Technorati Tags: 2010 NFL Draft, Arizona Cardinals, NFL

This won’t be a Brett Favre job by Warner. If he does, in fact, decide to retire this Friday you can bet that his decision will be concrete. Warner will turn 39 later on this year and was given the business pretty good by the Saints in the NFC divisional game.

Back in 2004 it seemed like Kurt Warners best days were behind him. He was playing for the Giants and eventually lost the starting job to Eli Manning. The following year he signed with the Cardinals and his first two years there he shared snaps with a few other quarterbacks. But in 2007 Warner turned things around. He had all the weapons in place in Arizona and he started looking like the old Warner during his glory days with the Rams.

It’s been questioned whether or not Warners body of work in the NFL has done enough to earn him a spot in the Hall of Fame. A few years ago that argument held some weight, but not enough. With what Warner has done over the past three years with the Cardinals though should be enough to convince anybody he’s a worthy candidate.

Is Kurt a first ballot guy? That’s tough to say considering people don’t even know if he’s even worthy. But there won’t be a lot of time that goes by until people make the right call. If he does retire the last game he played will be remembered for the amount of punishment he took from the Saints defense. Everyone says how tough Favre is, Kurt Warner isn’t that far behind. He’s played the last three years, probably more, battling injuries. But he’s played through and in the process he’s helped turn the Cardinals something they’ve never been, a really good football team.

Warner has done everything a quarterback could dream of in this league. He’s been to three Super Bowls and won one, he’s won multiple league MVPs, he’s been to 5 Pro Bowls, he’s compiled big-time stats. There are very few guys who wouldn’t want to trade careers with the guy.

The league is pretty skinny on franchise quarterbacks these days. As time goes by, and Warner isn’t playing anymore, people will start to realize how great of a player Kurt Warner really is and his enshrinement into the Hall of Fame won’t come soon enough.

Technorati Tags: Arizona Cardinals, Kurt Warner, NFL

This is a good football team though and it’s not like they’re a different team than they were several weeks ago. They just seem to have lost that momentum the were riding so hard earlier in the year.

Have people figured them out? I don’t think it really matters. You can know exactly what they’re all about, it won’t make a difference if you can’t contain their offense.

And that’s kind of the whole point here. The Saints struggled down the stretch not because people unlocked some sort of blueprint, which seems to be quite the catchphrase these days. But because they haven’t been executing as well as they were earlier this year.

All that can change this weekend when the Cardinals come to town. Which Cardinals team shows up is anyones guess. Either way this is a chance for the Saints to get things back on track. When the offense is clicking it pretty much unstoppable, and if the D can get back to forcing turnovers it will be a great recipe.

Arizonas offense played lights out last week and surprised a lot of people shredding the Packers secondary. But their defense struggled in the second half letting Green Bays offense get into a rhythm. If the Cardinals defense has a repeat performance from last week the Saints will light them up.

New Orleans has a fairly good opportunity in front of them. If they can take advantage and find that chemistry they had earlier in the year they’ll be right back on track.

Technorati Tags: Arizona Cardinals, New Orleans Saints, NFL

Five turnovers in the first half by Arizona pretty much doomed them. That and the fact that Frank Gore ripped the shit out of their defense. It’s quite mind boggling when you think about it because last week they shut down Adrian Peterson! I’m not taking anything away from Gore but I mean come on.

There has to be some serious credit given to the 49ers defense, they played lights out. Patrick Willis is no doubt the leagues best middle linebacker, and he’s starting to look more and more like his head coach used to on the field.

In all honesty neither of these teams has what it takes to make a long playoff run. The 49ers are just too inexperienced. And Arizona in just too inconsistent.

That’s the thing with Kurt Warner. You’ll get some great games from him, but you’ve got to sprinkle in some serious bed-shittings. Last night the sheets definitely needed some changing.

It was a great win for the 49ers to help keep their playoff hopes alive. Unfortunately it’s prolonging the inevitable, which will clearly be disappointment for those that get their hopes up too high.

Technorati Tags: Arizona Cardinals, NFL, San Francisco 49ers

Arizona was able to win the game last night because they kept Adrain Peterson in check. Not many teams can do this but the Cardinals fast, aggressive defense kept the leagues best running back in check all game.

With the run threat stifled Arizona made Brett Favre beat them with his arm. When you force Brett to throw he’ll make mistakes. He made some last night and the Cardianls were able to capitalize.

The loss last night put the Vikings 2 games behind the Saints for the top spot in the NFC. It’s now looking like the road to the Super Bowl in the NFC will be played in New Orleans.

The win was huge for the Cardinals. Coupled with the loss by the 49ers, it puts Arizona 3 games up on San Fran and anyone who wants to catch them has to play mistake free football the rest of the way.

The game itself showed the Vikings maybe aren’t quite at the same level as the Saints. It also showed that Brett was playing the way he has been because of Peterson.

If the leagues MVP trophy is awarded to the player who has the biggest impact on the teams success, maybe people should be a little more focused on Peterson and not on the guy who is the benefactor of Adrians greatness.

Technorati Tags: Adrain Peterson, Arizona Cardinals, Brett Favre, Minnesota Vikings, NFL

This isn’t the first time Young has gotten the best of Leinart. Youngs Longhorns beat Leinarts Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl, one of the greatest football games every played. Then Young was drafted 3rd in the 2006 NFL draft and Leinart fell to the 10th spot eventually being taken by the Cardinals. Now Sundays game adds to the mini rivalry.

But is Leinart finally ready to take the next step. His performance on Sunday was good and the Cardinals are impressed with Leinarts progress this year. From the looks of it Matt is g0ing to get more opportunities as Kurt Warner continues to get evaluated for his concision symptoms.

Leinarts career in the NFL so far has similarities to Youngs. Both struggled early and both spent time backing up and learning from veteran quarterbacks.

So now it’s Leinarts time to prove he’s ready to replace Warner and be the future for the Cardinals. Whether he is or not will only be answered in time. Opportunities like this don’t come around often, so Leinart has to take advantage now or get used to the bust label for a little while longer.

Technorati Tags: Arizona Cardinals, Matt Leinart, NFL