7Dec/095:11 PM

Brownie Points: Can the Cardinals get back to the Bowl?

By Jerry Brown

If there was any doubt that that Cardinals are a better team – and playing much better at this time of the season – than last year’s bunch that took a magic carpet ride to the Super Bowl, Sunday night’s national televised trouncing of the Vikings puts all doubts to rest.

The Vikings came to town with one loss and, outside of a miracle finish against the 49ers early in the season, have had their way with most every opponent this season. Their defensive line holds a reunion every February in the Pro Bowl, they have the best running back in the game and a quarterback who might be a favorite to be the MVP of the league – at age 40, no less.

And the Cardinals beat them like a rented mule. The final score was 30-17, but the game wasn’t that close. Kurt Warner was hardly touched. Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald toyed with the Viking secondary. The Cardinal pass rush teed off on Favre all night, and a quarterback who hadn’t thrown an interception in seven weeks threw two and was a fingertip away from another.

The rushing numbers weren’t overwhelming, but the Cardinals’ are shedding the feathers of a one-dimensional team. Punter Ben Graham is one of the most effective special teams weapons in the league, and Steve Breaston and LaRod Stephens-Howling are becoming a pair of the dangerous return men.

While the Steelers are 6-6 and losing to the likes of the Chiefs and the Raiders, the Cardinals have three-game lead in the division with four to play and have none of the in-fighting that is turning Six-burgh into Sux-burgh as we speak. So much for that old saw about the Super Bowl loser struggling to make the postseason the next year – this time around, it’s the champ who is taking on water.

But while the Cardinals are – on paper and on the field – a threat to beat anyone in the NFC in January and the top of the “Unwanted” list at the post office when it comes to preferable opponents, here is where losing on the last play in Tennessee and not showing up at home against Carolina may come back to clip their wings.

The Cardinals will get a home playoff game as a division champ. But with the Saints undefeated and likely to win at least 15 games and the Vikings still two games ahead with four to play, it would have to take another “Perfect Storm” to keep the Cardinals from having to win in the Superdome or the Metrodome – or even both unless they finish strong – to return to the big game.

If the Cards were 9-3 instead of 8-4, they would be one game behind the Vikings with four to play. They would have the hammer in a tiebreaker and they have a much easier schedule down the stretch (Minnesota has Cincinnati next week and the Giants in the season finale). And the No. 2 seed in the NFC earns a bye and a home game, giving other potential foes time to trip up before they get to the Cardinals (a.k.a. the Giants last year).

The Cardinals have been great on the road this season – one play away from being undefeated. And Warner is certainly at home in the climate-controlled conditions. But while there is no doubt this Arizona team is superior to last year’s team in almost every area, sometimes getting to the Super Bowl is more about who you didn’t have to play than who you beat.

* Look, the Lakers are really, really good. They might have played every game at home and their November-December schedule is cushier than Auburn’s non-conference schedule in the Tommy Tuberville days, but they are still the best team in the league.

But there is no mistaking two blowout wins over the Suns during the last month for poor scheduling. I know the Suns are dog tied from playing 14 of their first 21 in the road while the Lakers haven’t left the state of California in over a month. But Phoenix could have a week off and play the jetlagged Lakers in Phoenix and that’s not going to make Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom any smaller inside.

The Suns are a good basketball team. They are a lot of fun to watch. They could slip into the first four seeds with 50-plus wins. But if they want to compete with a team like the Lakers in a playoff series, they are at least one major trade away. Probably two. And with finances and the salary cap what they are, don’t expect Robert Sarver to go from broke when he figures Suns fans are satisfied with regular season excitement — again.

* Congrats to John Junker and the gang at the Fiesta Bowl for rolling the dice and bringing in both TCU and Boise State for what should be a fabulous football game.

It would have been easy to grab Iowa or Penn State and watch the tourist dollars roll in. But just as when the Fiesta was rewarded when they brought Boise in to play Oklahoma a few years ago, being the maverick bowl usually pays dividends.

Now I see where Horned Frog and Bronco fans are disappointed their teams are playing each other instead of a chance to take down one of the big-name programs in a BCS game. You know, there is just no pleasing some people.

First, these schools were upset they weren’t getting into BCS bowl games. Now they’re in and they want to hand-pick their opponents? How soon we forget how the Humanitarian Bowl tastes.