NFL Weekly Rundown: Arizona Cardinals Analysis

The Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl; yes you read that right, the Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl. I repeated that for the sake of the Cardinals faithful.

This is something many of them never thought they would hear, so I thought they would like to hear it twice. The Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game 32-25 and will take on the Pittsburgh Steelers who beat the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship game 23-14.

With the Super Bowl match-up set the Bruno Boys Weekly Rundown will be broken down into two parts. This week we will take a look at the Arizona Cardinals and their improbable run through the playoffs and into the Super Bowl. So with no further adieu please enjoy part one of the Bruno Boys Weekly Rundown: Super Bowl Edition.

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Arizona Cardinals

Heading into this season the Cardinals were one of six teams never to reach the Super Bowl, with their only playoff victory in recent history coming in 1998 when they beat the Dallas Cowboys in the first round, only to lose to the Minnesota Vikings in the second round.

The Cardinals for years have seemed to be a team on the rise, but have been perennial underachievers. Until this season that is, as they are now one step away from football’s ultimate glory. 

Before this season even started many people were already writing off this year’s Cardinals’ team. Franchise quarterback Matt Leinart had a terrible preseason and head coach Ken Whisenhunt decided to go with veteran Kurt Warner at quarterback. Wide receiver Anquan Boldin appeared to be unhappy and even started talking about wanting to be traded.

It was really starting to look like the same old Cardinals. A team that on paper has a ton of talent, especially on the offensive side of the ball with Leinart, running back Edgerrin James, wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Boldin, but it was starting to look like they would never gel. So how did they manage to get to the Super Bowl?

It started with their head coach. Ken Whisenhunt made the right moves at the right time. The first move was inserting Warner as the team’s starting quarterback.

Warner a former NFL and Super Bowl MVP has brought leadership and confidence to this team, something they have been lacking. Having started 26 games for the Cardinals over the past three seasons Warner already had a good rapport with the team’s receiving core, which incidentally has two of the best receivers in the game in Boldin and Fitzgerald.

The Cardinals started the season with a 7-3 record and didn’t seem to miss a beat when James became disgruntled and was subsequently benched in favor of rookie Tim Hightower, which was the second good move Whisenhunt made.

They not only appeared to be a lock to win the NFC West division, they seemed poised to make a run at a first round bye in the NFC playoffs. But they went 2-4 down the stretch and had to take the tougher road to the Super Bowl.

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NFL Weekly Rundown: Arizona Cardinals Analysis