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Cards spoil Holmgren's final Seahawks game

NFC West champ Arizona enters playoffs on a winning note

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Ross D. Franklin / AP
Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren, left, shakes hands with Arizona Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt after Sunday's game.
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updated 8:03 p.m. ET Dec. 28, 2008

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald sent the Arizona Cardinals into the playoffs as winners.

Warner threw four touchdown passes, his most in seven years, then sat out the fourth quarter Sunday and the Cardinals beat Seattle 34-21 to spoil the final game of Mike Holmgren's decade as Seahawks coach.

Two of Warner's TDs went to Fitzgerald, who caught five passes for 130 yards.

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The Cardinals (9-7), who had been blown out twice since clinching the NFC West title, finished the regular season with a winning record for the first time in a decade and only the second time since 1984. They will play a first-round playoff game at home against Atlanta next weekend.

Fitzgerald, in a spectacular performance with teammate Anquan Boldin out with a shoulder injury, had touchdown catches of 5 and 38 yards and caught a 50-yarder to set up another score.

Warner completed 19-of-30 for 263 yards and was intercepted once. His four touchdown passes gave him a franchise-record 30 for the season. Matt Leinart played the final quarter in relief of Warner and directed the team to a pair of field goals.

Edgerrin James, in his first extensive play since he was benched eight games into the season, carried 14 times for 100 yards. His 35-yard run, the longest in his three seasons with the Cardinals, set up Neil Rackers' 23-yard field goal that put Arizona ahead 31-21 with 8:26 to play.

Seneca Wallace threw two touchdown passes and was intercepted twice for the Seahawks (4-12). Arizona finished 6-0 against NFC West foes.

Holmgren's team beat the New York Jets in his final home game as coach a week ago, but there was no fond farewell this time. The coach, who is stepping down and vows to spend at least one year out of football, has a 174-122 career NFL record, 90-80 with Seattle.

Steve Breaston caught five passes for 91 yards, the last a 7-yarder in the waning seconds, to join Fitzgerald and Boldin as 1,000-yard receivers. It marks the fifth time in NFL history that three teammates passed the 1,000-yard mark. Breaston had 999 before the late pass.

Fitzgerald's gorgeous 38-yard catch in the corner of the end zone put Arizona ahead for good 21-14 with 8:49 left in the third. After Seattle punted on its next possession, the Cardinals went 68 yards in nine plays, capped by Warner's 14-yard TD pass to Breaston, and it was 28-14.

Both teams committed turnovers on their first possessions of the game.

On the second play from scrimmage, Ralph Brown intercepted Wallace's pass at the Arizona 49, ending the Seattle quarterback's franchise-record string of 184 attempts without an interception.

But two plays later, Darryl Tapp sacked Warner. The Arizona quarterback fumbled and the ball was recovered by Seattle's Josh Wilson at the Seahawks 36. Seattle went 64 yards in 12 plays for the touchdown, T.J. Duckett scoring from the 2 to make it 7-0.

The Cardinals finally got their offense going when Warner connected with Fitzgerald on a 50-yard pass play. That set up Warner's 16-yard touchdown pass to Jerheme Urban to tie it at 7-7 with 5:45 left in the half. The drive came after Olindo Mare's 42-yard field-goal try for Seattle was wide left.

The Seahawks' second turnover led to an Arizona touchdown. Karlos Dansby stripped the ball from Maurice Morris. Brown scooped it up and ran 11 yards to the 12. Warner's 5-yard TD pass to Fitzgerald made it 14-7.

Seattle took the subsequent kickoff and went 74 yards in seven plays, Wallace throwing 30 yards to Deion Branch for the score that tied it at 14-14 1:17 before halftime.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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