‘Thursday Night Football’ 2015 Week 14: Cardinals beat Vikings, clinch NFC West

“The play call was designed to get out of bounds,” Bridgewater said. “All of our receivers were coming from the left side of the field so I tried to do my best to wait for those guys to at least get to the right side of the hash so that they didn’t get tackled in bounds because we didn’t have any timeouts.”

Yes, with one of the NFL’s worst offensive lines, the play call from Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner asked Bridgewater to wait for tight end Kyle Rudolph and wide receiver Jarius Wright to run from the left side of the field, and then throw when they could get out of bounds on the right side of the field. That proved to be too much time to ask for.

Those points came when they drove 11 plays in 55 yards, capping the drive with a 47-yard field goal from Chandler Catanzaro. The Vikings had 1:23 to drive down the field and either tie or win the game, but the Cardinals were able to hold on and stop them.

Minnesota actually drove down into field goal territory, but on a third down play, Bridgewater was attempting a pass when he was hit from behind and fumbled the ball, allowing the Cardinals to kill the clock and seal the win. Dwight Freeney was the player who forced the fumble, and many questions about Mike Zimmer and his coaching staff’s clock management will certainly be raised.

The Cardinals have won their last six games, with only two falling into the closely contested category. Quarterback Carson Palmer has delivered the best season of his 12-year career, placing him on the periphery of the MVP discussion. He has already thrown for nearly 3,700 yards, a 29:9 touchdown-to-interception ratio and a career-high 8.8 yards per pass attempt.

On defense, Arizona has established itself as both stout against the run and suffocating versus the pass. The accomplishment is made even more impressive considering that coordinator James Bettcher has never run a defense before this season.

This is truly a great time to be a Cardinals fan. They’ve already secured their third straight 10-win season, something the team has only done once before in its history (1974-76). This is also just the second time they’ve won 10 of their first 12 games -- and that magical run came way back in 1948 when they were based in Chicago. Another victory on Thursday would give them a record-tying 11 wins this season and also secure their first seven-game win streak in more than 40 years.

The Cardinals might not be able to match the unbeaten Panthers in the loss column, but they can still make a legit claim to be the league’s best overall team. Arizona has the highest margin of victory in the NFL -- which is historically a strong predictor of success -- and is the only club that has a top-five ranking in Football Outsiders’ efficiency metrics on both offense (fourth) and defense (third).