The last time the Arizona Cardinals won a playoff game was in 1998. The last time they won a home playoff game, let alone hosted one? 1947, as the then-Chicago Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC-championship game.(Would that be a sign of things to come later on?)
The Cardinals 30-24 victory over Matt Ryan's Atlanta Falcons marked just the third time the Cardinals won a playoff game in the history of their franchise, and the first home playoff victory in 61 years.
Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner continued his current resurrection, going 19-for-32 with 271 yards and two touchdowns, one of which was a 42-yard touchdown pass off a flea-flicker to Larry Fitzgerald who made the catch in double-coverage. The other was a 71-yard touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin, who would miss the rest of the game after that with a hamstring injury. The game was Warner's eighth career playoff game and just his fifth throwing for at least two touchdowns.
"We're a work in progress and we know that." said Warner after the game. "If you can show up for three or four Sundays then you can win it all."
The Cardinals outgained the Falcons 174 yards to a mere 61 yards through the entire second half.
Although Warner has won it all before in his first season as a starter with St. Louis, then was close to winning it all again, but lost to Tom Brady and New England. Then he simply stopped winning for a while.
Arizona just simply hasn't won... in a long while.
Despite his struggles in recent seasons, Warner played 2008 as if he was back in 1999. He threw for 4,583 yards with 30 touchdowns and had a quarterback rating of 96.9.
Warner is still unsure about his status for 2009, but if this is his last year, it was one hell of a ride.
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