Cardinals clinch playoffs, as Vikings fumble away chance to tie

The Arizona Cardinals clinched a playoff berth on Thursday as they hung on for dear life with a 23-20 win over the Minnesota Vikings.

The victory was clinched as the Vikings were driving to tie the game in the final seconds. Teddy Bridgwater had played his best game of the season, but the Vikings let him down by mismanaging the final few plays of the game. Instead of opting to kick a potential game-tying field goal on second down with 13 seconds left, the Vikings ran a nada play and then were strip-sacked on third down as the Cardinals recovered.

It was a deep-breath victory for the Cardinals, who will play in January but still have their sights set on winning the NFC West. This game against the Vikings — down three key defensive starters — was too close for comfort. But Carson Palmer delivered a big game with two long TD passes and 310 pass yards and the defense made just enough key stops.

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This game pinged and ponged back and forth all night, with the Cardinals having just enough. But the Vikings made some curious calls at key junctures that hurt their chances of winning.

The opening series was all Cardinals, and they might have been lucky on a replay (which cost the Vikings a timeout) that appeared to show Jaron Brown fumble inside the 5-yard line. But Palmer’s pass to David Johnson at the 1 was a little behind him; he couldn’t haul it in and the Cardinals settled for a field goal and a 3-0 lead.

The Vikings responded with a terrific mix of power runs and play-action and bootleg pass plays to march down the field in terrific fashion. The drive was capped with Adrian Peterson’s 100th career touchdown — a pretty romp through the heart of the Cardinals’ defense — and a 7-3 Vikings lead. 

The Cardinals struck right back. Palmer hit John Brown on what looked to be a slightly broken play against a broken Vikings coverage — and Brown raced 65 yards down the right sideline for a 10-7 Cardinals lead, seesawing the game back.

After a fumble by the Vikings’ Jairus Wright after another promising drive, the Cardinals looked to tack onto their lead. But after moving into field-goal range, a Danielle Hunter sack of Palmer knocked them out.

The Vikings moved right back down the field with the first half ticking away, as a hot Teddy Bridgewater — 11 of 14 passing for 162 yards in the first half — connected on some confident, accurate throws behind a Vikings offensive line that gave him time to operate. It appeared they’d get multiple shots at getting in the end zone, but the drive ended with a sack and a Blair Walsh field goal to tie it at 10-10 at the half.

But the second half wasn’t as kind to the Vikings, who showed their wear, shorthanded in the short week. Peterson was hit in the backfield, attempting to pitch to Mike Wallace on a gadget play and fumbled, recovered by the Cardinals. There’s no question this stunted the Vikings’ second-half momentum, even though they later would regain it.

The Cardinals wasted no time marching back down the field, and in similar form to the Brown touchdown, Palmer hit Michael Floyd — with a nice escort from blocker Larry Fitzgerald — for a 42-yard score down the right side and a 17-10 Cardinals lead.

Midway through the third, another turning point: Vikings corner Xavier Rhodes dropped a sure pick-six from Palmer, a would-be game-changer, and the Cardinals converted a 4th and 1 later on the drive. It appeared that Johnson scored his 10th touchdown of the season and was ruled so initially, but replay showed him to be down at the 2-yard line. A goal-line stand forced the Cardinals to settle for a field goal and a 20-10 edge at the start of the fourth quarter.

After a short Vikings drive and a 54-yard field goal from Walsh cut it to 20-13, Bridgewater delivered his biggest drive of the season. Starting at his own 12-yard line, Bridgewater completed 4 of 6 passes for 78 yards and took shots from Xavier Williams and Calais Campbell. Bridgewater found a wide-open Mike Wallace for the score to tie the game at 20-20 with just under five minutes left.

Palmer found Floyd for 22 yards, then gained 10 on a fluky deflected pass that ended up in the hands of offensive guard Mike Iupati. After two Vikings timeouts and the Cardinals stalling, they settled for a Chandler Catanzaro field goal and a 23-20 lead with 1:28 left.

Bridgewater connected on four big passes in the final minute-plus, including a 22-yarder to Wright to put the Vikings in field-goal range. But they opted to run an additional play — a pass because they had no timeouts remaining — and Bridgewater, double-pumping on the pass, took was sacked by Dwight Freeney with seconds remaining, the ball came loose and Campbell fell on it to earn the playoff-clinching win.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm