“But it’s good to go in there and make sure you hash it out”. Home-field “advantage?” We’ll see. Not to mention cornerback Quinton Dunbar, who barely played during the regular season, was on the field a lot.
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The Packers can at least count on this: They’ll have plenty of their foam-cheese-head-wearing fans in attendance in the desert, where they appear for road games as much as anywhere.
The Cardinals and Packers squared off once already this season, with Arizona sacking Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers eight times – en route to a 38-8 win that clinched a first-round bye in the postseason.
“I talked a lot the last couple weeks about being able to turn it on, and a lot of you probably thought that was lip service”, Rodgers said.
“I hadn’t had a guy like him”, Freeney said.
The Redskins (9-8) certainly could recognize why they fell to Green Bay (11-6) after building an early 11-0 lead, and also going ahead 18-17 in the third quarter. Eddie Lacy and James Starks each scored for the Packers. The Packers’ defense allows only 84 rushing yards and plummets the Washington offense into ineptitude on its last five possessions of the game, which went this way – punt, punt, ball over on downs three times.
Green Bay’s offensive explosion in its 35-18 playoff victory over quick-starting Washington at FedEx Field won’t erase the memories of those 10 games where it was stuck in the mud, nor will it guarantee a similar offensive outburst in the Packers’ do-over Saturday night at Arizona, but it did make everyone happy for a while.
The onus is on the defense, though, against a prolific Cardinals team that averaged more than 30 points per game behind the finest of Carson Palmer’s 13 seasons in the NFL. In the receiving end, Larry Fitzgerald had 1,215 receiving yards and nine touchdowns in 109 receptions. Still, though, they looked pretty great after a slow start in a throttling of the NFC East champion Redskins on the road on Sunday. Maclin still has a sprained ankle, but it’s hoped he can appear next week when they play the Patriots in New England.
Green Bay Packers offense huddles up during the first quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. Russell Wilson was sacked four times that day by a defense that ranked sixth in the league and first in the NFC with 44 sacks this season, but the protection down the stretch was much better as Wilson flourished with the best passing performances of his stellar career. Losing running back Chris Johnson was a huge blow, but that hasn’t stopped their ground game. That includes a pair of losses to the San Francisco 49ers, one to the Seattle Seahawks in last year’s NFC Championship Game and one against Arizona in overtime the year after the Cardinals went to the Super Bowl with Kurt Warner under center. Winning big has been more of a mirage for the Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals. Cam Newton made a strong case for the NFL MVP award, totaling 45 touchdowns and adding some flamboyant end zone dances.
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That said, if looks mean anything, Rodgers looked like he was having fun, he looked like he believes in his teammates again, and, he looked like a man capable of doing what he’s already done in 2010 and that is lead this team to the Super Bowl.
