2016 was supposed to be the year. The Cardinals lost in the NFC Championship game last season and were just a few key pieces away from reaching the Super Bowl. In the off-season, general manager Steve Keim came up with the steal of the year, acquiring Chandler Jones for a second round pick and guard Jonathan Cooper. The addition of Jones has had the expected impact on the defense, but it has not translated into wins. The Arizona Cardinals are a frustrating 4-5-1 despite the fact that they have the number one overall defense. Their dismal record has taken their playoffs chances out of their hands, but there is still a possibility.
Arizona Cardinals Playoff Relationship Status: It’s Complicated
ESPN has unveiled their 2016 Playoff Machine. Last year Cardinals fans obsessed over the tool, trying to figure out how to bounce the Carolina Panthers out of the top seed. This season, Arizona faithful will be trying to scratch out a playoff birth any way they can.
How it Works
For those that have not used the tool, here is how it works. It starts with the records of each team through Week 11, and lists the current seeds if the playoffs started today. Then the magic happens. You choose how the rest of the season plays out. You can go through week by week, game by game and make your picks. If you don’t want to pick all 16 games through six weeks, you can use the auto-pick feature. You get options like using win percentage, ESPN power rankings, defensive or offensive rankings to decide the remaining games. After you apply the filter, you can then pick individual games to change in hopes of finding your team in the playoffs.
Another very helpful feature is the tiebreaker explanations. It will break down the proper tie-break rules to clarify any confusion you may have.
Cardinals Chances
How does this season play out for the Cardinals? Cardinals fans will not like any of the auto-fill selections. Using the defensive rank option to decide the remaining games has the Cardinals winning out, but still falling short. The Cardinals would need this exact scenario to play out and have either the New York Giants or the Minnesota Vikings to lose a game they are projected to win. That is one reason why the loss to the Vikings hurt so much last week.
However, this type of prediction model is flawed. The filters used in this scenario would cause havoc in the league. Picking the top defenses in each game drops the Dallas Cowboys to 11-5 on the season, and the New England Patriots out of the playoffs altogether. The odds of this happening are slim to none, as are the Cardinals playoff hopes.
Final Notes
After practicing last week, Tyrann Mathieu did not get activated for the game against the Vikings. The “Honey Badger” looks like he is set to return this week. Michael Floyd, on the other hand, missed the last two days of practice and will not play in Atlanta. Floyd has been struggling, but it is one less target for Carson Palmer.
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