One of the things that I find rather annoying and obnoxious are fans who think it's more important to be "right" about when their team loses than to have hope that their team will win. I'm going to take on the (admittedly, daunting) task of giving you hope that the Packers can beat the Cardinals Saturday night.

My multi-formula driven rankings say the Cardinals are the 4th best team in the NFL with the Packers being the 7th.

The final score of the game was Cardinals 38 - Packers 8.

Still not feeling the hope, are ya?

Quickly going over last game, the Packers could have closed the half by making the score 7 - 10 or at worse 3 - 10, but a bad decision by Aaron Rodgers gave the Cardinals the ball and they drove 80 yards with 7 plays in 0:51. Result was 0 - 17 at halftime. And on the first play of the second half James Starks fumbles and of course Cardinals go 28 yards in 2 plays to put it 0 - 24. That was ballgame. It was over even with 29 minutes left to play.

If not for the offense having brain fart after brain fart, the defense really gave up just 10 points when they didn't have their backs against the wall.

This isn't an excuse because evidence shows only three teams (Patriots, Seahawks and Chiefs) had fewer giveaways during the season than the Packers. In other words, the Packers play out of character, big time.

Tidbits
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Cardinals lost twice as many at home as they did on the road. 😎

Redskins were 9th (tied) in takeaways.

Redskins finished the season as the 17th ranked defense. (Obviously, not great, but clearly not terrible)

Redskins put up 35, 38 and 34 points in their final three regular season games.

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West Coast Christmas
Consider that the Packers just played out on the West Coast the week prior against Raiders on December 20th. Mike McCarthy gave the Packers off on a day they normally practice due to Christmas and then had to travel all the way back to the West Coast. This is more of an excuse than a reason, I admit that, but it still is something that adds up. You can't play a team like the Cardinals ill-prepared and that's something to be acknowledged.

Left Tackle
Even if we do not get David Bakhtiari back, we should all feel more comfortable having JC Tretter manning left tackle than Don Barclay who let people by him so efficiently turnstiles were worried about being replaced by cardboard cutouts of his likeness.

No Tight End
The Achilles heel's for the Packers defense is a mobile tight end which Panthers have and Cardinals do not. Get this, the Cardinals tight end grades at 67.9 and Packers Richard Rodgers grades at 74.3.

Sam Shields
Cardinals primary offensive weapons are perimeter guys and the strength of the Packers is their secondary. You add in Sam Shields and how the front seven has played and this could be a long game for the Cardinals who have 24 turnovers this season.



Before I end this, I'll add a short video of McCarthy/Rodgers, a graphic I made last night and inquire upon you, ... do you have hope?