The Pulse: Fans say Arizona Cardinals won’t get to Super Bowl if they don’t win division
Dec 25, 2014, 7:42 PM | Updated: 7:42 pm
The Arizona Cardinals’ hopes of winning the NFC West division are hanging by a thread after being blown out at home by the Seattle Seahawks.
Although the Cardinals still boast a rock-solid record of 11-4, their Super Bowl hopes are increasingly precarious, as Seattle is poised to win the division and earn itself home-field advantage and a first-round bye.
With those scenarios in mind, we asked in our latest Sanderson Ford Poll Question of the Day, which can be found in the right-hand column of our home page, if fans think Arizona can still advance to the Super Bowl without winning the NFC West.
Winning the division is not a foregone conclusion, but the Cardinals would have to beat San Francisco on the road with rookie Logan Thomas starting under center, and the Seahawks — who are 6-1 at home — would have to lose to the 6-9 St. Louis Rams at CenturyLink Field. The chances of both happening are quite slim.
We gave readers two options in the poll, and they resoundingly said failing to win the NFC West would effectively crush the Cardinals’ Super Bowl XLIX hopes. Out of 1,050 people who voted, exactly 800 (76 percent) clicked on “No; winning 3 road games is too much to ask.”
That means that 250 people (24 percent) said the team has some Super Bowl aspirations left, as they answered “Yes; they’ve overcome adversity all season.”
At the moment, Arizona tentatively is slated to face the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas, in the first round of the playoffs. If the Cardinals were to upset their first- and second-round opponents on the road, there’s actually a small chance they could host the NFC Championship Game. For that to happen, whichever team wins the lowly NFC South would have to win its first two playoff games in order to play in the conference championship game in Glendale.
Also, keep in mind that the Super Bowl would be a home game this season for the Cardinals if they were to advance that far. However, as you saw in the poll results, fans aren’t too optimistic about that situation becoming reality.
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