Through his first 12 seasons, Palmer did not have a playoff victory. Since he was drafted No. 1 over all by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2003, he had watched two other California-bred quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, win a combined 29 playoff games (before the weekend) and five Super Bowl rings, four of them by Brady.
On Saturday night, Palmer at long last filled a gaping hole in that résumé, leading the Arizona Cardinals past Rodgers’s Green Bay Packers team in a N.F.C. divisional game at University of Phoenix Stadium. As if 12 seasons of adversity weren’t trying enough, Palmer had to go into overtime to hand the Packers a 26-20 defeat.
Rodgers heaved a 41-yard completion to Jeff Janis in the end zone on the last play of regulation (his second pass of more than 40 yards in the final minute) to send the game into overtime. After the Cardinals won the coin toss, Palmer connected with Larry Fitzgerald on a 75-yard play to set up the winning score, on a shovel pass to Fitzgerald that was the brainchild of Cardinals Coach Bruce Arians.
“I can’t tell you how many times we’ve run that shovel in practice,” said Fitzgerald, who made seven of his eight receptions in the second half and overtime. Fitzgerald, 31, who this season became the youngest player in N.F.L. history to reach 1,000 career receptions, is one of only three players left from the 2008 Arizona team that defeated the Carolina Panthers in the N.F.C. title game to reach its most recent Super Bowl.
The Cardinals (14-3) will play for the N.F.C. title next Sunday against either the Seattle Seahawks, with whom they split their season series, or the Panthers.
The crowd of 65,089 exultantly exited the stadium Saturday chanting Lar-ry, Lar-ry, but Fitzgerald sang the praises of Palmer, whose 2014 season ended when he sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and who rebounded Saturday from two interceptions, including one in the end zone.
“Today he put on a display why he’s an M.V.P. candidate,” Fitzgerald said.
Palmer’s patience and perseverance in the face of adversity, sharpened by 12 years of disappointment, was on display in the fourth quarter. He drove the Cardinals 80 yards in 14 plays, culminating in a 9-yard completion to Michael Floyd on a tipped pass intended for Fitzgerald, to retake the lead at 17-13. Chandler Catanzaro added his third field goal on the Cardinals’ next possession to extend the
advantage to 7 points.
Rodgers, the reigning most valuable player, had 1 minute 50 seconds to even the score, and he wrung every last second off the clock on the six-play, 86-yard drive. He finished with 261 yards passing and two touchdowns. He was intercepted once.“It was a wild game,” Palmer said. “We just didn’t give up hope. We kept the faith, kept battling and found a way in the end.”
For Arizona fans, the victory was a case of delayed gratification. Behind Palmer, the Cardinals appeared built for a deep playoff run in 2014, winning eight of their first nine games to sit atop their division.
In the ninth, however, Palmer, back and playing well after missing three games with a shoulder injury, was sacked and sustained the torn A.C.L. He had the same injury in 2006, on the second snap of his first playoff game. Many wondered if Palmer still had the hunger at age 36 to mount yet another comeback.
Not only did he return, Palmer posted career highs in the regular season in touchdown passes (35) and passing yards (4,671). That he came back better than before, with a stronger core and sounder mechanics, is testament to Palmer’s enduring passion for the game.
“You can fear a lot of stuff,” Palmer said, “but at the end of the day you’ve got to put the work in, go out and execute when it’s time to execute and try to get back there.”
Rodgers had a feeling the Packers would be returning to this stadium after their 38-8 road loss to the Cardinals in December. After being sacked eight times in defeat, Rodgers said, “This was a playoff-style game and we played terrible, but we have won a lot of games here.” He added, “I am confident that we have guys, and myself, that, when it matters for all the marbles, guys will show up.”
Left tackle David Bakhtiari was back Saturday after not playing in the regular-season meeting. The offensive line was further weakened when the right tackle Bryan Bulaga left that game with an injury. With Bakhtiari and Bulaga in the lineup Saturday, Rodgers had enough time to complete passes to eight different receivers.
One of Palmer’s favorite quotes would surely resonate with Rodgers. It is from Thomas Edison, who said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Palmer invoked the quote to explain why, though he is financially secure, he went through the pain and trouble to make it back for a
N.F.L. season.“As cheesy as it sounds, it gets better with every practice,” Palmer said. “It’s been an absolute blast
The Cardinals struck first, with Palmer finding Michael Floyd in a back corner of the end zone in the opening quarter. The 8-yard pass, like several of Palmer’s throws in the first half, sailed high, but the 6-foot-3 Floyd was able to stretch for it.
If Palmer looked overeager in the early going, it was understandable. He had waited six years to get back to the playoffs after his Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Jets in an A.F.C. wild-card game.
The Cardinals appeared to strike again early in the second quarter when cornerback Patrick Peterson intercepted Rodgers at the goal line on the 14th play of a drive that started at the Green Bay 5-yard line. Peterson sprinted 100 yards down the home sideline, but the score was nullified by an illegal-use-of-the-hands call on Arizona’s Frostee Rucker. The opportunistic Packers took advantage of the reprieve to pull within 7-3 on a 28-yard field goal by Mason Crosby. The drive consumed 7 minutes 31 seconds.
Two-and-a-half minutes later, the Packers’ offense returned to the field and strung together a 17-play drive that exhausted the Cardinals’ defense and ran 7:55 off the clock. It also ended with a Crosby field goal.
In the third, the Packers capitalized on Palmer’s first interception, embarking on an 81-yard drive capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Janis. The score by Janis, who finished with 11 catches, gave the Packers their first lead, at 13-7.
“You just have to keep fighting and that’s what we did,” said Janis, who became Rodgers’ go-to guy after Randall Cobb was sidelined with an injury.
After Rodgers forced overtime, Palmer trained his gaze on Fitzgerald. He connected with him on a short pass that Fitzgerald turned into a 75-yard gain, threw a short pass incomplete in his direction and then ran the shovel pass that Arians had kept up his sleeve for 18 weeks. When Palmer met with reporters afterward, he paused to focus on a television in the back of the room. It was replaying Fitzgerald’s decisive touchdown.
“He’s always doing something special with the ball in his hands,” Palmer said. “It’s on TV right now. Spectacular.”
That is about as excited as Palmer gets. Belying his low-key demeanor, he said, “It feels better than I thought.” He quickly added, “No way are we done or satisfied.”
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