Packers - Cardinals Top 20 Takeaways

Hail Mary Twice Over

20) A 100-yard pick six was reversed after any number of flags, but only after a solid minute of riveting committee action, and this somehow wasn't one of the biggest plays of the game

19) When you pass protect for this Aaron Rodgers guy, he's a lot better than the guy that kept getting scraped off the turf for the second half of the season

18) Arizona led at the half despite having only 75 yards of offense and no special teams or defensive scores, which is one of the 20 hopelessly unlikely things about this game

17) If this is what it takes to finally get Carson Palmer a playoff win, we don't want to know what has to happen for Marvin Lewis

16) Eddie Lacy's monumentally bitter fantasy owners are glad he didn't score on his 61 yard run in the third quarter

15) Randall Cobb made the greatest catch in NFL history that never happened, then left the game with a chest injury, so, yeah, not really his day or year

14) Just for a change of pace, the officiating was really terrible in this game, because we haven't had any of that this year

13) For the second time today, the home team got absolutely bailed out on a deflected pass

12) Bruce Arians called for a deep fade rather than kill the clock late, because you want to give Rodgers an extra 45 seconds for a tying touchdown drive

11) On 4th and 20, Rodgers completed a 61-yard play to continue the proceedings, which was an utterly insane play that you've never seen before

10) Rather than spike the ball after that play, Rodgers burned an unconscionable amount of clock, just because Great almost always alternated with Stupid in this game

9) The refs in this game were, we are not making this up, unable to flip a coin correctly to begin overtime, which is something that has probably never happened in any football game ever

8) The Hail Mary to tie the game at the end of regulation might have been one of the five best throws in the history of the game, as it was 55 yards in the air, against pressure, against the momentum of his body, and seemingly something that Rodgers does all the damn time now

7) We'd all like to thank Arians for that insane fade call with two minutes left, since we wouldn't get any of the later insanity without it

6) A year ago, everyone was convinced that Larry Fitzgerald was washed up in Arizona, so, um, we all know nothing

5) Rodgers is so good, he nearly won a road playoff game against a #2 seed with nothing but white guy WRs

4) Despite the high comedy of the officiating crew, honestly, probably one of the five best games you've ever seen

3) Larry Fitzgerald Sr. got to cover this game and ask his kid questions about having the best game of his life, while being the best player in franchise history, so, yeah, Larry's dad wins life

2) Packer Fan can grouse about multiple bad ref calls, poor luck on a defection, and the no-possession nature of NFL overtime, but it's not as if their defense made any number of possible picks and stops that might have ended this

1) It's going to be a darn shame when the Cardinals get trucked by the Seahawks-Panthers winner next week