Arizona Cardinals: All or Nothing, Episode 8
By Scott Allen
Amazon’s all-access series All or Nothing featuring the Arizona Cardinals and their journey in 2015
Now it’s time to take the second step in three towards a Super Bowl ring. It’s time for the NFC Championship Game against the Carolina Panthers.
This game is going to be in Charlotte, North Carolina in the cold. It shouldn’t phase these Arizona Cardinals though. The week of preparation looks good. The Cardinals are confident despite almost letting the Green Bay game go.
The Cardinals get a huge send off the day before at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport. Players, coaches, even Arizona Senator John McCain got up and addressed the crowd gathered on the tarmac.
Receiver Larry Fitzgerald made reservations with fans to meet back in the same spot Sunday evening after the Cardinals return from defeating the Panthers.
Easier said than done apparently. The Cardinals got to Charlotte riding high and confident. Once kickoff came, things changed almost immediately.
The Cardinals struggled on both sides of the ball. They turned the ball over. The defense couldn’t stop Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. It was 17-0 Panthers before you could blink an eye.
The Cardinals got on the board in the second quarter, scoring a touchdown to make it 17-7. The Cardinals then stopped the Panthers on consecutive three-and-outs. On the second one, Cardinals punt returner Patrick Peterson fielded a punt and he fumbled it. Just when it looked like the momentum was changing.
That was as close as Arizona would get the rest of the night. The Cardinals second-half was no better. The Panthers had an answer for everything en route to the 49-15 crushing of the Cardinals.
This is a game I know many would love to forget. It is important to know though just how close the Cardinals came just to come up empty. Hopefully the Cardinals remember that feeling all season in 2016 as they chase another ring.
The episode puts closure on the 2015 season. The Cardinals are done. One of the last scenes is we see coach Bruce Arians turning off the lights in his office. So now, we too can turn the lights off. We don’t forget but we move on and march towards the same goal again in 2016.