By Larry Fitzgerald
Originally posted 1/14/2009
Glendale, Arizona
The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl is held annually in Arizona at the fabulous Glendale state of the art retractable roof and field University of Phoenix Stadium.
It's the home of the NFL's Ariizona Cardinals the defending NFC Champions. The Arizona Cardinals opened defense of their championship with and incredible 51-45 win over the Green Bay Packers in the highest scoring playoff game in NFL history.
It was like watching cheese melt. Green Bay was one of the hottest teams going into the playoffs, winners of seven of their last eight games.
In the future the Packers will likely make certain that yours truly, Larry Fitzgerald Sr stays far away from their games.
I saw the Packers play three times in person in three different cities
this year. They loss all three. Twice to the Vikings 30-23-in Minneapolis 38-26 at Green Bay and Sunday's playoff duel in the dessert.
The Packers had played Arizona twice and had beaten them in both games in the pre-season and regular season. They were certainly confident maybe overly that they had Arizona's number.
Ironically these two organizations have been playing each other a long time, since 1921 the Packers lead the all-time series 44-22-4 including winning the regular season final 33-7 two weeks ago.
This Packers team was something special they were 11-5 and scored 461 points third best in the NFL. And they scored more points than any Packers team in franchise history.
The Packers have won twelve NFL Championships more than any franchise.
In 2009 they led the NFL in several important categories, forcing turnovers (40) and turnover ratio(+24) and they committed the fewest turnovers in the league just(16). Green Bay had the NFL's 6th rated offense and the leagues number 2 rated defensive unit.
The Packers had no intention of losing to the Cardinals who were playing without star receiver Anquan Bolden. The quarterback duel between Kurt Warner and Aaron Rodgers turned out to be spectacular.
Warner was remarkable he completed 29 of 33 passes for 379 yards and five touchdowns."What a great football game These are fun when you win."
Said Warner. Rodgers was pretty good also completing 28-42 for 422 yards 4 touchdowns.
Rodgers Q B rating was 121.3 Warner's was near perfect 154.1.
Warner's performance was surgical. it was the best I've ever seen in covering the NFL playoffs in 30 years.
The Cardinals had 531 yards total offense including 156 rushing.
Beanie Wells was huge in the running game with 91 yards. Green Bay had
493 yards total 90 yards rushing. The combined yards 1024 with 62 first downs between the two teams were and NFL playoff record.
The Cardinals won the turnover margin 3-1. Defensively they played better than Green Bay. NFL teams that win the turnover margin by plus two win 92 percent of the time in the playoffs.
The biggest difference was Rodgers had two turnovers including the game deciding fumble when he was hit in overtime by cornerback back Michael Adams on a blitz and fumbled.
Linebacking star Karlos Dansby caught the fumble and ran 17 yards for the game winning touchdown.
"Destiny smiled on us this time," Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said.
That's probably one of the best games ever played in the playoffs."
Warner was sacked once Rodgers was sacked five times with and interception and fumble.
Both teams featured Heisman Trophy winners cornerback Charles Woodson and Arizona's back-up Q B Matt Leinart.
Packers head coach Mike McCarthy had played football at near by Scottsdale Community College.
Green Bay's Woodson was named the NFL's Defensive Player of The Year.
He's the first Packer to win the honor since the late great Reggie White in 1998.
He' was matched up against Arizona's star receiver Larry Fitzgerald Jr.
Who led all NFL receivers with 13 touchdowns in 2009. Watching this match-up was worth the price of admission. The winner of this match-up likely would win the game.
Fitzgerald swung the balance towards the Cardinals. He won this match-up by creating seams in the Packers defense early running decoy clear out routes that allowed his teammates to exploit the middle of the Packers highly regarded defense.
Steve Breaston was outstanding with 7 receptions for 125 yards and a touchdown. Breatson also ran a reverse for 28 yards. While Early Doucet playing for the injured Bolden had 6 catches for 77 yards and two touchdowns.
Fitz had eight receptions for 82 yards and two touchdowns. Woodson the great player that he is however forced a fumble by Fitzgerald that led to the Packers first score.
Arizona built a 17-0 first quarter lead after two quick Packers turnovers. And built what appeared to be a commanding 31-10 third quarter lead.
But Rodgers brought the Packers back with his performance giving the Packers a chance to steal the game. After Cardinals kicker Neil Rackers badly missed a last second 34 yard field goal. The Packers were in business they won the coin flip and were in position to win before the Cardinals defense reasserted them selves.
