FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- You know when Matt Leinart makes an appearance the game must be shot to hell for the Arizona Cardinals.
Excellent display of toughness, Arizona. Have you ever seen snow before? And next time you travel East don't forget your Huggies.
Not sure what was worse to see. Watching the Cardinals bring a pillow to a knife fight or a handful of cowardly Patriots fans constantly tossing snowballs packed with ice at Arizona players standing on the bench.
Nice behavior.
The New England Patriots put a clown suit and red nose on the playoff-bound Cardinals and stuffed them down a chimney, 47-7, at Gillette Stadium on a snowy Sunday afternoon. We haven't seen a tough guy beat up on something so frail since Ruben Studdard versus Clay Aiken.
Who do the Cardinals think they are? The Detroit Lions?
If the Cardinals can play in warm weather, when it's sunny, temperature in the 70s, not on the East Coast, in a dome, have hot chocolate at the ready -- with marshmallows -- first-half pedicures, and have it be flag football, then they'll be fine in the playoffs.
The Patriots could end up being the first 11-win team in the current playoff format not to make the postseason. If there is a leading candidate to be one-and-done in the playoffs, it's the Cardinals.
Arizona might be the worst postseason team in recent league history. Their performance, at times, has been that mortifying.
The hard-nosed Patriots absolutely, positively made the Cardinals quit. I rarely use words like that when discussing NFL players. They're the toughest and most talented athletes in the world but that's what the Cardinals did -- they quit. And they quit early. And they quit often. Arizona was looking forward to being back on the cozy team plane drinking hot tea before kickoff.
The weather for the game was brutal as heavy snow fell and the wind chill was 21 degrees at kickoff. The Cardinals were helpless and frozen while the Patriots were snow beasts.
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| Larry Fitzgerald's team should be embarrassed after this putrid performance. (US Presswire) |
Meanwhile Arizona is 0-5 in East Coast games this year. In three of those losses the Cardinals gave up 56 points to the Jets, 48 to Philadelphia, and now 47 to the Patriots. Those are good teams that beat the Cardinals but not great ones. And not only did Arizona lose, they were humiliated.
How comfortable were the Patriots in these conditions? On one play a Patriots coach -- I think it was Bill Belichick, though it was difficult to tell because of the conditions -- was literally accidentally run over by one of his own players who couldn't brake on the slippery field along the New England sideline. The coach popped up and began high-fiving nearby players.
Randy Moss, not exactly known for his toughness, made an outstanding cut block downfield to help spring a large Patriots gain.
Then there were the Cardinals. It was 21-0 early, 31-0 at the half, and 38-0 early in the third after Moss scored on a 76-yard pass. Early in the fourth quarter the score was a close 47-0. Arizona put on a clinic on how not to tackle or block. Or call plays. Or brave harsh elements. Or show guts. They were uninterested, uninspired, and unfathomably bad.
When Leinart entered in the third quarter he proceeded to fumble the ball (recovered by the Cardinals), throw a near interception, had the ball stripped (recovered by the Patriots) and then was intercepted.
As soon as Leinart stepped onto the field, there was a problem with the communication system in his helmet. There was literally a loud buzzing sound inside the helmet which caused a disruption in the play calling.
The Cardinals could've pumped Coltrane inside Leinart's head and it wouldn't have mattered.
The organization has to be extremely concerned, if not greatly frustrated, at how the team abuses opponents within their own division then when facing a solid franchise outside of the NFC West, they get hammered.
If Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt doesn't take drastic action to shake things up before the playoffs begin the Cardinals will last seven minutes in the postseason.
"I think today's game will hopefully wake us up if last week didn't," said Whisenhunt, referring to getting blown out by Minnesota on Dec. 14. "... we're embarrassed."
Then Whisenhunt made the key statement. "This time of year," he said, "you're supposed to be playing better football than that."
Playoff teams on the rise don't get destroyed like this. It's a terrible sign of things to come for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals look dead now but they do have splendid talent and if Whisenhunt can toughen up this team they have the potential to turn this ugly situation around. That's because it's possible -- possible -- they wouldn't face true wintry conditions until the conference title game against a New York or Carolina.
What could also save this team is pride. Kurt Warner has played in Super Bowls and somewhere on this team there has to be a reservoir of pride. Somewhere, right?
Right?
