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The worst playoff team in NFL history now has the NFC Championship wrapped up, and is making its plans for Tampa in two weeks. 

By now, the word "unexpected" is worn out as a way of describing The Cardinals phenomenal playoff run.  After being torn apart and treated like a scrimmage opponent in all major NFL writers columns on SI.com, the Cardinals are not only the NFC champion, but the best looking team in the playoff.  No team has been a dominant as them in any of their games.  

Defying the odds, and the pundits, The Cardinals did it.  It was particularly fun watching as the sports writers (Don Banks in particular) grew more and more frustrated with the surprising Cardinals sucess.  It seems they were taken completely off guard and cannot figure out why in the world the Cardinals are playing this well, right now.  

So what is the secret to their success?  After that horrible late season run, including that snowy 40-7 loss at the Patriots, how does a team get as close to gold rings as they are to Edgerin James' gold dentures?  

Alot of talk has been given to Ken Whisenhunt's padding up the boys and pushing them hard, motivating them to play and practice hard with their playoff starting spots on the line.  People have treated as a response to the slump, but I think it very well could've been the plan all along.

After the Cardinals lost to the giants in Week 12, their record sat at 7-4, in any division other than the NFC West, a weak number.  Arizona's respective division mates, St. Louis, Seattle, and San Francisco by that time had compiled 2-10, 2-10, and 3-9 records respectively.  The division title was well in hand.  In the mean time, the number 1 and 2 seeds were growing more and more out of reach.

At crunch time, Ken Whisenhunt had a team with injury prone star players had very little to win for.  Through the snow in New England, you could see a team with no interest in winning, or playing for that matter.  I'm not going to say that Ken Whisenhunt encouraged his team to play soft, but I would not argue that he let them take it easy in these last few weeks.

Why not heal up your best players while your division rivals hand the title over to you?  I'm not going to cry "genius" yet over Whisenhunt, but all those losses really did was provide an extra rant or too for the Peter Kings and Don Bankses(say it with a drawn out sssssssss) of the world.  

The worst team in the recent history of the NFL playoffs is taking its 37 year-old Quarterback and record-breaking Wide Receiver to Tampa in two weeks, and there's more room on the bandwagon if you'd like to hop on.