CARDS DEFENSE SHINES IN WIN OVER VIKINGS

The Arizona Cardinals shut down ‘The Gunslinger’ and looked every bit like a Superbowl level team in beating the Minnesota Vikings 30-17 on Sunday night.  Kurt Warner threw for 285 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in the victory, while the Cards’ defense bottled up both Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson.  After a 1-2 start to the season Arizona has won seven of nine and improved to 8-4 on the year.  The Vikings slipped to 10-2.

NFL football betting enthusiasts who backed Arizona as +3 home underdogs also cashed their tickets with the outright victory.  The Cardinals and Vikings have identical records against the NFL pointspread at 7-4-1.  The 47 combined points scored just managed to stay UNDER the posted total of 48.  Arizona has gone UNDER in the three straight and 8 of 12 games this year.  The Vikings have gone UNDER in four straight and evened their NFL totals mark at 6-6.

After the game, Vikings’ QB Favre gave the Cards their props:

"They played like they were in the Super Bowl last year and we obviously have to play better if we want to be the team that's in the Super Bowl this year."

He also explained away a two interception, two sack performance.  Favre had been intercepted only three times in the first eleven games:

"I made some decisions that I haven't made up to this point and I'm disappointed about it."

Cards’ defensive tackle Darnell Dockett wanted to make sure that everyone knew that his unit came to play:

""It was just physical up front and making the tackle. It was great team tackling. I'm pretty sure everybody is going to talk about what Brett Favre did wrong how Brett did this wrong and that wrong, but not talk about how our defense stood up today. We're going to stay humble, though, because we are going to play that team again."

Echoing Dockett’s call for humility, coach Ken Whisenhunt didn’t exactly crow about the win:

"We had a really good talk last night at the hotel about some of the offensive package things we were going to do. We felt that it was going to be good for us, and it was."

The Cardinals will play their next two games on the road, beginning with a game at San Francisco this Monday night.  Arizona is a -3 point road favorite with the total set at 44.  After that, they’ll head east to play the lowly Detroit Lions before returning home to face the equally inept St. Louis Rams on Sunday, December 27.  The Vikings host the Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday before two straight road games.  Minnesota is a -6’ home favorite with the total set at 43.  They’ll play at Carolina the following Sunday before heading to Chicago for a game on Monday, December 28.