The Arizona Cardinals sealed the second-seed on Sunday with a loss to the Seattle Seahawks
The Arizona Cardinals now know their NFC Divisional Playoff possibilities. The only team to play next weekend and not have a chance to come to Arizona? The Seattle Seahawks. The earliest the teams can face each other again would be the NFC Championship Game.
The Cardinals, by virtue of the Minnesota Vikings victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night to win the NFC North, will face either the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, or Washington Redskins in Glendale. Green Bay goes to Washington and Seattle will go to Minnesota.
Both Green Bay and Minnesota visited Glendale in December. The Cardinals did not see the Redskins in 2015 but will be playing them in Glendale in 2016 based on their first-place finish in the NFC East.
It has been announced that the highest remaining seed will visit Arizona on Saturday January 16th at 6:15 p.m. on NBC. If Seattle beats Minnesota, then the Green Bay-Washington winner will come to Arizona. If Minnesota wins and then Green Bay wins, then Minnesota would come to Arizona. A Minnesota victory and a Washington victory would also mean Minnesota coming to Arizona.
If Seattle does win next week, that means the Packers or Redskins would come here and Seattle goes to face the Carolina Panthers. That would leave the NFC Championship Game either Seattle at Arizona or Arizona at Carolina if the Cardinals survive the NFC Divisional Playoff Game. Got all that?
So in other words the only thing we know for sure is the Cardinals will play Saturday night Jan 16th at home. Other than that, the Cardinals can get back to work and have two good weeks of practice and wait for their next opponents. Cardinals fans can take a deep breath and realize Sunday was just one game and it’s over. On to the playoffs!