(Image source from: Will Cardinals reach playoff season?)

The Arizona Cardinals were not supposed to go into Seattle and beat the Seahawks. But they did.

The Arizona Cardinals were not supposed to win 11 games this season. But they might.

The Arizona Cardinals were not supposed to reach the playoffs this season. They probably won't.

It's a tough pill to swallow, especially the day after the Cardinals beat up the NFC favorite Seahawks in their own building. But unless the Tampa Bay Buccaneers help them out with a win in New Orleans next Sunday, that's exactly what is going to happen.

"It's not in our control," Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said Monday. "I want to be 11-5 and let the chips fall. There is some joy in that, you know, if we're watching the playoffs we'll be watching a bunch of teams we beat, and that's a little bit sour."

Should the Cardinals miss out on the dance -- as Arians likes to call it -- the team will have no problem blaming itself, according to their coach. In Week 1, the Cardinals blew a fourth quarter lead in a road loss to the St. Louis Rams. In Week 6, it lost a competitive game to the San Francisco 49ers on the road. And then in Week 13, the Cardinals lost a tough one in Philadelphia to the Eagles.

As Arians noted, winning any one of those games would have changed his team's odds for the better.

"Every single one we had our chance," Arians admitted. "If 11-5 is not good enough, then we can look back at those games and say that was one that we should have won, which also puts us in the division race."

If the Cardinals win 11 games but miss the playoffs, they will be just the second team to do so, joining the 2008 New England Patriots, since the NFL went to eight divisions in 2002.

Source: Arizona Sports

KW: Suchorita Dutta