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Win, belief in turnaround elate Cardinals
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Associated Press
Posted: 42 minutes ago
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - A weekend in Mexico turned out to be just what the Arizona Cardinals needed.
They were a happy bunch Monday, with an NFL record for kicker Neil Rackers, a career game for quarterback Josh McCown and new belief in coach Dennis Green's slingshot theory about making up ground.
Green came to believe during his decade with Minnesota that the games before and after the bye week are two of the most important in a season.
"We always like to emphasize understanding the importance of getting the slingshot," he said. "I think the ability of to win going into the bye week and the ability to win coming out can be a slingshot for you."
The Cardinals (1-3) have home games Sunday against Carolina and Oct. 23 against Tennessee, with a week off between. Winning both would give the Cardinals their first three-game winning streak since 2002 and put them back on track for a playoff run.
"You never want to start off 0-3, but with 13 games left you can't write anybody off," defensive end Calvin Pace said.
Arizona's 31-14 win over San Francisco the night before in Mexico City counted as a home game. It didn't look that way at the start, with more 49ers jerseys apparent in the crowd of 103,467 than Cardinals gear, but Rackers, McCown and Arizona's defense certainly felt at home.
Pace and Bertrand Berry had 1 1/2 sacks each, and the defense totaled five while holding the Niners scoreless. They got both touchdowns on fumble returns.
"I think that was probably our best defensive game, because I don't know if we've ever held a team to no points, no field-goal attempts and maybe no ball (inside) the 30-yard line," Green said.
Rackers has a pair of shoes in the Pro Football Hall of Fame after kicking three field goals of 50 yards or better in one game last year, a mark he shares with Morten Andersen. But no one has had 16 field goals in the first four games - something Rackers accomplished by connecting from 40, 45, 48, 23, 43 and 24 yards against San Francisco.
Gino Cappelletti of the then-Boston Patriots (1964) and Richie Cunningham of Dallas (1997) are the only players to have 15 field goals after four.
Rackers also holds the franchise record for touchbacks with 23 in 2004, and is well on his way to eclipsing that. He drove seven unreturnable kickoffs into the end zone Sunday night, the best NFL effort since Detroit's Jason Hanson had seven touchbacks against Seattle on Oct. 17, 1993.
"The ball flies," Rackers said. "There's no doubt about it. When you put a ball five yards through the uprights, then it's making a little bit of difference because I don't care how good I hit a ball here, it's not going to be high and five yards through. But I've got to kick at Seattle every year, and nobody says, 'Hey, the ball's at the 5-yard line because it gets knocked down,' so you've got to take advantage of Mexico City."
It wasn't the only career game for a Cardinals player, either.
The 26-year-old McCown set personal highs for attempts (46), completions (32) and yards passing (385) and showed poise and leadership that were missing when he came off the bench to go 10-for-23 for 97 yards after Kurt Warner strained his groin late in the first half at Seattle.
McCown fumbled for a 49ers score. But he recovered to pass for TDs to Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald as Arizona scored 31 straight points.
McCown finished last year 6-7 as a starter despite being benched at midyear. It didn't help his confidence when Green went after the 34-year-old Warner in the offseason and anointed him the starter.
"He jokes and says, 'You're not going to let me back on the field, are you?' and we joke back and forth about that," McCown said. "My goal is not to let him back on the field. But ultimately, in all honesty, my goal is that if he gets back on the field, he's in a position to take us to the playoffs."
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Email Associated Press
Posted: 42 minutes ago
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - A weekend in Mexico turned out to be just what the Arizona Cardinals needed.
They were a happy bunch Monday, with an NFL record for kicker Neil Rackers, a career game for quarterback Josh McCown and new belief in coach Dennis Green's slingshot theory about making up ground.
Green came to believe during his decade with Minnesota that the games before and after the bye week are two of the most important in a season.
"We always like to emphasize understanding the importance of getting the slingshot," he said. "I think the ability of to win going into the bye week and the ability to win coming out can be a slingshot for you."
The Cardinals (1-3) have home games Sunday against Carolina and Oct. 23 against Tennessee, with a week off between. Winning both would give the Cardinals their first three-game winning streak since 2002 and put them back on track for a playoff run.
"You never want to start off 0-3, but with 13 games left you can't write anybody off," defensive end Calvin Pace said.
Arizona's 31-14 win over San Francisco the night before in Mexico City counted as a home game. It didn't look that way at the start, with more 49ers jerseys apparent in the crowd of 103,467 than Cardinals gear, but Rackers, McCown and Arizona's defense certainly felt at home.
Pace and Bertrand Berry had 1 1/2 sacks each, and the defense totaled five while holding the Niners scoreless. They got both touchdowns on fumble returns.
"I think that was probably our best defensive game, because I don't know if we've ever held a team to no points, no field-goal attempts and maybe no ball (inside) the 30-yard line," Green said.
Rackers has a pair of shoes in the Pro Football Hall of Fame after kicking three field goals of 50 yards or better in one game last year, a mark he shares with Morten Andersen. But no one has had 16 field goals in the first four games - something Rackers accomplished by connecting from 40, 45, 48, 23, 43 and 24 yards against San Francisco.
Gino Cappelletti of the then-Boston Patriots (1964) and Richie Cunningham of Dallas (1997) are the only players to have 15 field goals after four.
Rackers also holds the franchise record for touchbacks with 23 in 2004, and is well on his way to eclipsing that. He drove seven unreturnable kickoffs into the end zone Sunday night, the best NFL effort since Detroit's Jason Hanson had seven touchbacks against Seattle on Oct. 17, 1993.
"The ball flies," Rackers said. "There's no doubt about it. When you put a ball five yards through the uprights, then it's making a little bit of difference because I don't care how good I hit a ball here, it's not going to be high and five yards through. But I've got to kick at Seattle every year, and nobody says, 'Hey, the ball's at the 5-yard line because it gets knocked down,' so you've got to take advantage of Mexico City."
It wasn't the only career game for a Cardinals player, either.
The 26-year-old McCown set personal highs for attempts (46), completions (32) and yards passing (385) and showed poise and leadership that were missing when he came off the bench to go 10-for-23 for 97 yards after Kurt Warner strained his groin late in the first half at Seattle.
McCown fumbled for a 49ers score. But he recovered to pass for TDs to Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald as Arizona scored 31 straight points.
McCown finished last year 6-7 as a starter despite being benched at midyear. It didn't help his confidence when Green went after the 34-year-old Warner in the offseason and anointed him the starter.
"He jokes and says, 'You're not going to let me back on the field, are you?' and we joke back and forth about that," McCown said. "My goal is not to let him back on the field. But ultimately, in all honesty, my goal is that if he gets back on the field, he's in a position to take us to the playoffs."
