TEMPE, Ariz. -- Now that his team is guaranteed to have a losing record for the first time in his four seasons in Arizona, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians next chore is to prepare a team headed nowhere for a Christmas Eve encounter with the Seahawks in Seattle.Its the Seahawks, Arians said at his Monday news conference, so we should be ready to play.Arians liked everything but his defense in Sundays 48-41 home loss to the New Orleans Saints. The outcome left Arizona at 5-8-1. The Cardinals finish the season with road games at Seattle and Los Angeles, and the best they could hope for is to wind up 7-8-1.But Arizona is 1-5 on the road with the only victory away from home at San Francisco, a team that stands 1-13.And a strong finish to the season would entail beating a Seahawks team that will have extra rest and something to play for when the teams meet at Century Link Field.Arizona has won in Seattle two out of three times under Arians, including last seasons 39-32 back-and-forth triumph en route to a 13-3 season and an NFC West title for the Cardinals.The way it went, to get way ahead, he said, to lose it, and then come back, it was very special.Now, Seattle (9-4-1) has sewn up the division title and is a half-game ahead of Detroit and Atlanta for the No. 2 seed in the NFC and the first-round bye that goes with it.Arians has a healthy respect for the Seahawks.Every time you play them, he said, you better have your big-boy pants on.That will be a big challenge for an inexperienced, makeshift offensive line that held up well against the Saints. So will the next game, the season finale against the rugged front of the Rams.Theyll have their hands full both times, Arians said. Being on the road with arguably the two best, most disruptive players in (Michael) Bennett and Aaron Donald, we have our hands full when we have a healthy offensive line.Two months ago in Arizona, the Cardinals and Seattle fought to an odd 6-6 tie with both teams missing chip-shot field goals that would have won the game in overtime.This is a much different Arizona squad, though, after a series of injuries.We dont have the same team we played them here with, but I like the way we played this past week offensively, Arians said. Special teams, other than the (missed) extra point, were good. We had a couple of good kickoff returns. Defensively, weve got to show up.The coach described the play of his secondary as very, very below par for us.He said safety Tyrann Mathieu, playing despite a shoulder injury, gave it everything he had.But, he said of Mathieus play, it aint Ty.There were some bright spots.In addition to the overall strength of the inexperienced offensive line, Arians also liked the play of defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche, the first-round draft pick who played after being inactive for most games this season.Robert did well, Arians said. The stat sheet didnt look it, but he was explosive. Hes been practicing really well.The coach has criticized Nkemdiche for not working hard enough in practice, but said effort isnt a problem now.The last six weeks he has (worked hard), Arians said. The opportunity presented itself this time. He had a really good week of practice.David Johnson set an NFL record by topping 100 yards from scrimmage in the first 14 games of a season. But Arians doesnt like Johnsons chances for reaching another huge milestone -- 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving.Johnson needs 200 yards receiving to reach the goal.Ill be surprised if he gets it, Arians said. One-hundred yards as a back receiving is very hard to do, two weeks in a row against two really quality defenses, two best in the league.Game notes Quarterback Carson Palmer said after Sundays game that he expects to be back next season. ... Because the Cardinals play on Saturday, the players had Monday off. ... Arizona released cornerback Tharold Simon and promoted cornerback Harlan Miller from the practice squad. Miller was the Cardinals sixth-round draft pick this year out of Southeastern Louisiana.---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Cheap Authentic NCAA Jerseys . Burris threw two TD passes, including a key 15-yard fourth-quarter strike to Bakari Grant that effectively countered a Toronto comeback bid and led Hamilton to a 33-19 victory. Cheap USA College Jerseys .Y. -- Syracuse has turned up the defence at the right time all season, and when High Point threatened to pull off a monumental upset the second-ranked Orange did what they do best with their quick hands and savvy play. http://www.cheapcollegejerseys.us.com/ . President of baseball operations Larry Beinfest was fired Friday after 12 years with the Marlins. The move came as the team neared the end of its third consecutive last-place season in the NL East. Cheap USA College Jerseys Free Shipping . Manuel was offered a position the day he was fired. He accepted earlier this week and the team made the announcement Friday. Cheap NCAA Jerseys China . World champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia won the gold medal with 237.71 points, Moore-Towers and Moscovitch followed at 208.45 and Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia were third at 187. Kerri Strug became one of the best-known faces of the Atlanta 1996 Olympics when she landed her vault on an injured ankle, ensuring that the U.S. women would win their first ever Olympic gold medal. Twenty years later, we asked her to recount what she remembers best about that day. There was so much energy in that building, right from the start. I remember marching into the Georgia Dome after the warm-up session and seeing all the American flags and hearing chants of Go USA! We were wearing the American flag on our leotards and warm-ups. There was so much pride. We started out on uneven bars and our first competitor, Jaycie Phelps, had one of her best routines. She stuck her dismount and after that, everyone followed suit. You could feel the energy heighten. Our coaches were typically pretty stoic. As gymnasts, were taught from an extremely young age that you dont get too excited until the meet is over, and even then, theres always another competition. Theres not much celebration in gymnastics. But our coaches were genuinely excited.The competition only got better from there. On our next rotation, we went to the balance beam. If there is an event you are going to falter on in a high-stakes competition environment, its beam. But not on that day. Floor was next, and its a great event to have home-court advantage. The crowd was clapping along to our music. We had one little mishap, but back then, six gymnasts competed in each event and you got to drop one score. So we had five great scores on floor and only one more event to go. If we held on, we would become the first U.S. womens team to win the Olympic title.Then we got to the vault. And I dont know what happened. From the get go, we had issues. Normally, [U.S. coach] Bela Karolyi was out on the floor with us. Hes a big guy who can move the vault and boards and mats quickly. You only get three minutes to warm up, and he wasnt out there, so we didnt get through our normal warm up. Dominique Moceanu and I were at the end of the lineup, so we didnt get to warm up the vaults we would compete, which we always did. At this level of competition, that should have had no bearing on how we performed. We said to each other, Weve done this a thousand times. Well be fine. But looking back, I wonder. Did that do something to our psyches? Did it cause us to fall?I wasnt watching when Dominique took her first vault. But I heard a huge gasp from the crowd. When I looked up at the jumbo screen, I saw that she fell. But I wasnt worried. I knew she would correct it on her next vault. But she did not.I dont know if it was a case of monkey see, monkey do. We both had enough height and shouldnt have had a problem landing our vaults. Wed landed them thousands of times. But we both opened up too early and sat on our bottoms.I knew something was wrong with my left leg. When I fell on my first vault, I couldnt believe it. Is this really happening? My legs were already wrapped prior to competing because Id been dealing with shin splints and ankle pain, but this was different.When I set up to take my second vault, I heard the words Bela was saying to me, the words they spoofed on Saturday Night Live: You can do it. You can do it. But I didnt focus on them. After all those years of training and coaching and hard work, thats all he could say? No advice on technique? Just You can do it.dddddddddddd Looking back, I believe he knew I needed to be on automatic pilot. I knew what to do. I could do it. He didnt want me to think. He wanted me to just do it. Today, his words make sense.I think people want me to say there was a special, magical moment during the vault that came next. It might be disappointing to hear, but there wasnt. It was just a moment of thinking, You have to do this. Youve done it a million times. Do it again. In that moment, all the years of doing one more vault when I was too tired or sick or didnt want to perform another rep paid off.As I started running toward the vault, my ankle felt displaced and unstable. I remember thinking I was going to trip and fall on my face. I dont remember the vault itself, but when I landed, I didnt think Id done anything special. I was supposed to land the vault. Anything else would have been unacceptable.I wanted to be Mary Lou. I wanted to be remembered for standing on top of the podium smiling from ear to ear and winning gold in the individual all-around, just like her. So it was awesome when I heard we won the team gold, but I was already thinking ahead to the individual all-around, which I then missed because of the ankle injury. After competing at the 1992 Games, I set my goal to make it to 1996 and win individual medals.When I was 6, I decided I wanted to go to the Olympics. Back then, it wasnt about team medals or the character traits gymnastics gives to you. But when you get older and become a mom, you realize how critical those are. I still wonder if I hadnt gotten hurt, would I have won more medals? Would I have won the all-around? Thats just human nature.When I realized my Olympics was over, I was so disappointed. I was moping a lot. My dad kept telling me that, in his mind, Id won seven gold medals. You have to be content with what transpired. Were so proud of you, he said. As a parent now, I get it. He was finding the silver lining. But as a gymnast, your world is very little. Youre in a bubble. I couldnt see it.Twenty years later, I wish I had basked in the glory more. Instead of standing in the medal ceremony thinking, Why did I get hurt? Why did this have to happen to me? I should have been thinking, Wow. We won team gold. Let me enjoy this attention. Now that Im a mom, its all I would want for my daughter.Twenty years later, with more experience, I have a different perspective about that day. It really was magical. Before that day, I was known as the girl who couldnt put it together when it counted, who worked hard and always faltered. It is extremely significant that I put it together when it counted most.Now, when Im in situations I dont know if I can deal with, I tell myself, youre a lot stronger than you think. You have to push yourself day in and day out. You never know how one moment will impact you. I can look back now and say it was awesome I was able to pull that vault off.That vault changed me and changed my life for the better. ' ' '