The Arizona Cardinals punched their ticket to the playoffs

FOR THE BIRDS: The Arizona Cardinals are going to the playoffs, no matter what happens for the rest of the season. Last night’s win over the Vikings sealed the deal for Bruce Arians and Co.

The Cardinals haven’t missed a beat since turning to running back David Johnson to replace Chris Johnson, and the team is clutch as clutch can be on both sides of the ball.

Of course, they could always give guard Mike Iupati the ball again if they need to. Larry Fitzgerald was laying out fools last night, too. Dwight Freeney’s strip sack sealed the game.

That’s seven wins in a row for the Cardinals, the second-longest streak in the NFL behind the Panthers. They play the Eagles next week, but have to finish the season with back-to-back home games against the Packers and Seahawks.

It wasn’t a bad effort from the Vikings at all, especially with their three best defensive players sitting out with injuries. Adrian Peterson scored his 100th career touchdown, which is worth watching again. They might’ve won, too, if Norv Turner hadn’t gotten weird with his play calls late in the game.

SECRET PLAN: What’s DeMarco Murray trying to do? All that complaining to the Eagles owner might just be a plan to get him back to Dallas, according to some NFL insiders.

WHAT’S A CATCH: The NFL has a new catch rule committee. Two of its members are head coaches who got fired this season. And nobody really knows what they’re going to do. BTW, the catch rule as currently written might not be as bad as you think it is.

GABBO: Blaine Gabbert is playing just well enough to screw over the 49ers. The good news is: Blaine Gabbert is playing well. That’s also the bad news.

HALF-ASSED FALCONS: Bucs’ Gerald McCoy calls out the Falcons’ defense. The Falcons let Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston convert a long third down in a key moment in Week 13’s matchup. We’re the Falcons really “half-assing” it?

BACKUP FOOTNOTE: Jimmy Clausen could make very sad NFL history. If Clausen suits up for the Ravens, he would be only the sixth quarterback to ever face the same team twice in one season while playing for at least two different clubs. But there’s a special milestone he can achieve that the others didn’t.

WATT IS PLAYING: A broken hand can’t stop J.J. Watt. He’s playing this against the Patriots, broken hand or not.

ALT DOT JERSEY: The Rams-Buccaneers Color Rush jerseys were inspired by condiments. Ketchup vs. Mustard

CONCUSSION MOVIE: Adam Schefter is wrong, you should go see Concussion. On Christmas Day, Concussion will be released nationwide in movie theaters. The movie details the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, and his work discovering and publicizing the issue of CTE.

EXPLAINING THE SEASON: The year the NFL got weird. The 2015 season has felt like a slog most weeks, but the little things have kept it interesting.

COMEBACK PLAYER: The best safety in the game wasn’t even playing last year. Eric Berry’s comeback story is amazing.