One week ago, FOX NFL analyst Jimmy Johnson — a man who should know what he’s talking about considering he owns titles at both the college and pro levels — said the Arizona Cardinals were done.
Like “stick-a-fork-in-them” done. After one loss to a 49ers team that appears to be a contender in the NFC West. And just a few months after coming within a few plays of winning the Super Bowl. Seemed a little early to us, but we also don’t have championship rings or magnificently coiffed hair.
Just a few days after Johnson let that odd opinion slip, Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner set an NFL record for completion percentage when he hit on 24 of 26 passes (92.3 percent) and led his team to a 31-17 win at Jacksonville. Oops! Maybe FOX can bench Johnson next week for terrible analysis.
The 38-year-old Warner had 243 passing yards and a pair of touchdowns with no turnovers. Yes, Jacksonville rallied late to make a game of it after trailing 31-3 late in the third quarter. But that came after Warner left as a precaution with a sore shoulder. The lesson there for the Cardinals? Don’t — under any circumstances — play backup Matt Leinart.
Meanwhile, as the Cardinals celebrated on the road, a noted NFL knucklehead took that idea to a new level. Cincinnati wide receiver Chad Ochocinco had tweeted that he would perform his own version of the “Lambeau Leap” if he scored a touchdown in his team’s game at Green Bay. He did exactly that on a go-ahead score with 1 minute, 9 seconds left in the third quarter — albeit cheating by finding two Bengals fans in the front row.
That probably was a good idea considering network television cameras caught some Packers fans delivering a middle-fingered message of their own. Cincinnati held on for a 31-24 victory to erase the sour taste of last week’s last-second miracle loss to Denver.
