The Cardinals looked like the team they were last January last night as they dominated the Vikings.  Kurt Warner was very effective last night completing 22 of 32 passes for 285 yards with 3 TD passes and 0 INTs.  Tim Hightower carried the ball 6 times for 50 yards (8.3 ypc) but he also lost a fumble.  Beanie Wells carried the ball 13 times for 28 yards (2.2 ypc) last night.  Larry Fitzgerald was outstanding last night as he caught 8 passes for 143 yards (17.9 avg) with 1 TD grab.  Anquan Boldin also was electric with 7 grabs for 98 yards (14.0 avg) with 2 TD grabs.  Steve Breaston didn’t get the ball much but he made a huge impact in the game.  He carried the ball 1 time for 19 yards, caught 1 pass for 8 yards and he returned 2 punts for 71 yards last night.  The Cardinals finished up with 398 total yards on offense (113 rushing, 285 passing) in this game.

Linebacker Karlos Dansby led a solid effort by the Cardinals last night with 8 tackles, 1 pass defensed and 1 interception.  The Vikings finished up with 315 total yards on offense (62 rushing, 253 passing) in this game.  The Cardinals are now 8-4 on the season as they now have a three game lead in the NFC West.

This will be a fantastic game to watch if Kurt Warner can play.  If not, this game could get ugly quickly for the Cardinals.  The Cardinals have 32 sacks this season and they must put pressure on Brett Favre or he will slice them apart on Sunday Night.  The hard thing about blitzing Favre a lot as he has been throwing to his backs and TEs a lot when the pressure comes.  Blitzing is also playing with fire against the Vikings because of Adrian Peterson’s ability to go the distance as soon as he gets past the second level of the D.  The Cardinals are giving up 4.5 yards per carry and 108.6 yards rushing so far this season for Peterson should find a lot of running room against them.  If the Cardinals get pulled up closer to the line, Brett Favre will go over the top to Percy Harvin and Sidney Rice against a Cards’ D that is allowing 258.3 yards passing per game this year.

No matter who is playing QB for the Cardinals the O-Line will have to keep DE Jared Allen away from them as he has 12.5 sacks already this year.  He not only sacks the QB, he loves taking the football away from them.  Cardinals’ WRs will have to pay the price by catching short passes to negate the Vikings’ pass rush.  The good thing about that for the Cards is that Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston are all good runners after the catch.  The Vikings are allowing 221.9 yards passing per game so the Cardinals should have some success throwing the ball as long as the QB has time to toss it.  The Cardinals have to also mix in some runs with Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower which would also help to slow the pass rush of the Vikings.

PREDICTION:  With Warner starting for the Cards:  VIKINGS 30, CARDINALS 27    With Leinart starting:  VIKINGS 35, CARDINALS 13