who would’ve guessed that coming into the year?

This week in awesome John Madden things, I found some old quotes from him when he was broadcasting games. Here they are in no particular order of awesomeness:

“Now here’s a guy that can throw the ball to another guy and have him catch it sometimes.”

“Their either going to run the ball here or maybe pass.”

“The way to gain yards is to advance the ball down the field from the line of scrimmage.”

“There’s a lot of letters in LaDanian Tomlinson.”

“Ruben Brown made that play there… well I mean he missed the guy completely but he was able to create just enough room for Thomas Jones by whiffing. The air he created on the miss gave Jones enough space to score.”

And my personal favorite:

“Mark Brunell usually likes to soak his balls before a rainy game”