Have to admit it took just a little bit of the sting out of the Panthers losing to Arizona in the playoffs to see the Cardinals continue to roll by beating Philadelphia. And don't forget, they began their playoff run by eliminating the red-hot Atlanta Falcons.
It's hard not to like nice-guy, Kurt Warner. At the age of 37 he's playing as well as he did with the old St. Louis Rams "fun-and-gun" days and is the only other quarterback besides Craig Morton to lead two different teams to a Super Bowl. Warner also is a free agent and increases his value with each passing week. The Cardinals have an interesting dilemma with former number-1 overall pick Matt Leinart riding the bench and looking for playing time.
The Cardinals are also again showing that it's not the best team, but the team that is playing the best in January that reaches the Super Bowl. Arizona finished the regular season with a (9-7) record. In addition to blowing a 14-point lead in losing to the Panthers in week-8, check out a sampling of some of Arizona's lowlights from the regular season with losses to the Jets (56-35), the Eagles (48-20), the Vikings (35-14) and the Patriots (47-7).
I'm trying to understand the bargaining philosophy of Julius Peppers and his agent Carl Carey. They not only announced that Peppers no longer want to play for the Panthers, but that his preference is to play for a team that employs a 3-4 defensive scheme. They've now narrowed their field of potential suitors to about seven NFL teams, since the vast majority play a 4-3 defense. Wouldn't they welcome the most possible teams bidding against each other, in theory? Plus the garbage about how he has not been able to reach his full potential by playing for the Panthers. Really, four trips to the Pro Bowl and a career best 14.5 sacks last season isn't featuring Peppers enough? Even before this, I felt the price tag would be too much to stomach for a new contract. Now, I hope Carolina can franchise Peppers and then trade him for some draft picks, maybe he'd like winters in Detroit.
At least the Peppers news has taken the target off Jake Delhomme, at least for now. No doubt the Panthers quarterback had a terrible game. But let's not go overboard and forget (12-4) and a division title with perhaps the Panthers best offensive season in their 14-year history. The defense sputtered miserably down the stretch run beginning with the Giants rushing for 300 yards, followed by the Saints 20-point 4th quarter comeback, and finally Larry Fitzgerald running free through the secondary. I'm not absolving the quarterback play, but it's a team game, and there definitely were mulitple issues plaguing the Panthers when the season came to an abrupt end against the Cardinals.
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