There are several expected contenders who have struggled in the early stages of the 2009 NFL season, and one of those teams is the defending NFC champion Arizona Cardinals.
The Cardinals were 6-2 at home last season on the way to winning the NFC West, and they also won two postseason games during their surprise run to the Super Bowl, but Arizona’s 1-2 start this season has come about thanks to an 0-2 start at University of Phoenix Stadium.
With San Francisco looking capable of claiming their first NFC West title since 2002, the Cardinals are in need of a quick turnaround if they want to have a chance at being in the postseason in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1974 and 1975, when they were still in St. Louis.
Can Arizona do it, or are they set to return to also-ran status this season? Here’s a look at where they are right now, what lies ahead, and how things shape up for them from here on.
The skinny: They’re not the worst 1-2 team you’ll ever see, and to be fair, their one win was impressive, and their two losses came against quality opposition in San Francisco and Indianapolis.
But the defending NFC champs have started the season off on the wrong foot, and if they don’t step their game up, it’s going to get worse before it get better.
The season started with a surprising 20-16 home loss at the hands of San Francisco, who put up only 203 total yards on offense, thanks to holding Arizona to only 299 yards and putting together two touchdown drives that made up the bulk of their offensive production.
A 31-17 win at Jacksonville in Week 2 was a step in the right direction, and it saw Kurt Warner set an NFL record for completion percentage in a single game, but just as quickly, the Cardinals took two (or three, or more) steps back by getting embarrassed at home by Peyton Manning and the Colts in a 31-10 loss on Sunday night.
As it stands, they’re just one game behind NFC West leader San Francisco, but that one game amounts to more, considering that San Francisco has already won in Arizona and hosts the Cardinals later this season.
What needs to improve: The pass attack isn’t performing at a Cardinals-like level thus far. Kurt Warner did have that 24 for 26 game against Jacksonville in Week 2, and he threw for 332 yards against the Colts on Sunday night, but he has only one completion of 40 yards or more, when he had at least one 40-yard completion in 10 of 16 regular-season games and all four of their postseason games last season.
Warner wasn’t sacked against the Jaguars, but he was sacked three times in the season opener against the 49ers and four times by the Colts, so the O-line needs to be a little more stout, especially with some quality pass rushers ahead on the schedule.
To help complement the passing attack, the ground game needs to get going as well. Even when tossing the ball around the yard is your bread and butter, having a starting running back with a 3.4 YPC is only going to get you so far, and so is having two backs who have shown a proneness to butterfingers.
As for the defense, well, it’s all about being serviceable if the offense is able to produce well. The Cardinals’ D has shown an ability to stop the run (Frank Gore – 22 carries, 30 yards in Week 1), but they need to quickly rebound from being an unwilling participant in the latest Peyton Manning Passing Clinic, with Matt Schaub, Matt Hasselbeck, Eli Manning, and Jay Cutler ahead in the next several weeks.
What lies ahead: It’d be nice to be able to face the Rams, Browns, Buccaneers, and Raiders in quick succession to pretty up their record, but that isn’t the case. After their bye week in Week 4, the Cards host Houston before going on the road to face the Seahawks and Giants.
The game with the Texans is a must-win, no two ways about it. Lose that and fall to 1-3 with three of their next four on the road.against quality opposition (after they face the Texans, Seahawks, and Giants, they host Carolina and then go to Chicago), and they’re staring at needing a monster second half to have any chance of retaining top spot in the NFC West.
In the second half, they get two against St. Louis, go to Detroit, and get Seattle, Minnesota, and Green Bay at home, and there are trips to San Francisco and Tennessee. Favorable yes, but not an easy street if you need to win practically every game. .
Outlook: The way the NFC West is, even being 2-4 or 3-5 might not doom the Cardinals if they can get on course. However, while they were able to waltz to the division title last season and be able to afford taking a veritable rest for the last several weeks (they were just fooling us into thinking they were the worst team to make the postseason, as it turned out), I see just a little more resistance being provided this time. .
Perhaps they’re just fooling us again, but I’m completely serious when I say the Cardinals won’t do their hopes any favors to be in that kind of hole with losses to their division title rivals already on their ledger and facing several tough games the rest of the way.
In or out: At this stage, out. Without marked improvement in a hurry, the Cardinals could get an early hole that proves too deep to get out of, even if the second-half slate is semi-favorable.
However, one thing in their favor, small as it may be, is that San Francisco is 2-1 and not 3-0. If they can pick up the pace, and can keep the 49ers (or the Seahawks, perhaps) are kept within striking ditance, the door will remain open.
As for now though, that’s a big, big if.
