Arizona Cardinals: Top 3 match ups to watch vs. Carolina

The Arizona Cardinals travel to North Carolina on Saturday to take on the Carolina Panthers in the NFC Championship game.

The Arizona Cardinals are arguably playing their biggest game of the season against the NFL’s best team, the Carolina Panthers, in the NFC Championship. The team will be ready to compete regardless of time zone difference or weather conditions thanks to head coach Bruce Arians. However there are several factors in this game that will be the difference between a trip to California for the Super Bowl and a trip back to Arizona. Here are the top 3 match ups to keep an eye on during the game.

1. Drew Butler vs. Panthers Special Teams

To be honest, I am not a fan of Drew Butler. I rooted for Dave Zastudil to win his job back this preseason. Drew Butler in my opinion is one of the worst, if not the worst punters in the league. At the end of the regular season, Butler ranked 31st in punting average with 42.9 per punt.

You may or not remember, but in Arizona’s playoff game last year against Carolina, Drew Butler played very poorly. In his defense, the team overall played poorly, but Butler had plenty of opportunities to change field positions in the Cardinals favor. In that game, Butler punted the ball 9 times for a total of 313 yards. His longest punt was 52 yards and ended the game with an average of 34.8 and only one punt landing inside the 20.

The best case for the Arizona Cardinals is that Drew Butler is on the bench. This most likely means that the offense is moving the chains and are scoring points. However, it is unlikely the Arizona Cardinals will be able to prevent Butler from seeing the field. Butler has had a less than memorable season and had a poor outing in his game at Bank of America, if there’s any better time for him to prove his worth, it’s Sunday.