10 greatest moments in the Cardinals career of Larry Fitzgerald

4. Fitzgerald’s 100th TD catch and all the other crazy catches he made

In week 1 of the 2016 season, the Arizona Cardinals took on New England Patriots on Sunday Night Football. It had been a long time since the team played in primetime week 1, so this game had amplified meaning. Arizona had just been throttled in the NFC Championship earlier that year, and they were looking to prove that they were still one of the top teams in the conference.

Late in the fourth quarter, Carson Palmer threw a great ball on a fade route to Larry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald out-battled CB Logan Ryan for a ball that seemed to hang in the air forever. This was Fitzgerald’s 100th career TD catch, and it’s arguably one of his most forgotten moments.

Why is that? The team choked and let the Patriots hit a game-winning field goal to win, and the score ended up being 23-21. It should’ve been an easy win as the then-relatively unknown Jimmy Garoppolo was starting for Tom Brady (suspension). It was Garoppolo’s first start in the league, and ironic now that he wound up in San Francisco to continue playing Arizona.

Other big-time moments are his hail mary catch before halftime against the 49ers, and this absolute miracle on a 3rd and 23 on the road in Green Bay, which the Cardinals won and basically is the reason why Mike McCarthy is now in Dallas. A final honorable mention is the two best blocks he ever threw, one against the Vikings and the other when he lit up a prime trash-talking Richard Sherman.

Larry could do it all, and it’s going to be a long time until we see anyone block at the receiver position the way he did.