The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob McGinn gives Packer fans guarded optimism about Saturday’s playoff game at Arizona because …

At 36 years old, this might be quarterback Carson Palmer‘s last chance to win a playoff game, let alone reach the Super Bowl.

The pressures are many as Palmer leads the second-seeded Arizona Cardinals (13-3) against the fifth-seeded Green Bay Packers (11-6) in an NFC divisional playoff game Saturday night in Glendale, Ariz.

“The pressure is only something you feel if you’re not prepared,” coach Bruce Arians said Tuesday. “I’m betting he’s going to be really prepared….I’m sure he’s going to be excited. My job is to not let him get too excited.

“He’s obviously more than just a quarterback. He’s the leader of the football team and our guys rally around him. He’s a very calming player.”

Since the Cardinals’ 38-8 romp over the Packers 2½ weeks ago, Palmer turned in a subpar performance in their 36-6 loss to the visiting Seattle Seahawks. With a win over Seattle and a loss by Carolina to Tampa Bay, Arizona would have clinched home-field advantage as the No. 1 seed.

Neither the Panthers’ big early lead nor the Cardinals’ big early deficit caused Arians to remove Palmer at halftime. He said his decision had been made six days earlier.

“I think Arizona really came out to win,” an executive in personnel for an NFL team said after studying the Seattle tape. “I wouldn’t say they were flat. They came out sharp, but Seattle imposed their will. Seattle was very much more the physical team.”

A personnel director for another team disagreed, saying, “You can disregard the Seattle game. Arizona had nothing to play for.”

Seattle had five starters on the inactive list.

Palmer completed just 12 of 25 passes for 129 yards, one interception, one touchdown and a passer rating of 60.3.

There were poor decisions, bad throws and two balls batted down at the line. He floated one interception and threw another deep ball into a three-man cluster of defenders that was even worse. The Seahawks dropped that one.

Arians blamed the receivers for dropping several passes, but it clearly wasn’t the way Palmer wanted to enter the postseason.

“What Seattle did well was eliminate the run game and force Carson to make quick decisions,” one scout said. “He kind of got out of rhythm and had an uncharacteristic day. He’s been really careful with the ball. He was trying to give guys a chance to make a play.”

Palmer didn’t practice much before the Green Bay and Seattle games because of the dislocated index finger on his right hand that he suffered following through into the hand and face mask of Eagles linebacker Connor Barwinon Dec. 20.

When Palmer continued playing, he developed a “very sore lat (muscle) from changing his motion,” according to Arians.

Last week, Arians added: “For a quarterback it’s a weird feeling, and it worried him some. But once we readjusted the tape job so that he could use his finger and come off the ball last, the soreness went away and he’s really good right now.”

Three days after the Seattle game, Palmer said the injuries no longer were an issue.

Palmer, who won the 2002 Heisman Trophy and recently was selected to his third Pro Bowl, is 0-2 as a playoff starter.

In January 2006, Palmer suffered a dislocated kneecap and other major damage on a hit by Steelers nose tackleKimo von Oelhoffen on the second play of Cincinnati’s playoff defeat.

In January 2010, Palmer played poorly (58.4 rating) as the Bengals, a 2½-point favorite, dropped a wild-card game to the Jets, 24-14. Last year, he suffered another blown knee in Game 9 and missed the Cardinals’ 27-16 wild-card loss at Carolina. …

Despite the 30-point margin, Arians indicated the Cardinals and Packers should be fairly evenly matched.

“I don’t really think we dominated them in any form or fashion other than we got a couple of good fumbles and picked them up and scored,” he said. “They’re too good, and we didn’t get their best shot because they didn’t have their best players.”

Said Palmer: “The way that game played out, we didn’t run much of what we had planned, and now things are so different this time.

“That game was not something we are hanging our hat on. The way that game turned out is not what we are expecting to happen again. We have to play our best football to beat this team, and we know that.”

Playoff games usually are not identical to regular-season meetings between the same teams, even when in the same venue. Recall that in 2009 the Packers beat Arizona toward the end of the season, then lost in the playoffs. One year later, the Packers lost at Atlanta, then dominated the Falcons in the playoffs on the way to the Super Bowl XLV win. The similarity among the three Packers–Bears meetings in the 2010 season was only that all games were close.

Interestingly, in the Super Bowl XLV season all three Packers opponents in the NFC playoffs were rematches of regular-season meetings. If the Packers win Saturday, they are guaranteed a rematch in the NFC championships, either against Seattle or at Carolina.