TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - The Arizona Cardinals' season turned around on a blocked field goal and a 99-yard punt return.
On Nov. 6, Calais Campbell knocked down what would have been the winning field goal for St. Louis, then rookie Patrick Peterson returned a punt from a step outside his goal line for the winning score in overtime. The Cardinals' six-game skid was history.
Three more overtime victories followed, capped by the 23-20 win over Seattle on Sunday. Arizona finished with a 7-2 spurt - a record only surpassed in that span by Green Bay, New Orleans and New England -and wound up 8-8 overall. Not great, not enough to make the playoffs, but enough to provide momentum and optimism heading into 2012.
For all the success, a large question looms. Just who will be the quarterback when the Cardinals take the field next season?
Kevin Kolb, brought to the desert in a big trade and signed to a huge contract, knows he will have to earn the job from fledgling John Skelton, the strong but raw second-year pro who was 5-2 as a starter when Kolb was injured - 6-2 if you count the victory over San Francisco, when Kolb was knocked out of the game on the third play with a season-ending concussion.
"That's the only way that you approach anything," Kolb said as he sat in front of his locker on Monday. "That's what this league is built on. It don't matter who you are, I think any quarterback can attest, any player can attest, as soon as you get comfortable in your shoes, that's whenever you're out of here. So I'll push harder in this offseason than I've ever pushed before in this offseason and come back ready to roll."
Skelton said he hopes to have a fair shot at winning the starting job, but he knows there are many aspects of his game that need improvement.
"I know I've got to get better," he said. "I know that there's some plays I made, but at the same time there are a lot of plays I didn't make and a lot of stupid mistakes. But it's a starting point, something to build on for next year."
Coach Ken Whisenhunt, who with the team's strong finish has had only one losing season in five years in Arizona, would only repeat his longstanding mantra that "we're always going to play the best player, the player that gives us the best chance to win."
Regardless of who the quarterback is, he can count on Larry Fitzgerald, who despite coughing up blood on the sideline - the result of what eventually was diagnosed as a bruised lung - made a pair of magnificent catches to set up the winning field goal on Sunday.
Fitzgerald finished with 80 receptions for 1,411 yards. In his eighth year, he joined Jerry Rice, Randy Moss and Marvin Harrison as the only players to top 1,400 yards receiving in four seasons.
"That's my job, to catch the ball," said Fitzgerald, who signed an eight-year, $120 million contract - nearly $50 million guaranteed - before the season began, "and it doesn't matter how I catch it, just get it done."
Fitzgerald traced the season's turnaround to a team meeting after Arizona lost at Baltimore 30-27, blowing a 24-6 halftime lead, to fall to 1-6.
"Usually I'm not a big fan of team meetings," he said. "I think it's just a lot of talk, but I think that meeting was different. Coaches were there, players were there. Everything that was bothering us, everything that was on guys' minds, we cleared the air about it. I think as a team we just came together at that point."
Still, it seemed Arizona was headed for another loss before Campbell knocked down that field goal try the following Sunday at home against the Rams. It was one of three blocked field goals for the 6-foot-8 defensive end, who had a breakout season and will be the No. 1 target of the Arizona front office for a new contract. Peterson had two blocks as well, the last in Sunday's win over Seattle.
The Cardinals' first-round draft pick, the No. 5 choice overall, tied an NFL record with four punt returns for touchdowns. He almost had a fifth on Sunday, a 42-yard return that ended when Seahawks punter Jon Ryan tripped him up. Peterson, slowed by a strained Achilles tendon, insisted his legs got tangled, that there is no way a punter, for heaven's sake, would tackle him.
"I tackled myself," he said.
Peterson had 699 yards in punt returns, second most in NFL history behind Desmond Howard's 875 in 1996.
Thrust into the lead cornerback role when Greg Toler was injured in the preseason, Peterson made the Pro Bowl as a special teams player. He showed rapid improvement as a pass defender in the final half of the season.
The Cardinals had an awful time adjusting to the new defensive scheme of first-year coordinator Ray Horton. But they were vastly better in the second half, getting outstanding play from rookie outside linebacker Sam Acho and second-year inside linebacker Daryl Washington. Fellow inside linebacker Paris Lenon led the team with 102 tackles, his fourth 100-tackle season in the last five years.
Running back Beanie Wells gained the respect of his coaches and quieted critics with a 1,000-yard rushing season despite having to play most of the year with a sore left knee. He said he might have to have surgery in the offseason.
"Man," he said, looking at the knee brace in his locker on Monday, "I hope I never have to wear that thing again."
When Wells returns next season, he will have the help of Ryan Williams, Arizona's second-round draft pick whose broken right leg in the preseason knocked him out for the year.
A main area that needs improvement, Whisenhunt said, is the offense's penchant for slow starts. The Cardinals trailed at halftime in seven of their eight victories.
The Cardinals may be in the market for a new starting left tackle. Next season would be the final year of Levi Brown's contract, and the structure of the deal would count $16.9 million on the team's salary cap. Arizona may try to restructure that contract or simply look elsewhere.
Other than that, Whisenhunt said, "I don't anticipate a whole lot of change" in personnel.
The Cardinals will need all the momentum they can get to become a playoff contender again, considering the schedule for next season. Opponents for each team were revealed Monday, and Arizona will have road games against Green Bay, Atlanta and New England as well as home games against Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia.
