Team Giants

Giants - Cardinals Game 11 preview

Giants (9-1) vs Cardinals (7-3).
The Cardinals did much better at Seattle in their game last Sunday than they did last year when Kurt Warner was sacked five times and five of his passes became interceptions in a 42-21 loss. In fact, the Cardinals were up 26-7 entering the fourth quarter but then they committed two turnovers that led to Seahawk touchdowns. Suddenly the score was 26-20 with nearly 10 minutes remaining at noise deafening Qwest Field. They held on to win when Matt Hasselbeck threw his second interception with 2 minutes left.
Last week the Giants showed they could run on any team, including the Baltimore Ravens who came into the game with the league's best rushing defense. The Giants 30-10 win over the Ravens at Giants Stadium gave them a 6-0 home record and an NFC conference-best record of 9-1.

The Cardinals.
They are not known to be a power house football team. In fact, their win last week that puts them at 7-3 was their third in a row for their longest winning streak in six years. That's startling for them because if you go back to 2002, the year they became an NFC West team, their yearly win column looks like this: 5, 4, 6, 5, 5, and 8. More startling is the Cardinals have amassed 7 wins with 6 games still left to go. Add to that, the Cards lead their division with San Francisco a distant second, owning just 3 wins, and the 49ers have already lost twice this year to the leader of this pack.

Kurt Warner - With the Giants.
With the Giants in 2004, Kurt was known for hanging onto the ball a bit too long while trying to be completely certain of his targets. That led to Warner being sacked 39 times even though he started in just 9 games and had only 277 passing attempts in the season. You have to go back to 1999 where Kent Graham and Kerry Collins shared the season totals. They combined for 42 sacks, but together they worked at throwing over 300 more passes than Kurt (602). Overall Kurt Warner was 5-4 as a starter with the Giants, and his last start ended in a 17-14 loss to Arizona where he was sacked 6 times. Eli Manning became the starter for the rest of the season and he won only his last game for a 1-6 record.

Kurt Warner - Now.
The good news is that Kurt Warner passed for more than 300 yards (395) for a fourth consecutive game, which is a franchise record, but he wasn't exactly blameless for that close game last week. Kurt committed two turnovers, an interception and a fumble early in the fourth quarter that gave the Seahawks the ball at the 14. They scored five plays later to close the game to within six points. So far this season Kurt has been sacked 18 times, and fumbled seven times with five being lost, which puts him tied for the second-most in the league. That's the downside to Kurt Warner and he's had that fumble problem for a long while now. He has cut down on his interceptions having thrown just 7 this year.

Cardinals Offense.
As Tom Coughlin put it when talking about this offense, "The numbers are outstanding. The quarterback is at 70 percent (completion rate). The two receivers have caught 60-some balls; one at 48 (third receiver Steve Breaston) - all kinds of numbers." Tom's right. Warner has the league's best passer rating (105.5) and has thrown 20 touchdowns, mostly to physical receivers Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald. This week he'll have to make that passing act work against a tough blitzing defense that makes quarterbacks pay big time for holding onto the ball too long. The Cardinals rushing game is way below average, ranked 29th in rushing yards a game (86.9) and their per-carry average of 3.4 yards is last in the NFL. Their best shot is putting the Giants secondary to the test and cornerbacks Aaron Ross (NFC defensive player of the week last week) and Corey Webster will be busy.

Cardinals Defense.
University of Phoenix Stadium is a nice place to throw passes. Just ask Kurt Warner, and hey wait Eli Manning too. His 13-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds left gave the Giants a Super Bowl win not too long ago in this same stadium. The Cardinals have a 16th ranked pass defense that gives up an average 210 yards a game. Their run defense is stronger, ranked 7th, and gives up about 90 yards a game. Brandon Jacobs and Plaxico Burress are both hurting, but the Giants have good depth at both positions. The Giants will likely test the Cards stronger ground defense first as they did with the Ravens last week. That has been their winning formula and barring more injuries, there's not much reason to change that.

A win means.
A Cardinals win means that they can lose all the rest of their games and only San Francisco can edge them out in the division by winning all their remaining games. If the Giants win, it will give them a 7-0 in conference record.

NFC East.
On Sunday at 1:00PM, the Eagles (5-4-1) play at Baltimore (6-4) and the Cowboys (6-4) host San Francisco (3-7). The Redskins (6-4) play at Seattle (2-8) at the same time as the Giants. All the NFC East teams except the Eagles are favored to win their games.

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Notes.
Cardinals Kurt Warner has 17  300-yard passing games with the Cardinals.
That puts him at two behind Neil Lomax's franchise record.

Cardinals Kurt Warner's 50 fumbles since 2004 leads the NFL.

Cardinals have swept their road division games for the first time since 1968.

Cardinals can clinch their first division title since 1975 with a win, and a loss by both San Francisco and Seattle.

Cardinals are 7-3 for the first time since 1977, when they were in St. Louis.

Cardinals have a short week and will play at Philadelphia on Thursday.

Cardinals 7 game home win streak is their longest since 1925 when they were the Chicago Cardinals (9 straight).

Next Game
Nov. 30 Giants at Washington at 1:00PM.
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Dec. 7 Eagles at Giants at 1:00PM.
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