Whereas the Cardinals will be six days removed from a dramatic overtime victory over the Packers, the Saints will not have won in five weeks. New Orleans was far from its best down the stretch and rested players in the season finale.
Saints coach Sean Payton said he believes there are no clear statistical data about what's best to do, rest starters or play them all the way. He does know this, though - late in the season, the Saints had 18 players on their injury report.
This week, they had only four, and two of those are merely precautionary. The Saints are as healthy as they've been since the start of training camp.
Fitz to be tiedCardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald is a big concern for the Saints, as he should be. But New Orleans has done a good job on marquee receivers this season, putting the clamps on the Patriots' Randy Moss and Wes Welker, the Bills' Terrell Owens and the Lions' Calvin Johnson.
Look for the Saints to cover Fitzgerald man-to-man underneath, while shadowing him with a safety over the top. That gets trickier if Anquan Boldin is ready to return from injury.
Handyman Reggie Bush might not be an ideal every-down back, but he's still very dangerous when used the right way. The Saints have been very effective in the way they've utilized him lately, frequently having him run out of three-receiver sets when there are a lot of smaller defensive players on the field.
How will the Cardinals combat that? They might need to use an extra cornerback. There isn't a linebacker fast enough to stick with him, and Arizona's safeties are better in run support than coverage.
Another viewpointFox's Jimmy Johnson on the Cardinals: "I'm the one who early in the season stuck a fork in them. The reason I thought they would struggle is Ken (Whisenhunt) at the beginning of the season lost his coordinators, had a quarterback that was up there in years, had Boldin who was not 100 percent healthy and had some contract issues. I saw some black clouds in the sky. Then, they came on and played outstanding. They ended up a better football team this year than when they went to the Super Bowl."
Four K's in s Games Peyton Manning 15 Dan Marino 16 Brett Favre 17 Joe Montana 17 Tom Brady 18 John Elway 18