The Cardinal Narrowly Escapes The Jaws of Death

You know how last week I said the problem with facing a QB who was just good enough for his team to almost win, is it only takes a few fortunate happenstances for him to win? I didn't expect Arizona to do their best to prove my point.

Arizona pissed away a 34-17 lead in about 3 minutes, then managed to pull it out in overtime, 37-34. The Titans accumulated 32 first downs, 460 yards of offense. Fitzpatrick went 36-58 for 402 yards (394 once you subtract the yards lost on his 3 sacks). He threw 4 TDs, but also 2 INTs, including the one that gave Arizona the ball in OT.

I had thought perhaps Arizona looked past Tennessee, to the trip to Seattle this week, but it seems it was more a matter of the defense being unsettled since Mathieu's injury. That's apparently turned the secondary upside-down, and they spent most of this game blowing assignments and leaving guys uncovered. If they're going to have any chance against the Seahawks, they better get things sorted quickly. Russell Wilson is a lot better than Ryan Fitzpatrick.

I saw someone say the offense bailed the defense out on this one. While that would certainly be a nice change of pace, I'm not sure how accurate that is. Arizona lost time of possession by three minutes, was out-gained by 100 yards and 8 first downs. The offense did avoid any turnovers, and Andre Ellington and Rashard Mendenhall combined for 140 yards on the ground. Ellington got his 71 yards on 10 carries, Mendenhall needed 21 carries for just 69 yards, which is largely in keeping with their respective performances up to this point.

This was a good game for the offense, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't say they won the game exactly. 360 yards of offense isn't that good, and the defense still had to force 3 turnovers and score a touchdown of their own (Antoine Cason returned an INT to the house) to pull this game out.

Either way, both sides of the ball are going to have to up their game, which might be harder for the offense than the defense. Larry Fitzgerald was concussed during the game, so there's no telling whether he'll be good to go this weekend. I would totally understand if Fitz doesn't want to go, because brain trauma is nothing to sneeze at. I hope he can play, though. If Arizona has any hope in Seattle, they need to attack the Seahawks' secondary, which I'm pretty sure is still without some of their cornerbacks. Not having Fitzgerald would seriously impair their ability to do that.

But it may be moot. Larry would have to be medically cleared, and feel confident enough in himself to play. And even then, you could hardly pick Arizona to win. Seattle is the best team in the NFL right now, and even better at home. Arizona's good, but that's a steep order, Fitzgerald or no.

But Arizona pretty much has to win this game to have any hope of making the playoffs. Even though one of New Orleans or Carolina is sure to lose this week, the Cardinals have to win to tie them (and the Saints would have the tie-breaker over the Cards, while the Panthers wouldn't). And I wouldn't bet on San Francisco losing to the Falcons. Arizona has to keep winning.