Six Points: Cardinals dismantle Vikings 30-17

You can certainly make the argument that Sunday’s 30-17 win over the Minnesota Vikings was the most impressive, and most important regular season win for the Arizona Cardinals since they moved to the Valley in 1988.

After a sluggish start, the Cardinals completely dominated in all three phases of the game, scoring a 13-point win over a team that came in 10-1 on the season. The win not only pads the Cardinals’ NFC West lead, but announces to the rest of the league that wrestling away their NFC crown from a year ago will be no easy task.

Here’s six things that stood out from Sunday’s huge Cardinals win.

1

Welcome back Kurt. What can you say? Kurt Warner was on again. There were concerns that Warner was less than 100% after sitting out last week’s loss to Tennessee. Nobody’s concerned now. Warner completed 22 of 32 passes for 285 yards and 3 touchdowns in Sunday’s win. His quarterback rating on Sunday was 127.7–the fourth straight game he’s had a QB rating of over 120, joining Johnny Unitas as the only quarterbacks to accomplish the feat.

2

The Big Red Wall. A huge part of the Cardinals’ offensive success starts with the big guys up front. Jeremy Bridges started for Mike Gandy at left tackle, and shut down Vikings’ defensive end/wild man Jared Allen. Allen, who was second in the league with 12.5 sacks, had zero on Sunday, and failed to register a tackle for the first time all season. Reggie Wells, Lyle Sendlein, Deuce Lutui and Levi Brown also get major kudos for protecting Warner all night. And a tip of the cap to Tim Hightower, who helped out on Allen, and did a great job of knocking him back all night long with a series of vicious chip blocks. Gandy might have just been “Wallly Pipped”.

3

Fitz and ‘Q’ were unstoppable. Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin each had fantastic ball games, and when that happens, the Cardinals are very tough to beat. Fitz and ‘Q’ combined for 15 catches, 241 yards and 3 touchdowns.

4

It wasn’t all about the offense. The Cardinals’ defense absolutely dominated the Vikings’ high-powered offense. First, they confused Brett Favre all night, sacking him three times, and intercepting him twice (probably should have been four). Favre had only three interceptions in his first 11 games this season. Secondly, they shut Adrian Peterson down. Peterson had 19 yards on 13 carries, which was the second lowest output of his pro career. You may remember, Peterson gashed the Cardinals’ defense for 165 yards in a 35-14 over Arizona in Glendale last December.

5

Let’s not forget the special teams. Steve Breaston’s 64-yard punt return ignited the Cardinals and set up their first touchdown of the night. Ben Graham put two of his three punts inside the 20-yard line, and Neil Rackers, who was questionable with a groin injury, hit three more field goals and had a special teams tackle. Rackers, who had a couple of shaky seasons after having a Pro Bowl campaign in 2005 with 40 field goals, has been an unsung hero for the Cardinals this season.

6

Well that worked out nicely. I’ll admit, I was a little nervous that San Francisco would beat Seattle, and the Cardinals would lose to the Vikings, shrinking Arizona’s lead to just 1 game heading into the Cardinals-49ers Monday Night Football battle next week. Things could not have worked out better for the Cardinals, who got a favor from Seattle, who knocked off the Niners earlier today, and of course the Cardinals took care of their business. Arizona now leads the NFC West by 3 games heading into next week’s trip to San Fran, and can deliver the final nail in the 49ers’ coffin with a win on national television.

Highlights from NFL.com/NBC

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