Were the Arizona Cardinals Only Pretending to Suck in December?

Football fans, I believe we may have been bamboozled by the Arizona Cardinals.

When everyone believed their presence in the playoffs was a gift for playing in the dismal NFC West, the Cardinals stormed through the Wild Card round and slapped everyone across the face.

It's quite possible we have all witnessed the NFL equivalent to Muhammad Ali's rope-a-dope.

When the Arizona Cardinals looked to be fluke competitors in the postseason, they turned around and caught everyone watching completely off-guard.

The NFL's 16th ranked run-stopping defense looked like they were the best in the business as they shut down MVP-candidate Michael Turner, limiting him to 42 yards on 18 carries.

Kurt Warner and his receivers kept doing what they did all season, but then Edgerrin James came out of absolutely nowhere as a threat on the ground.

All of a sudden the Arizona Cardinals were a well-balanced football team—something no one believed they would be in the postseason.

If it was intentional, then it was a brilliant strategy.

Two things were clear in the NFC during the regular season. One, the New York Giants would be the top seed in the postseason. And two, the second seed would go to someone from the NFC South.

If the Cardinals understood a first-round bye was out of the question, and a playoff berth was guaranteed, then could they have decided to take it easy until the postseason? Why press the issue?

They still took the field every Sunday, played football, and tried to win the game. But am I alone in believing they chose to save some magic tricks for the playoffs?

Then again, James' success on the ground could probably be credited to Atlanta's 25th-ranked run defense and the 127.5 yards they averaged per game.

Whatever the case may be, the Arizona Cardinals are going to need that new-found run-stopping defense to step up huge in Carolina as they will have their hands full with DeAngelo Williams and rookie Jonathan Stewart.

If the Cardinals do pull out a win, they will have to be nominated for some kind of Academy Award. Convincing the NFL they couldn't play on the East Coast will go down as one of the greatest performances in the history of the league.

But all of that remains to be seen. Every postseason needs an NFL team that defies expectations and plays contrary to what the regular season would indicate.

For the 2008-09 playoffs, that team may be the Arizona Cardinals.

Angel Navedo covers the Jets-Examiner" target="_blank">New York Jets for Examiner.com. His work can also be found on NYJetsFan.com, where he is the Head Writer, and on MyGridironSpace.com—a premier social networking site built exclusively for NFL fans.

He is also a Senior Writer at Bleacher Report, where he is one of the New York Jets Community Leaders.