In Preparation for the Cards/Giants Game on Sunday

Phoenix in July consists of two sports consistencies: 

1. Suns fans complaining about referees
2. Cardinals fans overly optimistic claims that this will finally be the year they won’t be the laughing stock of the league.

Well July has passed and both occurred.  But this year, there is a certain legitimacy to both.  The refs in the NBA have been consistently awful and the Tim Donaghy scandal is being swept under the carpet (still).  And Cardinals fans made boisterous claims that this year would be different.

And they’ve been right.  The Cardinals have the second best offense in all of the NFL.  Their defense is improving steadily due to their good drafting.  They’ve handled injuries well so far this season and have made many smart coaching decisions, not the least of which was Ken Whisenhunt’s decision to start Kurt Warner over Matt Leinart (in spite of the front office’s desire to get a return on their investment on Leinart).

Yes, they play in a weak division, but to claim that their 7-3 record is a product of their playing in the NFC West is a little myopic.  They have impressive wins against the Cowboys, BIlls (blowout), and Dolphins (blowout) and their three losses have all come on the road on the East Coast.  Their only bad performance of the year came against the Jets when they stayed in New York for a week to avoid any negative effects due to travel (bad move).  They led in Washington on the road in the 4th quarter only to lose by a single score.  Same thing with the Carolina Panthers where they lost by 4 (again, after leading in the fourth quarter).  The combined record of the teams they lost to is 21-9.

This team has been improving for the past few years so the optimism this summer was a bit more believable than in years past.  The upturn for the Cards seems to be when Bill Bidwell placed his sons in charge of the day to day football operations of the club a few years back.  Since then the team has made contract offers/extensions to players instead of nickel and diming everyone.  Since then the team has made offers to Edgerrin James, Warner and Bertrand Berry.  They’ve extended the contracts of Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin (apparently not enough though). They’ve been committed to putting out a competitive team for the past few years and the fans have rewarded them by purchasing tickets and merchandise.  It now gets loud at home games and not because the visiting team has travelled well.  For the first time in years, Cowboys fans were outnumbered when they visited Arizona.

I’m going to go out on a very obvious limb here and say that this game means way more to the Cards than to the Giants.  Sure the Cards can clinch a playoff spot this week, but they’re going to do it anyway since every other team in the NFC West is awful.  No, this is a chance for the Cards to beat a good (great?) team that most prognosticators think they have no shot of winning.  New York knows they have a good team and they know they’re going to the playoffs.  They’re playing better than they did last year and this has to inspire a certain amount of confidence.  In fact, I’m curious to hear if any Giants fans even think of this game as a test. The Giants have only lost one game this year and that was a fluke of a road loss to a lousy team when they were obviously looking ahead.  

Is this a preview of the Conference Championship Game?  I doubt it.  I don’t think the Cards will make it that far in the playoffs.  Their defense, while improving, still looks overmatched at times.  Their offense is too reliant on the passing game.  And while their offensive line is great at protecting the pass rush, they are not too great at creating running lanes for Hightower (and now Arrington?) to make any moves.  The Giants meanwhile, have a shut down defense and a balanced offense.  I not only expect them to win this Sunday, I expect them to beat every other team in football (except the Pats….what a fluke).

So this weekend, while I watch the game, I find myself reverting back to pre-Whisenhunt Cardinals thinking.  I not only expect them to lose, I expect them to get slaughtered, at home, in front of their disgusted fans.  And for the first time, I’m actually upset about it.  Sure, it’s fun to make fun of Cardinals fans…I’ve done it my whole life.  But they aren’t fair weathers.  They’ve been going to games for years and bitching and moaning about them since 1987.  You know why the crowds were always sparse before they got their own stadium?  Because it was an outdoor stadium and games were played in the middle of the day.  It’s 100+ degrees through October around here.  Since they built the new Jiffy Pop Stadium, they’ve been selling it out (even before the Cards started winning).  I’ve been saying for years that Phoenix would transform into a football town if the Cards ever fielded a competitive team and now that they are, their fans are becoming a bit more vocal.  So now that they have, the transformation has taken place.  And, to be honest, I feel bad that they’re going to get killed this weekend at home. 

Sidenote: Why are the Cardinals, a team that went 8-8 in a lousy division last year, playing both of the teams from last year’s Superbowl?  How many other teams are playing both?  Isn’t that odd?  Don’t they weight the strength of schedule based on last year’s performance?