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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Jess Root

Cardinals can have a home playoff game in one crazy scenario

The Arizona Cardinals are in the playoffs for the first time since 2015. That is a good thing. However, after a 7-0 start, they finished the season 11-6 and in second place in the division.

As a wild card team, their potential journey to the Super Bowl requires them to play every game on the road.

Well, unless one crazy scenario happens.

They will face the Los Angeles Rams on the road in the first round of the playoffs, but one unlikely scenario in the postseason would give the Cardinals a home game in the divisional round.

Here is how it would have to go down.

Every road team would have to beat every home team. The Philadelphia Eagles would have to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the San Francisco 49ers would have to beat the Dallas Cowboys and the Cardinals would have to beat the Rams.

Because the NFL reseeds every round of the playoffs, the highest seed plays the lowest seed, no matter what the bracket originally was.

That would give the Green Bay Packers, who earned a first-round bye, the Eagles as their opponent in the division round. With that as the first matchup, the Cardinals would then host the 49ers for their second-round matchup.

The Cardinals are undefeated in the postseason at State Farm Stadium.

In an even crazier scenario, if the Cardinals and Eagles both won, they would face one another in Arizona for the NFC Championship Game.

It isn’t likely going to happen, and the Cardinals have not been good at home this season, but their fans deserve a home playoff game and this is the path to get that done.

Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.

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