With just five catches in Sunday's upcoming loss to the St. Louis Rams, Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald could surpass Anquan Boldin to become the franchise's all-time leader in receptions.
Boldin, now with the Baltimore Ravens, leads Cardinals' receivers all-time with 586 career grabs while on the team. Fitzgerald, with 582, is closing in fast -- and, in fine Fitzgerald-ian fashion, he's not gloating.
"A lot of the things I'm able to do [Anquan Boldin] helped me with
when he was here," he told reporters Thursday. "The other great
receivers, Roy Green, Mel Grey, and guys like that who came before me set
the bar pretty high here. It feels good to be mentioned in the same
breath as those men."
Fitz still needs five receptions, which could be a problem.
Coach Ken Whisenhunt announced earlier this week that Derek Anderson
will be starting at quarterback Sunday, despite playing
awful all season, most notably, last week against the San Francisco
49ers -- and despite the nationally televised tirade that followed.
Anderson's had trouble hitting Fitzgerald all season. When he does find
him, his passes are almost always off their mark. As is the case with
the rest of the members of the Cards' stable of receivers (with the
occasional exception of Steve Breaston).
Other than Fitzgerald possibly passing Boldin, there's not much for
which to look forward, Cards fans -- we hate to be the bearer of bad
news, but they're gonna lose. That's a fact (almost).
The Cardinals barely (extremely barely) beat St. Louis earlier this year
when the teams met in week one. Anderson was less-than-impressive, going 22 for 41, with 266 passing yards and one touchdown -- and that was about as good has he's played all season.
Rams QB Sam Bradford, on the other hand, who also played horribly in week one, has gotten consistently better as the season's
gone on. He was intercepted three times in week one (which is the only
reason the Cards won) but has only been picked off six times since. He's
also thrown more than twice as many touchdowns this season as Anderson
(17 to Anderson's 7).
That said, should a miracle occur and the Cardinals actually show up and
play football, we'll gladly eat our words come Monday morning -- but we're not counting on it.
Kickoff is at 2:15 p.m. and the game can be seen on FOX. Click here for more Cards info.