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Week 11 -  Arizona Cardinals (9-0) @ Tennessee Titans (5-4) +4

Tennessee's still built around the indestructible Steve McNair, surrounded by a cast of talented receiving threats led by Derrick Mason, the most underrated wideout in the league this side of Hines Ward. Eddie George is missing with broken ribs, but 3rd-year back Chris Brown has all of George's allround physical ability, even if he lacks a little between the ears. The line he's running behind is OK, but for some reason Jeff Fisher has made the eccentric decision to play his best left tackle, Brad Hopkins, on the right side leaving the much-too-slow Fred Miller guarding his quarterback's blind side.

The defence is great - a brilliant secondary reinforced by players like Jevon Kearse, Albert Haynesworth and Keith Bulluck in the the front seven. If there is a weakness to be exploited, it might be that they're built for speed and finesse rather than raw strength, so if we can get the likes of Marcel Shipp and James Hodgins pounding the edges of the lines it's possible we could overpower them.

Note - possible, not probable.

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The game begins with both teams fighting to see who can shoot themselves in the foot most completely - we blow off a toe when a sack leads us to waste a 30-yard Jeff-to-Johnno effort,  Doodah hooking a 53-yard kick wide of the left-hand upright. But the Titans go the full Long John Silver as McNair tries to float a dinky little pass down the seam of our cover-2 on The Official Down And Distance Of The Arizona Cardinals and finds Tay Cody, of all people, there to pick him off.

We open the scoring on the next drive, Marcel's powerful running opening up some passing lanes and allowing us to get to the shadow of the goalposts where Shipp seals the deal. We put ourselves in prime position to grab the game by the joy-department when we force Tennessee to go three-and-out and punt short, but Jeff Blake has a Jeff Blake moment, putting a long hopeful pass up for grabs then watching helplessly as Lance Schulters takes it 80 yards back to tie the game at 7.

So that'll be back to the run then. It's not pretty, but it's effective. Hodgins it is from close range this time to put us back up by 7, which becomes 14 after an amazing Anquan Boldin catch over the middle in amongst three defenders and a friendly, picking up 17 yards and a first on 3rd and a mile and setting up Johnno to slant in from the 9. Huzzah!

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Tyrone Calico shredding the cover-2 to the tune of 80 yards and a score.

Tyrone Calico shredding the cover-2 to the tune of 80 yards and a score who?

No, sorry, this isn't a joke. Your defence's tackling, that's a joke.

Boom bloody boom. Halftime, ARI 21-14 TEN

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And a drama becomes a crisis on the opening drive of the second half when Blake misses Andre Dyson lurking near the line of scrimmage, but doesn't actually manage to miss him. 5 runs and 27 yards later, and we've successfully spunked away a fourteen point lead in about three minutes of game-time.

We suddenly can't run, and they suddenly can. This is a problem. We get out of jail a bit when the Titans try to cover Macca with a linebacker on 3rd and long, but it still takes a gloriously ill-timed blitz leading to a 20-yard gain to Brian Westbrook out of the backfield to get us close enough for Shipp to do that thing he does. ARI 28-21 TEN

It temporarily looks like we've gotten the game locked up when Marcel Shipp gains 44 yards on two plays, the second of which is a catch on the flare that sees him cruise 25 yards into the endzone off a Shaun McDonald block, but that just wakes up Steve McNair who hits 5/5 for 36 yards and another 14 on the ground for the score that brings this back to a seven-point game.

Still, the drive has cost the Titans four minutes, leaving just 1:57 on the clock. So long as we can recover the onside kick, it's pretty much game over... oh. We can't. Still, starting with three incompletions, if we can just get one more it's pretty much game over... oh. We can't. Alright, not to worry, first and goal at the 8, we've been great all season close to the endzone, if we can just hold them here it's pretty much game over... oh. We can't. ARI 35-35 TEN

Just over a minute left with us camped at our own 35. Now - do we go for it, or do we play for overtime?

Who do you think I am, Mike bloody Martz? A sack on first down and the common-sense reaction is to pull it back and run the clock, but the Arizona Cardinals didn't get where they are today by making common-sense reactions to things. On second down, we catch Tennessee in a blitz, Johnno squeezes between three defenders for a quick-strike catch and is only run down 53 yards later.

Marcel gets us one more first down before Thingamy comes in to clobber a 36-yard trey as the clock goes to double-ought. Our toughest game of the year so far, but we come through to move to 10-0. Final score - ARI 38-35 TEN

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(c) daniel roe 2004