Playoff hero Larry Fitzgerald comes up big for Cardinals again

GLENDALE, Arizona — Postseason dominance is becoming old hat for Larry Fitzgerald.

Entering Saturday’s game, he had collected nine touchdown receptions in seven postseason games and was 47 yards away from passing Steve Smith for the most receiving yards for a player in his first eight playoff games.

After catching just one pass for six yards in the first half, Fitz exploded in the second and overtime, finishing with 176 yards and one touchdown on eight catches.

It was a vintage performance from a player who has turned back the clock this season.

“Special,” Cardinals QB Carson Palmer said of Fitzgerald. “He’s just a special player. He plays well in big games.”

“Unbelievable,” linebacker Dwight Freeney added. “Hats off to the old guys. It couldn’t be more perfect. He’s been here forever. It’s his team. For him to go out and do that in this building, it’s like a storybook type of thing. I’m happy for him and I’m happy to be on a team with a guy like that. Not on the opposing side chasing him down. Hats off to him.”

A player who leads by example, performance and emotion, Fitzgerald came up big when his team needed him most.

Play after play, catch after catch, it seemed as if he was willing the Cardinals to victory. His 75-yard catch-and-run on the first play from scrimmage in overtime brought life back into a stadium that was in shock after Arizona had just allowed a game-tying Hail Mary, and his five-yard reception on a shovel pass two plays later ended the game with the Cardinals on the right side of the scoreboard.

“Yeah, we’ve been working on the shovel for I don’t know how long,” Fitzgerald said. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run that shovel in practice and just waiting for my opportunity, and lo-and-behold, the second round of the playoffs you get your number called on a shovel.

“My eyes lit up in the huddle.”

While Fitzgerald does not need another dominant playoff run to solidify his legacy, leading the Cardinals to another Super Bowl certainly would do nothing to hurt. Including Saturday’s performance, he is up to 54 catches, 912 yards and 10 touchdowns in eight playoff games, five of which were wins.

Fitzgerald, though, does not put too much into the fact that he seems to come up big on the game’s biggest stages.

“No, I wouldn’t look into it that deeply,” he said. “It’s just one game. It just happened to be a playoff game. We have another one next week and that’ll be a whole different story.”

Except, it’s not just one game. For the better part of the last decade, Fitzgerald has been the face of the Cardinals, even when his numbers were down and the team was struggling. Saturday, he was once again front and center, with a great performance for a team that is one step closer to its ultimate goal.

“Larry means the world, not only to this team, this organization, this community, this state,” cornerback Patrick Peterson said. “Larry’s been doing it for a very long time — 12-plus years — and to see him have the game he had today…not only the game he had today, the season. Larry’s been phenomenal all year.

“To see him cap it off with his game today — the overtime 75-yard catch and not only that but to get the shovel pass for the game-winning touchdown. Words can’t even explain what Larry means to this team. We’re definitely happy that the had the game he had here today.”

There’s little doubt if Fitzgerald had not come up big like he did, the Cardinals’ season would have come to a premature and unceremonious end Saturday night. Instead, they are advancing to the NFC Championship Game for the second time in Fitzgerald’s career. The first, in 2008, ended with a trip to the Super Bowl, which the Cardinals lost.

The result of the second trip is yet to be determined, though if the receiver’s determination has anything to do it, Arizona’s season still has plenty of life left in it.

“One thing I know about Larry is he’s a Hall of Famer,” defensive lineman Calais Campbell said. “He wants that ring. That really solidifies it. He battled ’til the vey end, until the whistle blows. It felt so good.”

Saturday’s game had the potential to become one of the most devastating in Cardinals history; instead, it will go down as one of the best. History will view it that way because their best player, Fitzgerald, did what he has done countless times throughout his career.

And that he was the one to cap it off just seemed…right.

“I mean, he wanted it,” linebacker Kevin Minter said. “It is almost like (Michael) Jordan — you give the ball to Jordan.”

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