updated 6:04 p.m. ET Dec. 21, 2008

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - New England is peaking in time for the postseason, whipping Arizona 47-7 with a blizzard of points on a snow-covered field Sunday.

It won’t keep the Cardinals out of the playoffs. And it might not be enough to get the Patriots in.

“We have no one to be frustrated with but ourselves,” Patriots guard Logan Mankins said. “We lost five games.”

Miami, tied with the Patriots at 10-5 but with the tiebreaker edge, would win the AFC East with a victory over the New York Jets next Sunday. Baltimore would get the AFC’s one available wild-card spot by beating Jacksonville, leaving New England out for the first time in six years.

But on Sunday, the Patriots showed total superiority to the struggling champions of the weak NFC West. They pressured Kurt Warner into one of his worst games in 11 pro seasons as he threw for just 30 yards.

The Cardinals’ defense was more miserable than the weather, allowing the Patriots to score on nine of their 10 possessions before Matt Cassel got the rest of the game off.

New England held a huge margin of 514 to 186 yards over the NFL’s second-highest scoring team.

“Right now, we aren’t what we were,” Warner said. “If we’re happy with winning the division, than that’s all we’ll do.”

The Cardinals (8-7) didn’t blame their fourth loss in five games on the snowy conditions that they never see in Arizona.

“It’s not about excuses. It’s all about execution,” free safety Antrel Rolle said, “It’s embarrassing. It’s nothing we can brush off our shoulder.”

The Patriots are 10-0 in home games in which snow has fallen during the game and, unlike the Cardinals, practiced in it last week.

“I don’t know if they’re built for these conditions,” Mankins said. “They’re a passing team, they don’t really run the ball. They’re not used to the snow, maybe a sandstorm or something.”

Cassel completed 20 of 36 passes for 345 yards and three touchdowns a week after throwing for four touchdowns in a 49-26 win at Oakland as the Patriots seized control early for the second straight game.

“I’ve never played in the snow before,” said Cassel, who barely played at all the past seven seasons at Southern California and New England. “It was a lot of fun.”

Video   Snowy success for Patriots Dec. 22: Matt Cassel had a lot of fun leading New England to a win in his first time playing in snow. NBC Sports

Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart, who kept Cassel on the bench for his last two college seasons after Carson Palmer did it for his first two, replaced Warner with 3:27 left in the third quarter. He went 6-of-14 for 138 yards with an interception, a fumble and a 78-yard touchdown on which Larry Fitzgerald ran most of the way to cut the lead to 47-7 with 6:17 left.

New England clinched a better record than Arizona, which is 2-6 against winning teams, but could become the second team to miss the postseason with an 11-5 record since the NFL adopted a 16-game schedule in 1978.

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“That’s not really anything that we have any control over,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “We’re not in the NFC.”

Warner, with receiver Anquan Boldin out with a shoulder injury, went 6-of-18 for 30 yards, the fewest in any game in which he started and threw at least 10 passes. His previous low was 105 yards in a loss at Seattle on Sept. 25, 2005.

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