The Arizona Cardinals offense was more than impressive in their 51-45 win over the Packers in the Wild Card round, but their defense was very weak.  They did get a great defensive play to win the game, but they gave up 45 points.  The Packers had a good offense, but they don’t have the weapons that the New Orleans Saints have.  The Saints have lost three straight going into this game, and they didn’t score more than 24 points in any of those games.  These are the playoffs though, so I am expecting the Saints to be much sharper in this game against the Cardinals.  They averaged 404 total yards per game this season, and they have a great quarterback in Drew Brees.  Brees has a great running game to go to as well, using three different running backs that gave the Saints an a rushing average of 132 yards per game.  This is going to be a very tough matchup for the Cardinals defense.

Kurt Warner has proven he is one of the best postseason quarterbacks ever and his 379 yard, 5 touchdown performance last week was amazing.  He had more touchdowns than he did incomplete passes (4).  The Saints defense is nothing spectacular too, so Warner should be able to find a lot of success.  They held teams to 235 passing yards per game in the regular season, but I expect Warner to easily surpass that with Larry Fitzgerald to throw to.  Anquan Boldin also may be able to suit up, giving Warner another huge weapon to go to.  The Cardinals ran the ball well against the Packers too, and with the Saints giving up 122 rushing yards per game they should continue a strong running game.  They are definitely going to need another huge game out of their offense, since I don’t see the Cardinals defense slowing down the Saints enough.  It could be another exciting, high-scoring affair but I think the Saints will be too much for the Cardinals to keep up with the whole game and I’m taking the Saints by a touchdown.

PREDICTION:  Arizona Cardinals 31, New Orleans Saints 38

The Arizona Cardinals decided to rest their starters against the Green Bay Packers last week, and they were blown out 33-7 because of it.  We will see if the extra rest paid off for the Cardinals in their rematch against the Packers this weekend in the NFC Wild Card game.  The Cardinals got hot at the right time last year, winning the NFC Championship and making a trip to the Super Bowl.  They are looking to get hot again in this year’s playoffs, and the offense should be able to find success and get on the right track against the Packers.  They have a great quarterback in Kurt Warner, who has two huge weapons in the passing game with All-Pro wide-receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin.  The Packers have a very solid defense though, giving up only 284 yards per game this season.  They are great at stopping the run, so if Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower can get some things going in the running game it would be huge for Warner and the passing game.  It’s not likely they will rack up that many rushing yards though, so Warner will have to do most of the work with his arm.

The Cardinals defense will be facing a very good quarterback in Aaron Rodgers.  Rodgers has a great season this year, throwing for 4,434 yards, 30 touchdowns, and only 7 interceptions.  He completed 65% of his passes and has a very strong arm.  He also gets a lot of help from his running backs, with the Packers averaging 118 rushing yards this season.  The big weakness for the Packers is their pass protection, as they gave up 50 sacks this season.  The Cardinals front line should have some opportunities to get to Rodgers and they need to make the most of them.  If the Cardinals can’t slow Rodgers down, they will likely lose the game.  I want to go with the former NFC Champs in this game, but with Rodgers playing so well and the Packers coming off a big win over the Cardinals, I am going with the Packers in this game.

PREDICTION:  Arizona Cardinals 24, Green Bay Packers 27

The Arizona Cardinals (10-5) and Green Bay Packers (10-5) are facing off on Sunday and it looks like it will be a preview of the first round of the playoffs.  Both teams have clinched a spot in the playoffs, and it is very likely that the NFC West champion Cardinals will be playing the Wild Card Packers in the first round.  The Cardinals have an outside shot of getting a bye, but a lot of things need to happen including a tie between the Cowboys and Eagles so it is very unlikely.  That means Ken Whisenhunt may be resting his starters, especially the 38-year-old Kurt Warner.  Whisenhunt has not really said whether or not he will be resting his starters, so I am expecting them to play a decent amount.  Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, and Anquan Boldin have had success all season in the passing game, but they would like some help from Beanie Wells, Tim Hightower, and the rest of the Cardinals’ running game that averages just 96 rushing yards per game.

The Packers have a pretty good offense, which is led by their talented young quarterback Aaron Rodgers.  Rodgers has done very well for the Packers after replacing Brett Favre last season, and has passed for over 4,000 yards for the second straight season.  That means the Cardinals secondary needs to be ready for a lot of passing plays and they cannot get beat deep.  Rodgers has a very strong arm and is a good quarterback, so the Packers do have the ability to keep up with Warner and the Cardinals offense.  The Cardinals defense will really need to step up.  The Packers have a solid running game too, so the Cardinals need to hold the Packers under the 113 yard average they are giving up on the ground.  Although the Cardinals have clinched the NFC West, they cannot afford to have a let-down going into the playoffs and need to get hot like they did last year which brought them to the Super Bowl.  With an older team, Whisenhunt will likely rest them some though, so I will give the Packers a slight edge.

PREDICTION:  Arizona Cardinals 28, Green Bay Packers 31

The Lions are really banged up coming into this game so the Cardinals should try to break their will early in this game.  The Lions are allowing 272.1 yards passing per game and opposing QBs have a 108.8 rating against them this year.  That means that Kurt Warner will be throwing the ball a lot to Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Steve Breaston and Tim Hightower.  The Cardinals will also likely pound the ball on the ground with Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower after they get a comfortable lead. 

The Cardinals should double cover Calvin Johnson from the second he comes out of the locker-room until the game is over as he is the only Lions player on offense that can hurt the Cardinals.  The Cardinals will likely blitz a lot in this game to force Daunte Culpepper into making mistakes.  The Lions will be without Kevin Smith in this game as he is out for the year with a knee injury so the Cardinals won’t have to respect the running game of the Lions.

PREDICTION:  CARDINALS 34, LIONS 10

The Arizona Cardinals (8-4) are coming off their best defensive performance and will be looking to continue that strong play Monday night against the San Francisco 49ers (5-7).  The 49ers beat the Cardinals in the season opener, but the Cardinals are a much better team at this point of the season.  They are third in the league in sacks, so the defense will be able to get a lot of pressure on 49ers’ quarterback Alex Smith.  If they can rattle Smith around, then the 49ers wont have much of a chance.  They held Adrian Peterson to 19 yards on 13 carries, so they shouldn’t have a problem Frank Gore.

On offense, the Cardinals have been clicking very well.  Kurt Warner has two great weapons to throw to in Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, and he has had little problems finding both of them for big plays.  The 49ers give up 250 passing yards per game, so Warner and company should be able to air it out all night.  They aren’t particularly good at stopping the run either, so Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower should help carry some of the offensive load.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Arizona Cardinals 34, San Francisco 49ers 24