Arizona Cardinals remember that one night in Carolina

TEMPE, Ariz. — As the Arizona Cardinals get set to hit the road and take on the Carolina Panthers, many will recall the 27-16 defeat they were handed by the very same team in the very same Bank of America Stadium last season.

But that was not the first time the Cardinals and Panthers met in the playoffs, and the other time went much, much better.

Remember the 2008 Arizona Cardinals, the team that made an improbable run to Super Bowl XLIII?

How could you forget.

That team’s playoff run was about as exciting as it gets, with three of their four games being decided by seven points or less.

The one game that was not close was their Divisional Round matchup in Carolina against the Panthers, who were the NFC’s second seed and 10-point favorites entering the game.

“I remember winning, I remember it was raining, besides that I know our defense in that game took the ball away a bunch and gave us a lot of opportunities to score points,” Cardinals center Lyle Sendlein, who was on the team then, recalled.

He’s not wrong. The Cardinals fell behind early after Carolina running back Jonathan Stewart scored a touchdown on the home team’s first drive, but then went on and intercepted Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme five times and also recovered a fumble of his en route to a 33-13 romp that provided the biggest score differential of the entire 2008 playoffs.

“So if our defense can do something like that again, hopefully we can be in a good spot,” Sendlein added.

Chances are if this year’s Cardinals can force six turnovers Sunday in Carolina they will advance to their second Super Bowl.

But on that night a little more than seven years ago, the Cardinals also benefited from a solid night from quarterback Kurt Warner, who threw for 220 yards and two touchdowns, as well as the continued brilliance of receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who reeled in eight passes for 166 yards and one touchdown.

The Cardinals were so dominant that night, in fact, the final score isn’t even indicative of how badly they beat the Panthers. The score was 33-7 until Delhomme hit Steve Smith for an eight-yard touchdown pass with 57 seconds remaining.

“I think what stands out is the way our defense stepped up in that game,” Warner told Bickley and Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. “I think we were so much built on the offense, too, and we had playmakers on defense but I think if you go back go back and look at that season, I think we scored 426 points and we gave up 425 points that year, so we were very much built around our offense and scoring points with a couple game-changers defensively.”

That year’s Cardinals scored 427 points and allowed 426, and while Warner is just off on the numbers, his point remains the same: it was offense that carried the team, and any contributions the defense could make were welcome but not necessarily expected.

“What I remember about that game is they came out defensively and just made all kinds of plays all over the place,” Warner said, noting Delhomme’s struggles. “As well as offensively, we were definitely clicking and playing well, but really the catalyst in that game was the big plays our defense was making to really set the tone for us, and we just kind of picked up from there.”

Warner added teams have to win various different ways in the playoffs, and while Arizona didn’t win many games because of its defense that season, over the course of those 60 minutes it was that side of the ball that pushed the Cardinals to the NFC Championship Game.

However, it’s not like the offense didn’t do anything to help.

“Larry had another great performance in that game,” he noted. “I still remember the deep play that we threw early on that we had put in in our walk-through the day before, and Larry going up against two guys and the ball kind of bounced off of him and was suspended in the air. I still remember him reaching out and grabbing that away from two defenders. But those are some of the big plays that I remember from that game.”

The fast start the Cardinals got off to that night no doubt improved the team’s confidence that it could win the game, just as winning the game led to an increased belief that they could make a deep postseason run.

This year’s team has little reason to doubt itself after winning 13 regular season games and last week’s Divisional Round battle with the Packers, but once again heads to North Carolina an underdog. Plenty has changed in the seven years since the Cardinals’ first postseason trip to Charlotte, but that does not mean there are not lessons to carry over or memories that can help now.

“I remember we were overwhelming underdogs going in there, we were lucky to get past the Falcons and we were going to be roadkill when we got there, I remember that,” Fitzgerald said. “But I think that really bonded the team together in terms of the only guys that really believed that we could get it done was the 53 guys that took that field.

“We have to have that same bunker mentality when we go in there because it’s going to be hostile, it’s going to loud. It could be snowing, it could be sleeting; we don’t know what to expect, but I know if we go out there and play our football game I think we’ll be OK.”

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