Arizona Keeps Things Interesting

Last year they couldn't win on the road. Now they can't win at home. They can go to Jersey and beat a Giants team that looked at least decent, and figured to be pissed off after the Saints rolled over them. Then they make fools out of themselves against the Panthers. They couldn't even intercept Jake Delhomme. If that guy tried to pass on a cold it'd be intercepted.

Wait, does that make any sense?

Then they travel to Chicago and curbstomp the Bears. Whisenhunt even makes an amusing Dennis Green reference* afterward. Admittedly, the Bears aren't an elite team, and they lost Tommie Harris about one minute into the game, but the Cardinals' offense made it look easy. They even ran the ball successfully! It's troubled me that the running game has been even weaker this year than it was last year, which is saying something, but maybe it's starting to wake up. I don't watch college football, so I know little about Chris "Beanie" Wells, but I like him. I'm hoping he'll be a running back the Cardinals draft that actually works out for them**.

I just can't figure out this team. Losing to the Colts, sure I can understand that, the Colts are really good (and the Cardinals seemed to have a poor gameplan. Why throw a lot against a team with really good pass-rushing ends?) Losing to the 49ers in Arizona, that one I couldn't figure. It wasn't as though Frank Gore tore them up, they just couldn't get the job done. So at this point, I'm definitely concerned about this game against Seattle. The Cardinals dominated the Seahawks a few weeks ago in Seattle, and I have to figure the Seahawks will be looking to repay the favor. And they wouldn't be the Arizona Cardinals if they didn't periodically blow games they ought to win.

On the upside, in the old days they alternated losing games they shouldn't with almost, but not actually, winning games they had no business winning. Now they actually win those games. Sometimes. Progress.

I'm being too negative, I know. I ought to be happy, and I am, really. Any time the Arizona Cardinals win it makes me happy, especially when it's a convincing win, though I'll take any kind of victory. Still it's hard for me to shake those fears that anytime now, they're going to go in the toilet, the way they used to whenever they showed promise. Warner will get hurt, or this Boldin*** situation will actually start to disrupt things, or the pass defense will completely disintegrate, and the next thing you know, six-game losing streak. I think they're too good for that to happen (plus they have several games left against lousy divisional opponents), but I still worry.

* Bill Plaschke thinks it was in poor taste. Of course he does. I can't say I was eager to be reminded of that Monday Night Football debacle, but since it was bound to happen anyway, given it was Cardinals/Bears, and the Bears tried to mount a comeback, I'm glad I could get a laugh out of it. Plaschke, lighten up. Or alternatively, go away. You contribute nothing useful to any dialogue.

** As opposed to the ones that go somewhere else to succeed, like Thomas Jones or Garrison Hearst. or Michael Pittman. Or the ones that just don't work out, like Leeland McElroy or J.J. Arrington.

*** I appreciate how badly Boldin wants to play, but I wish he wouldn't air this stuff so publicly. Honestly, I don't believe he's a malcontent, or trying to cause trouble. I think he just believes in speaking plainly. You ask how he feels about not playing, he tells you outright it wasn't his call, and he didn't like it. I can respect that, but it bothers me that he seems to be getting a bad reputation with the sportswriters around the league, all of them painting him as a "me first, I want my stats" troublemaker type, when I think he just really wants to play. Maybe they're right, but I hope Boldin proves them wrong. The man came back from a busted face in two weeks. They had to insert metal plates in his face under the skin and he came back that fast. I have a hard time believing that guy is a cancer.