Once I thought the Arizona Cardinals were dead meat in the NFC West, not because of what they are but because of what they were. And what they were was the last Super Bowl loser.
So what? So Super Bowl losers historically pancake the next season, with seven of the last eight failing to make the playoffs. Arizona was going to be the next in line, only now I'm convinced it won't. In fact, now I'm convinced the Cards could make another run deep into January because they are doing what they did not and could not a year ago.
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| 'The team had to understand what it takes to win on the road, and it does,' Ken Whisenhunt says. (AP) |
The Cardinals are 4-0 there this season, including two in the Eastern Time Zone. A year ago, that seemed as improbable as snow in Miami, with the Cards getting waxed in New York, Philadelphia and New England by a combined score of 151-62. Not only were they 3-5 in away games, they were 0-4 in the Eastern Time Zone, and their only victories anywhere were against weak division opponents.
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But then they won a playoff game in Carolina and came within a minute of beating Pittsburgh in Tampa, and, suddenly, the Cardinals believed the improbable -– that maybe, just maybe, they could find success outside the 602 area code.
"It was our focus going into the season," said coach Ken Whisenhunt. "The team had to understand what it takes to win on the road, and it does."
It proved it again Sunday in a 41-21 hammering of the Chicago Bears. The Cards became only the first opponent to win at Soldier Field this season. Not only did they win, they obliterated the Bears, scoring touchdowns on their first four possessions and scoring, period, on their first six. They didn't just win a game; they delivered a message, and the message is this: The Arizona Cardinals are nobody's road kill anymore.
"When we went into Carolina last year [during the playoffs] nobody gave us a chance and we won," said Whisenhunt. "That gave us the confidence that we could do it, and since then it hasn't mattered where we've played."
Uh, actually, it has. If Arizona has trouble this season, it's at home. Don't ask me why. It just is. The Cards lost to San Francisco there. They lost to Indianapolis there. And they lost to Carolina there. They are 1-3 in Phoenix, saving their worst football for the home fans, and you can look it up. At home the Cards have committed 12 of their 19 turnovers and have been outscored 106-75. But on the road they shred their opponents, 123-58, and haven't lost since a 47-7 stinker at New England last December.
Perhaps nowhere is their split personality better exemplified than in the play of quarterback Kurt Warner. Three of his four best passing performances are on the road, where Warner has 10 touchdown passes, two interceptions and a completion percentage of 72.6. But at home the figures decline, with Warner throwing for six TDs and nine interceptions with a completion percentage of 60.6.
"We just have to be a more consistent team and to play better at home than we have been" said Whisenhunt. "And I think we will. I think we will become a good home team."
They could. They should. Two of the remaining four opponents at home have losing records, while a third is the Green Bay Packers -- and who knows where they'll be when they travel to Arizona for the season finale. All I know is that Arizona is doing what it must do to overcome the Super Bowl jinx. Granted, the NFC West is not the heavyweight division of the NFC, but big deal. The Cardinals are legit. In fact, look at their road schedule the rest of the way and tell me where they lose.
First there's St. Louis. Then Tennessee. Then San Francisco and Detroit. Add them up and you have four opponents with a combined record of 7-25. The Arizona Cardinals are going to the playoffs again, and it's not so much on the strength of Warner's right arm as it is on the strength of their schedule. Their road schedule. They can't lose there.
"Last year we were supposed to be the worst team in the playoffs," said Whisenhunt, "and that didn't seem to bother us. So when people say that Super Bowl losers aren't going anywhere it doesn't mean anything because we've been through that situation before. We're just trying to become a more consistent team, and we're making strides in that direction."
Make way for the Arizona Cardinals. They're going to the playoffs again, and they're going to be trouble.
