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Special...as in special teams!!! Have we, as Cardinal fans, ever seen a game where the Cardinals scored on special teams on the FIRST play of the game and the LAST play of the game???
C'mon, people!!! As surreal as this game was...would you have ever imagined the Cardinals winning a game on special teams??? SAY GOOdBYE TO THE GHOSTS OF NEIL O'DONNELL AND DEVIN HESTER!!!
And look at the two principal ST players who got this one done:
(1) J.J. Arrington...despite excellent returns in the pre-season, was INACTIVE for games 1-4. Is activated last week and played a huge hand in the big win over Buffalo...and now runs back the opening kickoff versus the Cowboys in a nationally televised FOX game...93 weaving and bobbing yards...with NO PENALTIES!!!
(2) Sean Morey...one of the first UFAs Coach Whiz brought to Arizona to upgrade the STs...and, wow, did he vindicate his head coach for the extraordinarily questionable freeze out time out on the Dallas 52 yard FG that forced the OT...after the refs had done all they could to freeze everyone out in the last painstaking TEN MINUTES to play 22 seconds.
Kudos to Monty Beisel too for being right there to clean up the change and score the winning TD.
Was this one of the more bizaare games you've ever seen?
Just think of this...with a little over 2 minutes left...the Cardinals had a 24-14 lead and the Cowboys were languishing with two timeouts, with a woozy QB, Tony Romo, the Cardinal front four had managed to HIT 20 times in the game...and he throws yet another perfunctory bail out five yard swing pass to Marion Barber, and the Cardinal defense---which to this point had played its heart out...and had surprisingly showed more sticky coverage than ever before limiting TO and Jason Whitten to basically NADA stats...they blow over like a house of Cards as inexplicably, Barber turns a five yard swing pass into a 70 yard TD...painfully reminiscent of the first half defensive meltdown when Patrick Crayton caught a WIDE OPEN pass over the middle and turned it into a long TD.
Then...the Cardinals seemingly have the Cowboys pinned deep again with 22 seconds left and Romo eludes the rush and fires a strike completion to the Cardinal 40 yard line...a pass of 40 yards versus a prevent defense...which in itself is unthinkable...
Then...Travis LaBoy, who like Betrand Berry, Darnell Dockett, Antonio Smith and Calais Campbell, played all day like their pants were on fire...GAME BALLS to those five, THEY WON THIS GAME!!!...but LaBoy is hurt and can't get back onsides...ONLY HAPPENS TO THE CARDINALS (we were all saying this admit it)...which now gives Dallas a 52 yard FG instead of a 57 yarder...and after Whiz's timeout, which was a blocked FG to boot, Folk clears the bar by two yards at best. ONLY THE CARDINALS, RIGHT??? BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, BOUGHT THE T-SHIRT!!!
As for the offense...they too won this game...and deserve game balls, despite all the little mistakes they made...
The play of the game: TD Tim Hightower of Power's 17 yard conversion of 3rd and 17...catching a wobbling ball from Warner...and running and weaving like he was shot out of a rocket!!!
2nd place: Rackers' FG...he misses that FG and who knows what would have happned. IT WAS CLUTCH!!!
For the offense to execute the way they did for 17 KEY second half points...after being sidelined for SO LONG...in this game...thanks to early turnovers and scared playcalling (you would have thought that Haley was calling plays versus the old Steel Curtain...and, the reality was the weakest part of the Cowboy defense is the secondary, so why keep running the ball and leaving warner in third and longs??)...
Warner had like 50 yards passing when he entered the 3rd quarter with 8 minutes left...and he wound up with 236 and 2 TDs...a great cross fade to Fitz after he had already scored on another fade, erased by a replay booth reversal...and a quick slant TD to Steve Breaston (8 catches 102 yards), who has been OUTSTANDING in Q's place. Fitz's second half catches were exceptional...ALL OF THEM...AS WERE WARNER'S THROWS!!!
The bizaare plays in this game:
(1) Jenkins running through Fitz on the Cards first possession and not getting flagged???
(2) Romo clearly getting stripped ON CONTACT...which the Cardinals recovered...and the refs claim they blew the whistle, which means no booth review (WHICH IS FLAT-OUT WRONG---ALL PLAYS SHOULD BE REVIEWABLE).
(3) The Dockett sack on Romo in the endzone where he clearly had his arm going forward but did not release the ball until he was hit. Smith pounces on the ball...this tuck rule is a joke. Everyone who watched this game, especially Michael Strahan, knew this should have been a TD.
(4) The Cardinal defense playing lights out all day save two egregious meltdowns at the end of each halves.
(5) Folk, who hadn't misssed a FG all year, hitting the uprights at the end of the first half.
(6) Save the unsuccessful on-side kick...and Calaias Cambell's botched fair catch, the Cardinals' special teams were outstanding...and, as we saw, the ST performance was game changing.
The most encouraging thing about this game??? The Cardinal defense and special teams rising to the occasion (in certain key spots)...and the arrival of Tim Hightower and Steve Breaston to NFL stardom...these kids can play. And Kurt Warner defied the notion that you hit him early and force him into mistakes, he'll go into the tank...well, Warner, kept getting hit on almost every throw, and he kept marching the offense down the field in that second half. Warner deserves a game ball too.
Three cheers for the 12th man...you didn't sell the team out...you were HUGE in this game!!!
One word of advice for all of us...forget about the standings this early in the year...let's not get ahead of ourselves...let's just relish one of the most exciting, unique Cardinal victories and set all of our sights on the next game. The other games in the league today are proof that no team can take any other team for granted.
With that said, in the past with such bizaare occurences in such a game, the Cardinals would always lose. Didn't happen today. And with Whiz and his coaching staff, these are a different flock of Cardinals. SOAR YOU REDBIRDS SOAR!!!
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Last edited by Mitch; October 12th, 2008 at 06:01 PM.
Mitch's 5 page booklet on tonight's game is justified.
Many different players on this TEAM made big plays. This was a TEAM win.
__________________ A-Dub on Playoffs:“You get a great sense of pride you stuck it out,” Wilson said, “now that it’s finally here.” An Out of State Fan's Guide for Seeing the Cardinals in AZ: http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/blog.php?b=71
For the offense to execute the way they did for 17 KEY second half points...after being sidelined for SO LONG...in this game...thanks to early turnovers and scared playcalling (you would have thought that Haley was calling plays versus the old Steel Curtain...and, the reality was the weakest part of the Cowboy defense is the secondary, so why keep running the ball and leaving warner in third and longs??)...
That's exactly what I was screaming at in the game thread... their secondary was hurting and our pass offense is our strength, and yet we kept "trying" to run... very conservative and scared play calling.
Whenever we have done that, it has hurt us. Whenever we have come out openning up the offense, we move the ball and put points on the board.
__________________
“You wanna talk being a real man? Because Anquan Boldin not only wrote the book on it; he can tear the hardcover in two with his bare hands.” - ESPN.com fantasy football column
I'm really happy for Calais Campbell. He was put in a real bad spot on that kickoff and it sure looked like he felt he let his team down, but they fought back as a team and won.
- 2008 NFC West Champions!
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