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Carson Palmer's nightmare night can be condensed into a single stat line: four picks, two fumbles, a 43.2 passer rating, and a 34-point loss in the NFC Championship -- a reality brought to life by a Panthers' defense hell-bent on dismantling Palmer and the Cardinals, leaving the quarterback and team broken and bruised.

Yet after the game, Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians went to bat for Palmer, defending his disastrous performance.

"Carson didn't lose the damn game. Nothing wrong with his damn finger," Arians said, per NFL.com. "You can keep all them questions. We just didn't play well enough. Our best players especially didn't play well enough."

Unfortunately for Arians, Palmer is one of his best players, one who didn't play well enough. And, while it's tough to pin a 34-point loss entirely on one player, Palmer is the most likely candidate to shoulder the blame. Even beyond his putrid stats, Palmer's end-zone interception to end the first half, which occurred just one play after Patrick Peterson gave the Cardinals life with a 72-yard interception return, appeared to be the moment that sealed the game.

The Cardinals were positioned just 22 yards away from the end zone with a chance to enter halftime in a 10-point hole. Instead, Palmer forced a pass into a nonexistent window, and the Cardinals trailed by three scores at the break.

"Trying to make too much happen too soon on that play," Arians said. "Just take the short one and we keep playing with two timeouts. Then we did not come out of the locker room with the effort defensively that we needed to stop them. We needed to change the tide in the first five minutes of the third quarter and we did not get it done."

Whether it's fair or not, Palmer has now landed the dreaded "playoff choke" label. Though he seemingly shook free of that burden last week when the Cardinals escaped with an overtime win over the Packers, he also played poorly in that loss, tossing two interceptions. And that means Palmer recorded six interceptions in two playoff games after he accumulated just 11 picks during the regular season. 

For what it's worth, even Palmer accepted responsibility for the loss.

"This is as low as you can feel," Palmer said. "I kept digging us a hole."

Still, it would be unwise to write off Palmer, even in the aftermath of Sunday's calamity. After all, he's a 36-year-old quarterback who tore an ACL for a second time a year ago and responded by putting up MVP-caliber numbers while leading his team to a 13-3 record. 

With one of the league's best coaches working by his side, chances are Palmer will receive another opportunity to shake the label.

Carson Palmer threw four picks and lost two fumbles in the NFC title game. (USATSI)