Cardinals’ Larry Fitzgerald still has it 12 seasons later

The shuffle pass became both Larry Fitzgerald’s Friday ritual and Sunday disappointment.

The Arizona Cardinals made this a fixture of their Friday play sheet. It was perfect for Fitzgerald’s gift for cutting and shaking in traffic. Get the ball to him in the red zone and he’d surely make a difference.

Except it was never called. No matter how often the Cardinals prepared to run this play, it was far from a staple of the offense. The coaches kept telling Fitzgerald there will be a time and a place.

Saturday was the time. The NFC divisional round was the place.

Fitzgerald zig-zagged his way into the end zone at University of Phoenix Stadium from five yards out for the touchdown that beat the Green Bay Packers 26-20 in overtime.

It was more than appropriate that Fitzgerald scored. Two plays earlier quarterback Carson Palmer was in danger of getting sacked in the first play of overtime. He looked left ("corner of my eye," Palmer said) and saw Fitzgerald open in the flat.

Actually, "open" vastly understated the situation. Fitzgerald made the catch, expecting to see numerous Packers tacklers waiting for him. What he saw instead was "a lot of open grass,"

It took 75 yards for any Packers defender to knock Fitzgerald to the ground. That is not by coincidence. You don’t play 12 seasons of wide receiver in the NFL by coincidence. You must have a wide spectrum of skills and Fitzgerald does.

High on that list: The ability to run in the broken field, to turn a six-yard catch into a 50-yard gain.

At 6-foot-3 and 218 pounds, Fitzgerald has the ability to run past you and also through you. Palmer said late Saturday at University of Phoenix Stadium that attempting to arm-tackle Fitzgerald is a waste of time. His ability to cut and burst are obvious. The subtler skill is seeing up-field to keep churning toward the end zone.

By the time any Packers tackler got a clean shot at Fitzgerald, he was bearing down on the end zone. They stopped him five yards short of the touchdown that would end this one.

Such an effort would seemingly send an aging player to the sidelines to catch his breath. Not so with these stakes involved. On the next play Palmer targeted Fitzgerald, but the pass fell short.

Then, on second-and-goal, the play call came in "shuffle pass." Fitzgerald said he couldn’t help but grin at the notion this play, which he thought so could exploit his skills, was finally live.

There were multiple options for Palmer to choose, but when the Packers defensive end attacked him, rather than shadow Fitzgerald across the field, it was an obvious call: Toss it to Fitzgerald and watch that last handful of yards to the NFC championship game melt away.

Handful. Twelve years after he was drafted into the NFL, Fitzgerald proved he’s still is one.

This story was originally published January 17, 2016 at 11:18 AM with the headline "Cardinals’ Larry Fitzgerald still has it 12 seasons later."