82CardsGrad
7 x 70
GLENDALE, Ariz. – The defending NFC champions were 38 yards from forgiveness, and as Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner(notes) jogged onto his home field with 3:11 to play and reached a huddle that included star wideouts Larry Fitzgerald(notes) and Anquan Boldin(notes), it didn’t take a mind-reader to get inside the veteran passer’s helmet.
“Obviously,” as Warner would say later, “I’m thinking, ‘We’re in a position to win this game.’ You figure we were gonna make the pivotal play, one way or the other.”
Instead of marching toward a winning touchdown, the Cardinals went the wrong way: A false start on tight end Stephen Spach(notes), a holding penalty on tackle Mike Gandy(notes) (with a dropped pass by Jerheme Urban(notes) to boot), and suddenly it was first-and-25.
Incomprehensibly, the Cards were in their own territory and, as they had been for much of a frustrating Sunday afternoon against the San Francisco 49ers, hopelessly out of sync.
To put it gently, the Cardinals, as they have all summer, bore a strong resemblance to the dudes from “The Hangover.” If a tiger had wandered into the huddle and Mike Tyson had lined up at fullback, the picture would have been complete.
Minutes later, after their 20-16 season-opening defeat to an NFC West rival was a matter of record, the Cardinals retreated to their locker room and listened to Boldin, perhaps their toughest and most emotional player, angrily deliver a reality-check.
His basic message: The mistakes have to stop, and all of us have to take it upon ourselves to get it together, right now. Oh, and that Super Bowl we came within 35 seconds of winning last February? It means nothing. The 2008 season is so last year.
While Boldin’s speech certainly got his teammates’ attention, none of them should have been startled by the message. Deep in their hearts, they know the Cardinals haven’t been right since they flew home from Tampa after that heartbreaking Super Bowl XLIII defeat to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Shortly thereafter the Cards lost Todd Haley, their brainy and fiery offensive coordinator, when the Kansas City Chiefs hired him as head coach. Then, in April, they said goodbye to veteran halfback Edgerrin James(notes). Somewhere between then and the beginning of a disjointed preseason, the Cards also lost their perspective.
Forgetting the truth about ’08 – that they were a maddeningly inconsistent team that magically gelled in January and rode a great quarterback’s desert-hot hand (and record-setting effort by Fitzgerald) to uncharted postseason heights – Arizona’s returning players (and, probably, some of the team’s new additions) acted as though they could return to prominence by clicking their cleats together three times and saying, “There’s no play like Warner throwing it up to Fitzgerald.”
“That was a bunch of [expletive],” free safety Antrel Rolle(notes) said after Sunday’s game. “There wasn’t enough enthusiasm. We didn’t make the plays we needed to. There were missed assignments and missed opportunities. We’ve been doing that all preseason and it carried over. Now we know we just can’t go out there and turn it on.”
They should have known better, but that wasn’t the only lesson Arizona absorbed on its own turf Sunday. After delighting 61,981 gratefully air-conditioned fans by unfurling their NFC championship banner before the game, the Cardinals were reminded of a harsh reality that was evident from coast to coast on Sunday: If you think one NFL season inevitably bleeds into the next, you’ve already given your opponents a head start.
Just ask the Miami Dolphins, who turned the ball over four times – nearly a third of their total for the entire ’08 season, when they won the AFC East title – in a 19-7 defeat to the Atlanta Falcons.
On a happier note, ask Ravens coach John Harbaugh. He smartly realized that to defeat Haley’s instantly competitive Chiefs, his team had to evolve past the conservative offensive approach that helped it reach last season’s AFC championship game – and Baltimore and newly unchained quarterback Joe Flacco(notes) put up a franchise-record 501 total yards in its 38-24 victory.
Or ask the Detroit Lions, aka Drew Brees’(notes) silent-movie props, who … well, never mind. Maybe some things do carry over from the previous season.
Even so, Brett Favre(notes) and the Minnesota Vikings would be smart not to take the Lions lightly when the two teams meet at Ford Field on Sunday.
“Not only is this a year-to-year league, it’s week-to-week,” said 49ers quarterback Shaun Hill(notes), who spent much of the day handing off to Frank Gore(notes) and watching the halfback slam into a wall of Cardinal-colored jerseys but coolly led a 15-play, 80-yard drive for the winning points midway through the fourth quarter.
“Next week, when we come out and take the field, this win means nothing – except in the standings.”
Next Sunday, when the Cardinals face the Jaguars in Jacksonville, they’d better be a lot more polished than they were against the Niners. Sunday’s lowlights included 12 penalties for 82 yards (most brutally, a delay-of-game call coming out of a 49ers timeout), a pair of interceptions by Warner (26-of-44, 288 yards) and some atrocious offensive-line play that led to three sacks and far too many hurried throws.
While the Cards’ defense generally played well, Gore was totally uncovered on his game-winning, three-yard touchdown pass from Hill, and 36-year old wideout Isaac Bruce(notes) got behind the secondary on third-and-10 for a 50-yard reception that led to San Francisco’s first TD (for a 13-3 lead 2:23 before halftime).
After the game Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt told his players that “guys that make penalties are not going to play,” and Boldin – limited to two catches for 19 yards while playing through a painful hamstring strain – later underscored the message.
“This league is real simple,” the receiver said quietly as he sat by his locker after the game. “Either you get the job done, or they get somebody else to do it. We definitely have to get some things ironed out. We didn’t play like we were” an elite team Sunday.
Part of the problem is that the Cards, in essence, were only elite for a single month. Before last January’s postseason run, as Pro Bowl strong safety Adrian Wilson(notes) acknowledged Sunday, “we were 9-7. I mean, let’s be real. It wasn’t like we were 13-3. There’s plenty of room for improvement, and we intend on doing that.
The leaders on this team are going to make sure we tighten things up. A lot that happened out there [Sunday]; that’s the last time it’s gonna happen.”
That’s the plan, anyway. Warner, as a past sufferer of the so-called Curse of the Super Bowl Loser – his ’01 Rams are part of a string this decade in which seven of the past eight teams to have played for the championship and lost failed to reach the following year’s postseason – knows all too well how much focus and ferocity is required to stop the negative inertia.
“It’s just a lot of little things that we’re not doing right,” he said. “You’d think it’s easy for us to clean them up, but we haven’t done it yet. For us, it’s about consistency. Even last year, we were an inconsistent team until that one run when we put it all together.
“We have to learn that in this league, to truly be successful, you have to play like champions every week.”
Instead, the Cardinals played into the hands of Niners coach Mike Singletary and his risk-averse approach – as exemplified by his decision to call three running plays and punt from his own end zone with a four-point lead in the final minutes, putting Arizona 38 yards away from victory.
Singletary’s call turned out to be the right one: The Cards went backward, and on fourth-and-5 from the San Francisco 33-yard line with 1:55 remaining, Warner’s linemen couldn’t protect him in the pocket, and Niners defensive end Justin Smith rushed him into a desperate incompletion.
Afterward, the Cardinals insisted they aren’t a desperate team. “It’s the first game of the season,” Rolle said. “It’s no time for panic. It’s time for adjustment. It’s time for a wakeup call. But no, it’s not time for panic. I think we fought out there. We just didn’t fight hard enough.”
If you’re a Cardinals player, it’s time to fight like Tyson in his prime, to channel that inner tiger – and to shake off that hangover and get back to work.
“Obviously,” as Warner would say later, “I’m thinking, ‘We’re in a position to win this game.’ You figure we were gonna make the pivotal play, one way or the other.”
Instead of marching toward a winning touchdown, the Cardinals went the wrong way: A false start on tight end Stephen Spach(notes), a holding penalty on tackle Mike Gandy(notes) (with a dropped pass by Jerheme Urban(notes) to boot), and suddenly it was first-and-25.
Incomprehensibly, the Cards were in their own territory and, as they had been for much of a frustrating Sunday afternoon against the San Francisco 49ers, hopelessly out of sync.
To put it gently, the Cardinals, as they have all summer, bore a strong resemblance to the dudes from “The Hangover.” If a tiger had wandered into the huddle and Mike Tyson had lined up at fullback, the picture would have been complete.
Minutes later, after their 20-16 season-opening defeat to an NFC West rival was a matter of record, the Cardinals retreated to their locker room and listened to Boldin, perhaps their toughest and most emotional player, angrily deliver a reality-check.
His basic message: The mistakes have to stop, and all of us have to take it upon ourselves to get it together, right now. Oh, and that Super Bowl we came within 35 seconds of winning last February? It means nothing. The 2008 season is so last year.
While Boldin’s speech certainly got his teammates’ attention, none of them should have been startled by the message. Deep in their hearts, they know the Cardinals haven’t been right since they flew home from Tampa after that heartbreaking Super Bowl XLIII defeat to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Shortly thereafter the Cards lost Todd Haley, their brainy and fiery offensive coordinator, when the Kansas City Chiefs hired him as head coach. Then, in April, they said goodbye to veteran halfback Edgerrin James(notes). Somewhere between then and the beginning of a disjointed preseason, the Cards also lost their perspective.
Forgetting the truth about ’08 – that they were a maddeningly inconsistent team that magically gelled in January and rode a great quarterback’s desert-hot hand (and record-setting effort by Fitzgerald) to uncharted postseason heights – Arizona’s returning players (and, probably, some of the team’s new additions) acted as though they could return to prominence by clicking their cleats together three times and saying, “There’s no play like Warner throwing it up to Fitzgerald.”
“That was a bunch of [expletive],” free safety Antrel Rolle(notes) said after Sunday’s game. “There wasn’t enough enthusiasm. We didn’t make the plays we needed to. There were missed assignments and missed opportunities. We’ve been doing that all preseason and it carried over. Now we know we just can’t go out there and turn it on.”
They should have known better, but that wasn’t the only lesson Arizona absorbed on its own turf Sunday. After delighting 61,981 gratefully air-conditioned fans by unfurling their NFC championship banner before the game, the Cardinals were reminded of a harsh reality that was evident from coast to coast on Sunday: If you think one NFL season inevitably bleeds into the next, you’ve already given your opponents a head start.
Just ask the Miami Dolphins, who turned the ball over four times – nearly a third of their total for the entire ’08 season, when they won the AFC East title – in a 19-7 defeat to the Atlanta Falcons.
On a happier note, ask Ravens coach John Harbaugh. He smartly realized that to defeat Haley’s instantly competitive Chiefs, his team had to evolve past the conservative offensive approach that helped it reach last season’s AFC championship game – and Baltimore and newly unchained quarterback Joe Flacco(notes) put up a franchise-record 501 total yards in its 38-24 victory.
Or ask the Detroit Lions, aka Drew Brees’(notes) silent-movie props, who … well, never mind. Maybe some things do carry over from the previous season.
Even so, Brett Favre(notes) and the Minnesota Vikings would be smart not to take the Lions lightly when the two teams meet at Ford Field on Sunday.
“Not only is this a year-to-year league, it’s week-to-week,” said 49ers quarterback Shaun Hill(notes), who spent much of the day handing off to Frank Gore(notes) and watching the halfback slam into a wall of Cardinal-colored jerseys but coolly led a 15-play, 80-yard drive for the winning points midway through the fourth quarter.
“Next week, when we come out and take the field, this win means nothing – except in the standings.”
Next Sunday, when the Cardinals face the Jaguars in Jacksonville, they’d better be a lot more polished than they were against the Niners. Sunday’s lowlights included 12 penalties for 82 yards (most brutally, a delay-of-game call coming out of a 49ers timeout), a pair of interceptions by Warner (26-of-44, 288 yards) and some atrocious offensive-line play that led to three sacks and far too many hurried throws.
While the Cards’ defense generally played well, Gore was totally uncovered on his game-winning, three-yard touchdown pass from Hill, and 36-year old wideout Isaac Bruce(notes) got behind the secondary on third-and-10 for a 50-yard reception that led to San Francisco’s first TD (for a 13-3 lead 2:23 before halftime).
After the game Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt told his players that “guys that make penalties are not going to play,” and Boldin – limited to two catches for 19 yards while playing through a painful hamstring strain – later underscored the message.
“This league is real simple,” the receiver said quietly as he sat by his locker after the game. “Either you get the job done, or they get somebody else to do it. We definitely have to get some things ironed out. We didn’t play like we were” an elite team Sunday.
Part of the problem is that the Cards, in essence, were only elite for a single month. Before last January’s postseason run, as Pro Bowl strong safety Adrian Wilson(notes) acknowledged Sunday, “we were 9-7. I mean, let’s be real. It wasn’t like we were 13-3. There’s plenty of room for improvement, and we intend on doing that.
The leaders on this team are going to make sure we tighten things up. A lot that happened out there [Sunday]; that’s the last time it’s gonna happen.”
That’s the plan, anyway. Warner, as a past sufferer of the so-called Curse of the Super Bowl Loser – his ’01 Rams are part of a string this decade in which seven of the past eight teams to have played for the championship and lost failed to reach the following year’s postseason – knows all too well how much focus and ferocity is required to stop the negative inertia.
“It’s just a lot of little things that we’re not doing right,” he said. “You’d think it’s easy for us to clean them up, but we haven’t done it yet. For us, it’s about consistency. Even last year, we were an inconsistent team until that one run when we put it all together.
“We have to learn that in this league, to truly be successful, you have to play like champions every week.”
Instead, the Cardinals played into the hands of Niners coach Mike Singletary and his risk-averse approach – as exemplified by his decision to call three running plays and punt from his own end zone with a four-point lead in the final minutes, putting Arizona 38 yards away from victory.
Singletary’s call turned out to be the right one: The Cards went backward, and on fourth-and-5 from the San Francisco 33-yard line with 1:55 remaining, Warner’s linemen couldn’t protect him in the pocket, and Niners defensive end Justin Smith rushed him into a desperate incompletion.
Afterward, the Cardinals insisted they aren’t a desperate team. “It’s the first game of the season,” Rolle said. “It’s no time for panic. It’s time for adjustment. It’s time for a wakeup call. But no, it’s not time for panic. I think we fought out there. We just didn’t fight hard enough.”
If you’re a Cardinals player, it’s time to fight like Tyson in his prime, to channel that inner tiger – and to shake off that hangover and get back to work.
