GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Cardinals enter Saturday night’s NFC divisional playoff game the more accomplished team for the balance of the 2015 season, having won a franchise-record 13 games and the NFC West title.

That is why the Packers are a seven-point underdog.

But the Packers (11-6) enter the game at University of Phoenix Stadium as the more accomplished postseason team, with a roster littered with players having positive playoff experience.

The Packers, too, believe they have turned a sluggish finish to the regular season — three wins in their final six games — into postseason momentum following last week’s wild-card win in Washington.

“I feel very good coming off the performance we had Sunday and being able to turn right around and just keep going,’’ Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “We have a lot of energy and confidence right now.”

This game marks only the sixth time in McCarthy’s 15 playoff games that Green Bay’s opponent has been favored. The only game in which a McCarthy playoff team was an underdog by more points was last year’s NFC Championship against Seattle, which was favored by 7 ½ points.

The Packers lost that game, 28-22, in overtime.

In the lead-up to this game, McCarthy has been pushing the motivational buttons, doing all he can to build up his players’ confidence.

“Last week, he took what the locker room was feeling and he turned it into a positive, [using] the underdog mentality,” Packers center Corey Linsley said. “Now he’s taken that theme, that energy we had last week and done a great job steamrolling it this week. The underdog deal last week was just to spark a little fire under our [butts]. He does an excellent job in terms of rallying the troops.’’

Packers cornerback Damarious Randall called McCarthy “the coach players like playing for,” adding, “I’m sure there are guys that might lack confidence in themselves. Just to hear from the head man that he’s got confidence in us, that speaks volumes.”

The last time these two teams met, the Cardinals ripped the Packers 38-8 on Dec. 27.

Has that result — and the large point spread — had any effect on the Packers’ psyche?

“Hell, no,” linebacker Joe Thomas said. “We feel like we’re going to go down to Arizona and win. It’s all based on the last time we went down there. We’re not the same team. We came out flat that game.”

Cardinals ILB Deone Bucannon vs. Packers TE Richard Rodgers

All season, the Cardinals relied on dynamic safety Tyrann Mathieu to cover opposing teams’ top tight end. But with Mathieu out with a knee injury, the Cardinals have had to adjust, using the 6-foot-1, 211-pound Bucannon, a safety in college, against them. Rodgers is a favorite target of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, having caught a team-high eight touchdowns and finishing third on the team with 58 catches. With wide receiver Davante Adams out with an injury, the Packers could look to Rodgers even more often than usual. The Cardinals have improved at defending tight ends from last season when they yielded the most tight end receiving yards in the league.

Protection first: Priority No. 1 for the Packers is keeping Aaron Rodgers upright. The Packers allowed nine sacks to the Cardinals in the teams’ Dec. 27 meeting. Rodgers was sacked eight times before being replaced by backup Scott Tolzien. Four of those sacks came on second or third down and 7 or more yards to go, and four came on third and 13 or more. So Green Bay will focus on being more efficient on the early downs.

“It was just a bad game by the offense,” right tackle Bryan Bulaga said. “We didn’t play well enough, put ourselves in a lot of bad positions, a lot of second-and-long, third-and-long positions.’’

The Packers are expected to have David Bakhtiari, who missed the last three games with an ankle injury, back at left tackle. In the last game, the Cardinals exploited backup left tackle Don Barclay for four sacks, forcing two fumbles returned for touchdowns.

Running on full or empty? A big part of this game will center around whether the Packers can run the ball on the Arizona defense. A big part of the Packers’ win over the Redskins last week was their ability to run the ball in the second half, with Eddie Lacy rushing for 63 yards and a touchdown and James Starks adding 53 yards and a score. The Packers had 17 yards on nine carries in the first half and ended up with 141 yards on 32 carries for the game.

The task will be more difficult this time, though. Washington was ranked 26th in run defense. Arizona is ranked sixth.

Here’s the kicker: Keep an eye on Cardinals kicker Chandler Catanzaro, who had an excellent season kicking field goals — making 28 of 31 attempts. But he missed both his attempts from 50 or more yards and missed five extra-point tries.

“I can’t put my finger on it,” Catanzaro said. “I’ve missed five. There’s no excuse for it. It’s embarrassing. It makes me sick to my stomach. Hopefully I’ll be able to help my team out in the playoffs.”

Said Cardinals coach Bruce Arians: “Every time he kicks one, I hold my breath. I’ll be holding my breath every time he kicks one in the playoffs.”

On the Green Bay side, Packers kicker Mason Crosby has made 18 consecutive field goals in the playoffs. He needs only one more make to tie David Akers’ NFL record for consecutive made field goals in the postseason.

Catching on: En route to scoring 489 points (second in the league), scoring 58 touchdowns and amassing 6,533 yards — all franchise records — the Cardinals have done this with one of the deepest receiving corps in the league: Larry Fitzgerald (109 catches, 1,215 yards, 9 TDs), John Brown (65 catches, 1,005 yards, 7 TDs) and Michael Floyd (52 catches, 849 yards, 6 TDs). In all, 15 players have caught passes from Carson Palmer, including one by guard Mike Iupati. Nine different receivers caught at last one TD pass.

The Packers’ win in Washington might turn out to be fool’s gold because the Redskins were a mediocre team. While Green Bay never can be counted out with Rodgers at quarterback, this is the Cardinals’ time to win a playoff game for the first time in six years. They’re loaded, deeper than the Packers and have had a week of rest.

Cardinals 28, Packers 20