Arizona Cardinals Now Must Hope For Win, New Orleans Loss

Dec 22, 2013; Seattle, WA, USA; Arizona Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell (93) celebrates a sack against the Seattle Seahawks with Arizona Cardinals outside linebacker John Abraham (55) during the fourth quarter at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Cardinals playoff situation just became much clearer.  They must beat the San Francisco 49ers and must hope the New Orleans Saints lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home in order to make the playoffs.  Unfortunately New Orleans doesn’t lose those types of games.

Not only is New Orleans virtually unbeatable at home, the Cards must rely on an NFC South team to do it.  Neither the Atlanta Falcons nor the Saints did the Cards any favors this weekend.  The Saints were 27 seconds away from winning or at least forcing overtime against the Carolina Panthers before allowing the Panthers to score.  Then tonight the Falcons had the ball deep in Niners territory with a chance to take a late lead only to see quarterback Matt Ryan throw an 89-yard pick six.

The Cards helped themselves by winning in Seattle on Sunday but did themselves no favors by blowing an 11-point lead in St. Louis in the fourth quarter on opening day and blowing a 22-20 late third quarter lead over the Niners in October in San Francisco.

It’ll be another season of what if’s and what could haves for the Cards, who are accustomed to that way of thinking.  Only this time, the Cards are going to be better than a couple of the teams getting in and that’s the disappointing part.  It is what it is though.  We’ll see what happens on Sunday, but I think you have a better chance at an Elvis sighting than a Cards sighting in the 2013 playoffs.