Ryan Lindley starts a playoff game, it goes quite, quite poorly

The Arizona Cardinals were in a rough scenario. They made the playoffs, thanks to a 9-1 start. But QB Carson Palmer went down with an injury in November, and backup QB Drew Stanton needed knee surgery and then his knee got infected. They had to start a playoff game with fourth-string QB Ryan Lindley, whom they had released in August before the slew of injuries. Let’s see how that went.

The Cardinals had the fewest yards in NFL playoff history. Lindley went 16-of-28 for 82 yards, and was sacked four times for 31 yards, meaning the team averaged a horrific 1.6 yards per pass play. He threw one touchdown, but was also intercepted twice, including this one.

Lindley came into the game with ghastly career stats -- 50.8 percent completion percentage with two touchdowns against 11 interceptions. He was asked to play against a team that made the NFL playoffs. Bad things happen in these scenarios.

Lindley’s game is far from the worst in NFL playoff history. In fact, the list of QBs to have fewer than 100 yards on 25 attempts features Dan Marino and other notable names. Surely there are a slew of NFL QBs who would’ve looked just as over-matched, but Lindley still looked like a fish out of water.

Bruce Arians will receive criticism for not putting in rookie Logan Thomas, who the Cardinals drafted in the fourth round this year. Thomas spent the whole year on the Cards’ roster, whereas the team cut Lindley in August and signed him again in November. But apparently what Arians saw out of Thomas in practice wasn’t particularly encouraging -- and it’s also worth noting he went 1-of-9 passing in regular season action.

What we’re trying to say is this: if your team has a passable NFL quarterback -- maybe not a great NFL quarterback, but a passable one -- be grateful. There are a handful of people as talented as Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, and there are probably a few dozen people talented enough to competently run an NFL team. After that, there are incredibly slim pickings. If your team’s quarterback who you kinda hate gets hurt, you might have to turn to a replacement-level player, and then you end up with the fewest yards in NFL playoff history.