It's been well documented the impact that Minnesota natives Larry Fitzgerald, Jr. and Michael Floyd have had on the Arizona Cardinals.
Mark Craig of the Star Tribune noted there's even more Minnesota impacting Arizona's offense: Owatonna native Tom Moore, "the 77-year-old assistant head coach and offensive consultant to 63-year-old head coach Bruce Arians."
*Moore started coaching in 1961 at Iowa. He was a Gophers assistant in the 1970s and a Vikings assistant in the '90s. He won two Super Bowls with Chuck Noll in Pittsburgh and one with the Colts when he was teamed with Manning and Tony Dungy, his quarterback at Minnesota. *
Those close to Moore say he was rejuvenated when he had double knee-replacement surgery in 2011. Harold Goodwin, 42, is the Cardinals offensive coordinator, but Moore's fingerprints are on Arizona's top-ranked attack.
Arizona defeated Green Bay 26-20 in overtime in one of the craziest Divisional games ever. The Cardinals will play the Panthers in the NFC Championship.
Click **here** to read other trends that Craig spotted in this weekend's playoff winners.
Not a defining moment
Had the Vikings defeated the Seahawks in the Wild Card round, Minnesota would have visited the Cardinals, and the Packers would have visited the Panthers.
The opportunity was missed because of multiple plays, but a misfire on a 27-yard field goal attempt is the one that's been on loop and remained in conversations. Peter King of Sports Illustrated's **The Monday Morning Quarterback** asked Blair Walsh about the kick and how he's determined to not let it define him.
"What happened was, I rushed it, and I didn't have to," Walsh said. "I didn't power through. It is unexplainable. The whole thing … I rushed the process, and you never should do that on a kick. I watched it one time — on the tablet we get from the team. I watched it, and I saw what I did wrong. I rushed it.
"The hardest thing is knowing I let my team down. I get emotional when I think of that. That's my job, and I didn't do it. When we all came in on Monday, the day after the game, and I have to look at them, that's the toughest thing."
*But there is one thing Walsh is quite sure of. He is not sure he can watch football right now, because when he does he thinks of the fact that his miss put the Vikings out of the games we're watching now, and that quasi-torments him. While Walsh hurts for the fans who love the Vikings and were gutted by losing that game, he does feel strongly that the miss will not mar his career to the point that he'll have to do something else. *
"A missed field goal is not going to define who I am — and it is not going to ruin my life," he said matter-of-factly.
Quick Hitter
ESPN.com's Ben Goessling with a look at the **niche role*** *that Matt Asiata has carved with the Vikings.
