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Patriots put Cardinals on ice

Dec 21, 2008 - 11:56 PM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts (Ticker) -- The New England Patriots buried the Arizona Cardinals in the snow and kept their playoff hopes alive.

Matt Cassel threw for 345 yards and three touchdowns and Steve Gostkowski booted four field goals as the Patriots routed the Cardinals, 47-7, on Sunday.

"It's good to win at home," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "I thought our players played with good toughness and pretty good execution in the game against a good football team. I know that wasn't their best today. There is no doubt about that. They have done a lot of impressive things this year."

The Patriots (10-5) won their home finale and remained alive in the chase for an AFC playoff berth. The NFC West champion Cardinals (8-7) suffered their second straight embarrassing defeat and fourth in five tries.

"I'm concerned about the way we played today," said an alarmed Ken Whisenhunt, Cardinals coach. "It wasn't good enough. I think we've shown that, at times, we can be a very good football team and we've got to somehow find that team."

From the opening series of the game, when the Cardinals went three-and-out, the visitors looked completely out of their element in the persistent snow and wind, offering little resistance to the Patriots.

"The weather wasn't going to win us the game and we weren't going to take that (for granted)," said Patriots linebacker Junior Seau, who was tackled by a fan on the Patriots sideline midway through the fourth quarter. "When we had the offense, defense and special teams clicking, we knew we had a chance. We went out there and performed well."

LaMont Jordan had a pair of short touchdown runs in the first quarter and Cassel threw touchdowns to Kevin Faulk and Wes Welker as the Patriots jumped out to a 31-0 first-half lead en route to their 11th straight win in December.

"It was great," Jordan said. "We knew coming into this game if the weather conditions were what they were, that Sammy (Morris) and I were going to be pretty busy and the offensive went out and made our jobs pretty easy."

"It was very important," Cassel said of the quick start, which also featured a 21-0 first-quarter lead. "We knew that they were an explosive team and that they could score a lot of points. For us to get out ahead early was important for us and important for the offense to set the tone for the day."

It marked the second time this season the Cardinals had been blown out of the game by halftime. They trailed the New York Jets, 34-0, at halftime on September 28.

"I can't explain it," Whisenhunt said. "I don't understand it. It's disappointing and it's not acceptable. This time of year, you're supposed to be playing better football than that. We've got to find that team that can play with anybody in the league."

The Patriots wasted no time in adding to the lead immediately following intermission. On the opening play of the half, Cassel found Randy Moss on a screen pass on the left sideline. Moss eluded several tacklers at the line of scrimmage and raced 76 yards down the sideline for his 135th career touchdown, matching Marshall Faulk for seventh place on the NFL's all-time list.

"We had been in that personnel grouping and those formations quite a bit in the first half and they were starting to overplay some things," Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said. "We felt like we could take advantage of their aggressiveness on the back side and it kind of worked exactly as we hoped it would. The linemen got out there and got some good blocks. Anytime, he's in the open field with a bunch of people chasing him, I'm not sure they're going to catch him."

Cassel finished 20-of-36 passing before he was replaced by rookie Kevin O'Connell with 13 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Gostkowski booted four field goals to give him 34 for the season, a franchise record.

The Cardinals were without star receiver Anquan Boldin, who missed the game with a sore shoulder.

Kurt Warner was held to 30 yards on 6-of-18 passing before he was replaced by Matt Leinart with under three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Warner acknowledged that being outscored, 82-21, in consecutive losses is not the way a division champion should head into the playoffs.

"You put a couple of performances together like we have the last two weeks, and you definitely don't feel invincible," he said. "We just have to figure some things out and get back to playing some good football again, because we're not doing it right now."

Leinart hit Larry Fitzgerald for a 78-yard score with 6:17 to play to break the shutout bid.