Arizona Cardinals: All or Nothing, Episode 5
By Scott Allen
Amazon’s all-access series All or Nothing featuring the Arizona Cardinals and their journey in 2015
The Arizona Cardinals have reached December football. As we know all too well as fans, December football can make or break you in a hurry.
The Cardinals start the month off on the road against the St. Louis Rams. The new starter at running back is David Johnson. Chris Johnson is out for the rest of the regular season and can’t return until the Super Bowl.
The Cardinals however didn’t miss a beat. They went into St. Louis and took care of business. They defeated the Rams 27-3. As a fan it was nice to re-live the breather the Cardinals had versus some of the close ones they had played the previous two weeks, all against division rivals.
One wrinkle though this time. This will be a short week between games. The Cardinals have a game four days later at home against the Minnesota Vikings.
In between games we get a look at center Lyle Sendlein and his family. Lyle’s father is a firefighter in Phoenix.
We move on to the Thursday Night Football game and it is a struggle at times. VIkings running back Adrian Peterson got off to a hot start but then was shut down for most of the rest of the evening.
The Cardinals avoided a loss thanks to linebacker Dwight Freeney. Freeney’s trademark spin move got to quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and caused him to fumble on the potential game-tying or game-winning drive. The Cardinals win 23-20.
Now the Cardinals find themselves with a nice 10 day break before the next game in Philadelphia. The video crew takes us inside coach Bruce Arians Christmas party. Who is there? None other than Dr. Jesse McGuire. McGuire as you remember is the trumpet player who the local teams have used for national anthems. McGuire played the anthem in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series featuring the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees.
Next up is the Eagles game in Philadelphia on Sunday Night Football. It ends up being a bittersweet game. It was the coming out party for David Johnson but it is also the game in which the Cardinals lose safety Tyrann Mathieu to another torn ACL. The hope is he is ready to play again by the middle of training camp in 2016.
The Cardinals though get another important victory. It is their eighth in a row, 40-17, and they win the NFC West. Their ultimate goal however has not been reached. They still have five more games in their words. Two regular season games and three playoff games to win it all. Never a thought enters the minds they won’t get there.