Filed under: NFL GLENDALE, Ariz. -- They're ridiculously old and wrinkled to be playing such a brutal, violent game, two quarterbacks who've sacrificed their bodies and health in ways we may never know. Someday Kurt Warner and Brett Favre may regret extending their careers for so long, rather than retiring in their early 30s without permanent limps, or possible damage to their brains. But admit it, football fans. We get tingles up the spine every time Favre or Warner remain standing in the pocket just long enough to avoid raging, hefty linemen nearly half their age. When the gray-bearded quarterbacks do get stuffed to the turf -- and Favre sure did become intimately familiar with it Sunday night in this marquee matchup -- we wonder if they'll get up, how they'll get up, and then somehow, they readjust their bones and blink away the circling stars and jump back into the huddle, ready for one more round of vicious abuse. Warner, at age 38 the spry QB on this chilly night in the desert, limped slowly out of the University of Phoenix locker room following the Arizona Cardinals ' surprisingly easy 30-17 win over the Minnesota Vikings . He looked as if the hitch in his hip had turned his body lopsided, and he couldn't really say how the repercussions from the concussion that kept him from playing last week might affect him long-term, but he did know this: the Cardinals , now 8-4 and nursing a safe three-game lead in the NFC West, needed him more than ever to play like a future Hall of Famer. "My head or the rest of me? My head feels good." Warner responded, when someone wondered how he felt after playing, and surviving, every offensive down. He had been kept safe and sackless behind a terrific offensive line that made sure Warner had plenty of time to throw accurate, precise spirals to receivers who could moonlight as acrobats. Warner connected on 22 of 32 passes for 285 yards and three touchdowns, popping up after every hit like a Jack-in-the-box to watch Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin complete his handiwork. "I took a couple of good shots in there, and I don't feel any symptoms or anything worse or any issues whatsoever as far as that is concerned," added Warner, who was cleared to play by doctors on Friday. "I did get my hip hit on that last play. It's pretty sore right now, so we will monitor that, but as far as the concussion and all that goes, I feel like I got out good." Favre, at age 40 enjoying a renaissance unlike anything we've witnessed at this position, in this sport, shuffled through the tunnel at the stadium's other end, looking like a man who could use a good chiropractor, or perhaps a cane. He had been knocked around badly by a Cardinals defense playing its best game of the season. Favre was sacked three times and intercepted twice, and was rather unremarkable (for him, anyway) in his 283rd consecutive game, an NFL record for longevity that proves again why he is such a marvel. "I kind of let their defense get to me. In a game like this, where it is hard to stop their offense from scoring, I don't need to give them any advantage. I made some decisions that I haven't made up to this point, and I'm disappointed about it," said Favre, who was 30 of 45 for 275 yards with two touchdown passes -- the second, a 31-yarder to Percy Harvin , coming with 1:20 to go and the game out of reach. Nothing rattled Favre as much as the sight of Vikings linebacker E.J. Henderson being taken off the field on a motorized cart after twisting his leg violently and fracturing it while attempting to tackle Tim Hightower in the fourth quarter. Trainers and team doctors spent several tense minutes working on Henderson, and once he was stabilized and laid in the cart on his back, it was a slow, long procession off the field. A rough bump could damage his leg further, and as cameras caught Henderson mouthing a few words, Favre could be seen on the sideline, wincing, praying. That's the sport's precarious nature, its cruel appeal. Henderson, such a key part of the Vikings' 10-1 season entering Sunday night, had his year cut short last year because of a toe injury. Adrian Peterson, Minnesota's terrific running back, was spotted limping to a team bus after being held to a season-low 19 yards in 13 carries as the Cardinals outrushed the Vikings, 113-62 (insert your own joke about speeding here). With a rough schedule ahead, and injuries piling up, Minnesota suddenly looks vulnerable. "I feel bad for E.J. That's awful for him and for our team," Favre said. "We lost Phil [Loadholt ], who came back. Bryant [McKinnie ] played with an injured ankle. We've got to get healthy. This is the time of year where you want to peak. Physically, I'm more concerned about the rest of our guys than me." The game, moved to a coveted prime-time slot because of the pair of aging, remarkable quarterbacks, began auspiciously for Favre and the Vikings, after Hightower fumbled on the second play from scrimmage. Favre did what he has done so spectacularly in this MVP-type season, ripping off a stream of short, exact passes in a drive that ended with Visanthe Shiancoe catching a 3-yard pass for an early 7-0 Minnesota lead. It was vintage Favre, prepping a sold-out stadium for what figured to be a long, perhaps season-defining night. Especially since there were so many questions circling Warner and his health, questions that added heat to the hot debate about concussions in the NFL. Warner missed last Sunday's game against Tennessee, and after the Cardinals suffered the crushing loss to the Titans, Warner wondered aloud if his teammates were angry at him for not suiting up. He had played in 41 straight games before a blow to the head knocked him to the sidelines, but football is a sport where grit and machismo are valued as much as talent. After Warner shredded the Vikings' defense, after he proved courage should never be questioned unless you're wearing his cleats, Warner was far more comfortable talking about Jeremy Bridges, who had moved over to tackle and held his own against the Vikings' Jared Allen. "What a huge performance on a big stage against one of the best players in this league," Warner said of Bridges, the guy who made sure his quarterback remained intact. "Just a tremendous job." Left unsaid was the cold truth that without Warner, the Cardinals were at risk of having to rely on a must-win showdown in San Francisco next Monday. Now they can exhale slightly, having proven they can still get the job done at home, and might even be a better all-around team than the one that skipped to the Super Bowl last season. Fitzgerald sure thinks so. "Like Kurt told you guys, we proved we can play with the big dogs," Fitzgerald said. Fitzgerald, a Minneapolis native who filled what seemed like half the loges with his own personal cheering section, caught eight passes for 143 yards and a TD. There was one play that provided a glimpse of how Fitzgerald works, how the Cardinals feed off his connection with Warner. It came early in the second quarter, on a second-and-10 at the Arizona 25, Warner finding Fitzgerald in the right flank. Besieged by defensive tackle Kevin Williams and then a gang of purple, Fitzgerald hung on to the ball, pushing, huffing, refusing to go down until he gained a few more yards. It's amazing what sheer will can accomplish. The Cardinals failed to score on that drive, but their defense, still stunned and frothing over the Titans' 99 yard-drive in the final minutes last week, stumped the Vikings on a three-and-out (it would be a reoccurring theme). Two plays later, Warner spotted a wormhole in the ozone and hit Boldin with a pinpoint perfect pass. Boldin, wearing cornerback Cedric Griffin like a parka in the desert -- the natives here can't quite adjust to the 50-degree freeze -- curled and wound his way an extra 10 yards to the end zone for a 39-yard scoring play that gave Arizona a 14-7 lead with 7:42 left in the half. "It shows what type of team we are. Everybody in this locker room was upset about what happened last week," said Boldin, the gloss still on his seven catches for 98 yards and two touchdowns. "We wanted nothing more than to get back out on the field and get that taste out of our mouth." Last season, when Favre was still in a groove with the New York Jets, before he hurt his shoulder and seemingly tarnished his legacy to all those Monday morning quarterbacks working the keyboards, he torched the Cardinals for a career-high six touchdowns in a 56-35 victory. This time Arizona flipped around the story line, aggressively stopping Peterson on first and second downs and getting to Favre before he could conjure magic with his pump-fakes. Favre still has a cannon of an arm, his passes dripping with hot sauce, but it didn't do much good with defensive tackle Darnell Dockett dragging down Peterson in the backfield late in the third quarter, the Cardinals up, 24-10. Calais Campbell stuck Favre with a nine-yard loss on the next play, followed by Michael Adams picking off a Favre pass over the middle. With one quarter remaining, this QB showdown clearly belonged to Warner. "I'm pretty sure everybody is going to talk about what Brett Favre did wrong. How Brett did this wrong and that wrong, but not talk about how our defense stood up today. We're going to stay humble though, because we are going to play that team again," Dockett said. Wouldn't that be something if Dockett is correct, if Minnesota and Arizona clash again in the playoffs, if Favre and Warner pick their bodies off the turf and stare each other down one more time? For a couple of geezers, they still have it going on. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
