Bordow: Cards' D-line will have to man up vs. Panthers

The Strongest Right Arm is talking about Fart Box. "He's a character. He'll make a play and it ignites the fans and it ignites us. It sends a surge through us to see how much passion he plays with. That's one of his gifts."

Cards notebook: Team says it'll be different this time in N.C.

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Perhaps we should explain.

The Strongest Right Arm is the nickname for Cardinals defensive end Antonio Smith, who celebrates a big play by flexing his muscle.

Fart Box is defensive tackle Darnell Dockett, and we'll let nose tackle Bryan Robinson handle that one.

"He takes these protein shakes where he's trying to keep himself healthy, but when it comes out we all suffer," Robinson said. "It's nasty."

Thankfully, Dockett's emissions were deodorized last Saturday when the Cardinals' defensive line came out smelling like a rose in Arizona's 30-24 wild-card win over the Atlanta Falcons.

The same unit that looked so helpless against Philadelphia (185 yards rushing), Minnesota (239) and New England (183) stoned the Falcons, holding running backs Michael Turner and Jerious Norwood to 54 yards on 20 carries.

But that was just the warm-up act. On Saturday, Fart Box, the Strongest Right Arm and Bumpy Johnson - Robinson's nickname because, at 34, he's the group's elder statesman - will have to man up against the Carolina Panthers if the Cardinals have any hope of moving on to the NFC championship game.

That won't be easy. Carolina ranked third in the league in rushing (152.3 yards) in the regular season, and backs DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart combined for a whopping 2,351 yards and 28 touchdowns.

"That running game they got, it's hard to stop," Smith said.

It's hard to imagine the defensive line controlling the game as it did against the Falcons, if only because it's been so maddeningly inconsistent the entire season. One week, the Cardinals are a stone wall. The next week, they're one-ply toilet paper.

Some of that is sheer physics. The Cardinals are undersized up front. Robinson checks in at 304 pounds, about 30 pounds less than most nose tackles, Dockett is 285 pounds, and both Smith (272) and fellow end Bertrand Berry (260) are small for their position. There are games in which the line simply is overpowered.

But size isn't the only issue. Too often, the line plays lazy football. And when that happens, it has no chance.

"When they play with discipline, they play so well," coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "We've been sporadic with that during the year but the last two games (Atlanta and Seattle) that's really picked up."

While safety Adrian Wilson is the unquestioned leader of the defense, it's the line that sets the tone for the entire group. Look at the Atlanta game. The Cardinals - and their fans - were juiced every time Turner was stopped for no gain or quarterback Matt Ryan was harried into a bad pass.

The line's energy will be particularly vital Saturday. The Cardinals won't have the home crowd behind them. They'll have to administer their own shot of adrenaline.

"We know we're going to be the ones that have to cause the havoc and get people going," Robinson said. "With any great defense, once your D-line gets going everybody feeds off it."

Dockett is the key. He's the live wire in the bunch, and the one lineman who can dominate a game with his physical gifts. But when he's invisible, the rest of the line seems to shrink as well.

"He's definitely a ball of energy," Robinson said.

Just ask Smith, who, after tackling Ryan in the end zone last Saturday for a safety, was pounced on by his teammate, who rode him as if he was a Brahma bull.

"It was real painful," Smith said. "He hit me in the head like 15 times. I watched a replay and he was going so crazy a referee literally had to pick him up and pull him back.

"When we got to the sideline, I said, 'Man, what are you hitting me in the head for?' He's like, 'Man, I was just excited.'

"I told him I had a headache and to leave me alone."

A little head-banging wouldn't hurt against the Panthers. If Arizona can neutralize Carolina's running game, a wide path will open to the NFC title game.

And that would be a moment even Fart Box couldn't ruin.