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Believe it or not the Cardinals are 4 games over .500. Is it possible to have an unimpressive 31-0 win? UofA loses a shoot out to a bunch of super heroes (or 1985 Pontiac Firebirds depending on how you see it). The Phoenix Suns are nothing but a bunch of bullies. College hoops is here and are we talking about another year of the same old Phoenix Coyotes? All this and much more next on this edition of In the Zona.

The Arizona Cardinals defense, known this season for giving up several big plays, now officially lead the league in takeaways.  After Sunday’s three forced turnovers, they have 22 takeaways on the season.

That’s quite an accomplishment considering no one really talks about them, at least not nearly as much as the hearalded offense.  The Cardinals swarm to the ball and the backups in the secondary did a very good job on Sunday.  Rookie Dominique-Rodgers Cromartie had his first two NFL interceptions on Sunday.  Roger Brown, in the game for the injured Rod Hood, had a great pass deflection on Seahawks receiver Koren Robinson on Sunday to take a sure touchdown away.

They will have to work harder for their takeaway’s this week as the New York Giants arrive and Eli Manning and company don’t make many mistakes.

Go Cards!

Scott Allen

AZScott

Join Fanster Radio’s Greg Esposito as he previews the Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball team with Bryan Roy, basketball beat writer for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, and Rahsaan Gethers of GoAzCats.com.

They talk about everything you need to know to get you ready for the Wildcats season. So Beardown and take a listen.

Shaquille O’Neal will be available against the Utah Jazz tonight as the NBA has decided not to suspend the Suns center.

NBA Executive Vice President Stu Jackson announced that O’Neal would be fined $25,000 for not leaving the court in a timely fashion and for his words and actions direct towards officials following his ejection from Sunday nights game.

There will be no further action taken for O’Neal’s hard foul on the Detroit Pistions’ Rodney Stuckey.

Time: 7 p.m. MST

TV: My45

Suns

Jazz

Under normal circumstances, a game in Utah would be one of those contests in an 82-game season where you’d be ecstatic with a win but resigned to the fact that a loss is fairly likely.

But with the Jazz possibly missing chunks of their rotation like the Suns were Friday in Sacramento, this becomes a game where the Suns need to take care of business.

The Jazz missed starters Deron Williams and Mehmet Okur and key reserves Andrei Kirilenko and Matt Harpring during Saturday’s loss in Cleveland. That defeat capped a 1-4 road trip that followed a 5-0 start that included four home wins, with those four players missing the majority of the trip.

The Deseret News reported Okur traveled from Turkey where he was visiting his seriously ill father to the United States on Sunday and should be available. Williams (sprained ankle) and Harpring (ankle) are game-time decisions, and Kirilenko (sprained index finger) is doubtful.

But who really knows because NBA.com’s game preview says Kirilenko is probable, Okur doubtful and Williams’ status is up in the air.

It’s unlikely Okur spent a ton of time keeping in NBA shape since he had more important things to deal with. Leandro Barbosa will likely face a similar conditioning issue when he returns from Brazil as early as Thursday.

Williams and Harpring made their season debuts on the trip but were hampered by their injuries, so it’s unlikely either will be at 100 percent even if they do play.

The Suns, 5-1 on the road, will be riding high after blowing out Detroit last night and will have a fairly-rested Shaquille O’Neal because the Big Cactus played just 13 minutes before being ejected. Matt Barnes will also be fresh coming off a two-game suspension, giving the Suns a full complement of players aside from Barbosa.

It would be huge for the Suns to score a big road win while Utah is down because these teams may be fighting for playoff positioning down the road.

And in the end, of course, a win counts just the same in the standings no matter who the opponent is missing.

Oh, and before the game check out this goofy video on Suns.com of Robin Lopez on comics.

Was there any doubt?  I mean seriously, did anyone really think that Jimmie Johnson wasn’t going to win his third straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship?  I think there was more doubt of the Detroit Lions actually winning a game than Johnson blowing his 141-point lead.

And just as predicted, the Lions lost to move to 0-10 this year, and Jimmie won to move to 3-0 over the past three years!  That’s right, three championships in a row!  Johnson tied Cale Yarborough’s 30-year mark as the only driver to win three consecutive titles.  And, he already has his eyes set on number four next season.

Three-peats are an incredibly impressive, tough to achieve, amazing accomplishment no matter what the sport.  In the big four sports, they are just as hard to come by.

In the modern era of the NHL, only the Montreal Canadiens 1975-1979 and New York Islanders 1979-1983 have won three (or more) in a row.

Remove the dominant Boston Celtics who won eight in a row from 1959-1966 during the early years of the NBA, and only the Chicago Bulls 1991-1993 and 1996-1998, and Los Angeles Lakers 2000-2002 have strung together three consecutive titles.
In baseball, only the New York Yankees could manage the feat, pulling it off from 1998-2000.

Technically, in the NFL, there are no three-peat Super Bowl Champions.  However, the Green Bay Packers won the 1996 NFL Championship and went on to win Super Bowl I and II the following years.

So, now do you think what the 48 team did was remarkable?  I sure hope so!

Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports team have mastered the system, proving themselves unbeatable in their pursuit of Yarborough’s mark. They’ve won their titles with consistency, finishing outside the top 10 just twice in this year’s Chase (15th-place at Texas and Homestead), and by winning eight of the last 30 Chase races (14 overall in the five year Chase format).

Carl Edwards again came up just short.  Finishing second to Clint Bowyer by 21 points in the Nationwide Series division, he needed Johnson to have bad luck and/or falter to have any shot at a miracle for the Sprint Cup title.

Cousin Carl again drove the wheels off the #99 Office Depot.  He led a race-high 157 laps en route to his series-best ninth victory of the season, and 16th overall between the two top NASCAR series.  However, in order to win his first title, Johnson would have had to finish 36th or worse.  That didn’t happen.

Edwards showed outstanding class and grace at the end of the race.  Immediately after his trademark celebratory backflip, he walked over to Johnson’s passing car on the track to congratulate him with a handshake.  He and Rick Hendrick were also found after the race exchanging congratulations.  As word has it, Carl playfully informed Rick that things would end differently next year.

If there is a driver on the NASCAR circuit today that has the ability to dethrone Jimmie Johnson, that would be Carl Edwards.  He has the confidence, drive, and skill to mix it up with the best of em’.  And, as much as I know people hate hearing things framed this way, had it not been for two poor finishes in the Chase (29th at Talladega and 33rd at Lowe’s), we’d be crowning Edwards as the Champion.  His other finishes in the Chase were three victories, a second, three thirds and a forth.  To go along with his seven victories this season, he also notched 27 top-10’s and 19 top-5’s.  Outstanding!

That being said, Johnson and his 48 team are still the kings of the mountain till someone else knocks them off.  His season statistically didn’t quite match that of Edwards.  He grabbed seven checker flags, along with 22 top-10’s and 15 top-5’s.  However, Jimmie and Company have proven over the past three years that you need to be the best when it counts most – in the Chase.  Johnson had an average finish of 5.7 over this year’s final ten races.  Exceptional!

Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson!

Clint Bowyer isn’t an electrifying driver. He doesn’t drive aggressively, rather he is more steady and calm on the track. His driving style and personality are quite similar to that of Jimmie Johnson. Now, he hasn’t quite mastered the art of winning in the NASCAR Sprint Cup the way Johnson has, but with a 56-point lead going into the Nationwide Series finale at the Ford 300 in Homestead, securing a championship would be a step in the right direction.

And Bowyer did just that. All he needed was to finish in the top eight to keep Carl Edwards from winning his second straight title. He did that easily, taking fifth to stay on top of the standings, right where he has been most of the year despite winning only one of 35 races.

Bowyer fell out of the top 10 several times in the first half of the race. He actually trailed Edwards in points several times, but his team used a two-tire pit stop during a caution just past the halfway point to get its driver into the top five, and he managed to stay there the rest of the race.

In the end, it came down to two different types of seasons that led to the crowning of the Champion.

Bowyer’s season was all about consistency. In fact, his season was right on par with Matt Kenseth’s 2003 NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship. That year Kenseth logged 25 top-10’s and 11 top-5’s, were as Bowyer this year logged 29 top-10’s and 14-top-5’s. However, each was only able to grab the check flag once during their victory campaign.

Edwards drove the #60 to another great Nationwide season. And in the last race of the year, he did everything he could, other than getting the five-point bonus for leading the most laps. Carl finished the year with seven victories, 22 top-10’s and 19 top-5’s. Unfortunately, it was his inconsistency that cost him back-to-back championships. He finished 20th or worse five times, and logged two DNF’s.

Congratulations Clint Bowyer!

The Vitals:

When: Monday, 7:00 PM
Where: EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah
TV: My45 HD
Radio: Sports 620 KTAR

The Starters:

C: Shaquille O’Neal - C: Kosta Koufos

PF: Amare Stoudemire - PF: Carlos Boozer

SF: Matt Barnes - SF: C.J. Miles

SG: Raja Bell - SG: Ronnie Brewer

PG: Steve Nash - PG: Ronnie Price

The Storyline:
Can the Suns on the tail end of a back to back beat a depleted Jazz team?

The Match Up of the Game:
Amare Stoudemire: 22.6 points per game & 8.6 rebounds
Carlos Boozer: 20.5 points per game & 11.4 rebounds

What’s the Buzz about the Game:

Mehmet Okur may be back in the country but he won’t be back on the court against the Suns:

Mehmet Okur returned to the Jazz on Monday after spending last week in Turkey with his critically ill father but won’t play in tonight’s game against Phoenix…Jerry Sloan will start Jarron Collins in place of Okur against the Suns and Shaquille O’Neal… Rookie Kosta Koufos started in Okur’s place on the Jazz’s road trip last week, but Sloan said he prefered Collins’ experience against O’Neal. ~ Salt Lake Tribune

Coach Jerry Sloan seems to think that the Jazz have issues much larger than injuries:

The Jazz are calling both Williams and Harpring “game-time decisions,” while Kirilenko (who indicated he may play tonight) is listed as “doubtful.” That all established, though, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan insists his club can’t “worry about ‘this guy’s hurt’ and ‘that guy’s hurt.’ “That’s because he saw bigger problems on a trip in which the Jazz … led late in the third quarter before losing in Cleveland; were tied late in the third before losing at Charlotte; squandered a one-point lead in the last two minutes at Washington; and started off by failing to rally from six down with 1:24 to go in New York. ~ Tim Buckley Desertet News

Suns haven’t been very good against the Jazz:

The Suns have not won a season series against Utah since 2004-05 and have lost six of the past eight meetings. ~ Paul Coro Arizona Republic

Photo: Ted S. Warren/AP

Following the Cardinals’ 26-20 win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, I tuned into KTAR-FM for Cardinal Talk, the post-game call-in show co-hosted by former Cardinals Bill Lewis and Rob Moore.

It’s interesting to hear what the fans say following games, and Sunday was no exception.

One caller suggested the Cardinals trade Anquan Boldin to the Chicago Bears for linebacker Lance Briggs. What? Several callers bemoaned the fact that the Cardinals’ running game isn’t up to snuff. A few weeks ago, I wrote this post, asking the question “with receivers like these, who needs a running game?” I’m still waiting for an answer.

The Cardinals managed 74 yards on the ground in 24 attempts, while gaining 382 yards on 44 passing plays. The experts say you need balance to win in the NFL. I say “poppycock”! Those experts have never seen a receiving duo like Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin.

In Sunday’s win, the duo combined for 23 catches for 337 yards. Yeah, that’s one game. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it is only the third time in NFL history that receivers on the same team have each caught ten or more passes for more than 150 yards in the same game. To put things in further perspective, Seattle’s starting receiver duo of Koren Robinson and Bobby Engram combined for 4 receptions covering 41 yards.

Fitzgerald, Boldin and quarterback Kurt Warner, quite simply, are on the same wavelength. Warner throws the ball up, and Fitzgerald and Boldin go get it.

Cardinals’ offensive coordinator Todd Haley deserves an award for the way he’s called plays this season. He knows that no corners can consistently match up with Boldin and Fitzgerald, so why feature the running game as anything more than a change of pace?

Seattle running back T.J. Duckett scored his second touchdown of the game to close the gap to 6 points with 9:41 left. Most NFL teams would have tensed up, gotten conservative, and tried to run out the clock. Haley and the Cardinals offense did the opposite. In their next 13 plays, they threw the ball 8 times and ran it 5 times. Haley realizes the passing game is virtually unstoppable right now, so why not stick with it?

I tend to agree with the experts who advise, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” It’s simple. But it’s working.

St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols won his second National League MVP Award on Monday, beating out Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard and Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun for the award. Dodgers’ outfielder Manny Ramirez and Houston’s Lance Berkman rounded out the top 5.

Two Arizona Diamondbacks’ players received votes. Starting pitcher Brandon Webb finished 17th in the voting. The right hander, who won 22 games, and finished second in the NL Cy Young voting, received two 5th place votes and one 9th place vote.

Shortstop Stephen Drew, who enjoyed a solid ‘08 campaign with 21 homers, 67 runs driven in, and a .291 batting average, received one 9th place vote.

For full voting results from MLB.com, click here.