Cardinals clinch No. 2 seed with one-sided victory

Ball security issues were made worse by ball-hawking defenders, and the Cardinals returned two fumbles for touchdowns. This was just part of a four-quarter butt-kicking that resulted in the Packers being sent packing on a long, and most likely very quiet, plane ride back to Green Bay. The Packers were humiliated 38-8 on Sunday by an Arizona team the Vikings pushed to the final seconds before losing by 3.

“That’s the beauty of the NFL”, Rodgers said via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. We’ll just refocus this week and improve on the things we didn’t do well, which is a lot. “It doesn’t really matter to us who the best team is now because at the end of the year there is only one team that gets crowned”.

The Vikings could be the 3, 5 or 6 seed.

The border battle showdown between the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers has been rescheduled for a late start Sunday.

After clinching a first-round bye in Sunday’s blowout victory over the Green Bay Packers, Bruce Arians is facing a dilemma new to the Arizona Cardinals organization. “That may not be the case with everybody that thinks that way, but that’s the way I think and that’s the way I operate when we do our game plans and how we pick our 46 players for game day”. “Had the dropped ball on the big play there”. “We’ve had some very poor halves and some good halves”. We have to catch better. Even Rodgers has been a little off with his accuracy and execution on third downs. Cory Redding rambled 36 yards with one of the fumbles for a score, and Jerraud Powers took another 5 yards for a touchdown. Dwight Freeney had three and Calais Campbell 2 1/2.

The stakes were high enough the last time Minnesota played Green Bay that Vikings coach Mike Zimmer, one of the least-gimmicky guys in his profession, ordered clothing for the organization to commemorate the occasion.

Quarterback Ryan Mallet made his first appearance for the Ravens and completed 28 of 41 passes for 274 yards, including a touchdown and no interceptions. “In meeting No. 1 this year, the Cards showed confidence as they jumped out to a big lead, fell behind and then rallied for the victory”, Avello said.

The caveat to the mind set is of course if a key player was to get seriously injured in a game that may not hold any significance to the team’s postseason position, well, that would be a tough pill to swallow.

The fourth quarter looked more like a pre-season game with backups finishing it off. Even Scott Tolzien wasn’t spared the ferocious pass rush, getting sacked and giving the Cardinals a franchise record 9 for the game.

NOTES: Arians said the only player dealing with an injury that could keep him out of Sunday’s game is reserve defensive lineman Josh Mauro. In 2009, the team went into their finale with some choices to make, although circumstances were slightly different. The Northern Iowa product chipped in with three receptions for 88 yards.

Arizona’s dominance quickly quieted a large portion of Sunday’s crowd, thousands of which were Packers’ fans wearing green and yellow. Palmer threw 14 yards to Floyd, then David Johnson ran 14 yards for a score to make it 24-0.

Receiving: For Minnesota, rookie wide receiver Stefon Diggs leads the team in receiving yards (712), while tight end Kyle Rudolph leads in touchdowns (five). With 103 catches on the year, he tied his own 2005 single-season club record. It starts from a protection unit, to a route-running detail, to catching the football. Tyrann Mathieu was lost for the remainder of the season after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament last week in a win at Philadelphia, and Rashad Johnson missed his second consecutive game because of an ankle injury. Though it is Week 17 and pretty much every major regular season goal the team may have had has been achieved, this will not be the time for rest.

Rodgers says the Packers need to find “sources of inspiration” going into Week 17 and the playoffs.