The Arizona Cardinals defeated a very good Jacksonville Jaguars team on Sunday, renewing possible postseason discussions
Let’s be honest here, the Arizona Cardinals are likely not going to be part of the 2017 postseason in the NFL. However after defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday 27-24, it did leave them in the hunt.
The Cardinals are lumped together though with a number of 5-6 and 6-5 teams. A lot would have to happen. Right now the focus should be on one game at a time.
After Sunday’s game, Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians said “don’t bury us yet Bick”. He was referring to azcentral.com writer Dan Bickley who had pretty much buried the Cardinals last week.
With an odd schedule of leaving four of their last six games at home, including three consecutive, the thought is there the Cardinals could still make a run. Even if they were to run the table however and finish 10-6, there are no guarantees.
More from Raising Zona
- Arizona Cardinals: Could Eric Bieniemy come to the desert?
- Would Jonathan Gannon be a good fit for the Arizona Cardinals?
- Arizona Cardinals: Budda Baker right in his take regarding the next coach
- Arizona Cardinals: 3 reasons new coach should want to work with Murray
- Arizona Cardinals special teams could be completely revamped in 2023
The Cardinals arguably played their most complete game of the season on Sunday. All three phases showed up to play in the same game. We had not seen that yet this season.
Even so, there are still things to clean up. They also still have a great deal of injuries to deal with including the newest one in linebacker Deone Bucannon on Sunday.
You never know what could happen. The Cardinals though have pretty much ruled out David Johnson from returning. Maybe Carson Palmer can come back on December 24th against the New York Giants.
If the Cardinals lose one more game though, that talk can go away. Palmer would be shelved for sure and any hopes for sneaking in to the postseason would be dashed.
The Cardinals are currently two games behind the sixth seed Atlanta Falcons. The Cardinals host NFC West leading Los Angeles Rams on Sunday at home. Get by them and then a 6-6 record with the Tennessee Titans and Washington Redskins up next can add some more excitement for any postseason possibilities.
The same effort by all three phases will need to continue to show up in the same game though. There needs to be consistency and we’ve not seen that yet. We can re-visit this after next Sunday’s game.