The Story of the 2015 Arizona Cardinals

Photo Credit: azcentral.com

The 2015 season for the Arizona Cardinals was a trying journey of mountain top successes and bottom-of-the-valley disappointment. Entering the season with an MVP-caliber quarterback, deep offensive and defensive talent, and Super Bowl aspirations, Arizona lived up to the hype and their expectations all the way until a fateful weekend in January.

Arizona started the season 4-2. The four victories were by margins of 12, 25, 40, and 25 points against the New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears, San Francisco 49ers, and Detroit Lions, respectively. The two losses were to the under-performing St. Louis Rams, and the Landry Jones and Michael Vick-led Pittsburgh Steelers. So through six games, the Cardinals had performed reasonably well, but not to their full potential.

Then they went on a tear. Starting with a 26-18 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football in Week 7, the Cardinals went on a 9-game wining streak. Their victims included the Cleveland Browns (34-20), Seattle Seahawks (39-32), Cincinnati Bengals (34-31), 49ers (19-13), Rams (27-3), Minnesota Vikings (23-20), Philadelphia Eagles (40-17) and Green Bay Packers (38-8).

Heading into the last week of the season with a 13-2 record, facing off against their division rival Seahawks, Arizona had already clinched the 2nd-seed in the division and a first-round bye in the playoffs. With nothing to play for except a little momentum, Arizona was down 30-6 at halftime. Carson Palmer was pulled, and little else happened before a 36-6 final score.

The Division Round of the playoffs between the Cardinals and Packers featured one of the greatest end-of-game sequences in professional sports history. You can read/watch a recap of all the excitement at NFL.com. In the end, Arizona pulled out a dramatic overtime victory to move on to the Conference Championship Game.

In a game that should have been equally exciting, two of the best offenses in the league going up against strong defenses, with talent at every turn, the game turned into a dud. Carolina took a 17-0 lead in the 1^st quarter, and held a 34-7 lead going into the 4^th, before completing a 49-15 rout to move on to the Super Bowl. Arizona was left to think about what could have been.

Bright spots from an individual standpoint abounded. Carson Palmer finished with 4,671 yards, 35 touchdowns, and a 105.6 quarterback rating, earning one of the two MVP votes that did not go to Cam Newton. Larry Fitzgerald had his first 1,000 yard performance in four years, finishing with 1,215 yards and nine touchdowns on 109 receptions. John Brown also joined the millennium mark, with 1,003 yards and seven touchdowns on 65 catches.

Running back David Johnson had over 1,000 yards from scrimmage (581 rushing, 457 receiving), and receiver Michael Floyd contributed 849 receiving yards and six touchdowns of his own. All this and more combined to give Arizona the number one offense in total yards, and the second-highest scoring team in the league.

The defense gave up the 8^th-fewest points and 5^th-fewest yards while creating the 2^nd-most turnovers (33, behind only Carolina’s 39) in the league. Tyrann Mathieu and Rashad Johnson tied for the team lead with 5 interceptions, though Mathieu was far and away the leader with 17 passes defended. And 35-year old Dwight Freeney led the team with eight sacks.

Arizona looks to build on the successes of last year and use their failures to fuel improvement heading into this season.