Cardinals
said to open his postgame press conference.
It wasn’t Christmas morning, but smiles, laughter and teasing filled the locker room after another remarkable game between the two teams.
Those items have been missing for most of this season, the only losing one in Arians’ four seasons.
“It was just one of those weeks where we felt like we were going to win,” said quarterback Carson Palmer, who is 3-0 in Seattle as the Cardinals’ starter.
Saturday’s victory was the most improbable of the three. At 6-8-1, the Cardinals’ season will end next week in Los Angeles, while the Seahawks (9-5-1) had already clinched the division.
Already down two starters in the secondary, the Cardinals lost safety Tony Jefferson to a knee injury on the game’s first possession. Free safety D.J. Swearinger moved to strong safety and Harlan Miller, a cornerback promoted to the practice squad this week, played free safety.
Miller had never practiced there, but paid attention when secondary coach Nick Rapone said in meetings, “Stay deep.”
“So I stayed deep,” Miller said, smiling.
Right guard Taylor Boggs, who was starting because of injuries, suffered a shoulder injury in the first half and was replaced by Evan Boehm, normally a center.
“Everybody put their hand in the pile,” Arians said. “Every phase had a huge hand in the win.”
Some hands were bigger than others. Running back David Johnson rushed for 95 yards and scored three touchdowns. In the process he set a team record for touchdowns in a season (20) and became the first player in franchise history to gain more than 2,000 yards from scrimmage in a season.
Palmer was excellent again, completing 16 of 26 for 284 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown pass to J.J. Nelson, who has scored in each of the past four games.
The defense sacked Russell Wilson six times, including five in the first half, and limited the Seahawks to three points in two goal-line situations late in the first half.
The special teams were special in a good way, for a change. New punter Matt Wile flipped field position twice. Defensive tackle Rodney Gunter blocked a field goal, and outside linebacker Alex Okafor deflected a punt.
Those blocks might have had something to do with the Seahawks’ Steven Hauschka missing an extra point that would have given his team a 32-31 lead with a minute left.
The Cardinals, who had led by 10 points with less than seven minutes remaining, had one last chance in regulation. Their odds didn’t seem good: one minute and one timeout facing one of the NFL’s best defenses. Overtime here we come? “We need a chunk,” Arians said. “We would like to get 20 (yards) and get a timeout.”
The “chunk” came on second down at the Cardinals’ 38. The Cardinals flanked Johnson as a receiver for one of the few times in the game and got the matchup they wanted: Johnson vs. safety Kam Chancellor. Against that look, Johnson’s assignment was to run a “go” route, but Chancellor started running backward as soon as the ball was snapped.
So Palmer threw short, to Johnson’s back shoulder, and Johnson got out of bounds for a 29-yard gain to the 33-yard line.
“It’s a tough ball for receivers to catch, there’s not many running backs who can make that play,” Palmer said.
An 8-yard pass to Fitzgerald got the Cardinals to the Seattle 25, and with the clock running, the field goal unit rushed on to the field.
Catanzaro, who missed a 53-yard attempt earlier, split the uprights with this one.
“That’s where the ball is supposed to go,” he said.
His kicks haven’t gone there enough this season, one of several reasons the Cardinals have a losing record. Catanzaro missed a 24-yard field goal in overtime against the Seahawks earlier this season.
After his kick on Saturday, Catanzaro stepped a few yards toward the Seattle sideline and stared at the Seahawks, who naturally weren’t thrilled with the gesture.
“Sometimes I just go into blackout mode and whatever happens happens,” he said. “I don’t mean to. It might be (from) my soccer celebrations when I was younger. I really don’t know what I did it.”
The Cardinals were able to smile about such things after. They backed up what they spent last week saying: they would not wilt in Seattle, even if there was little at stake.
“Obviously, we didn’t win as many games as we wanted, but we’re still fighting,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve got pride at stake. As a man, as a competitor, whenever they roll that ball on the field, you’ve got to go.”