You are Now Leaving Fantasyland and Entering Realityland

October 19, 2007 by Harry Greene

Living near Disney World, that’s a fairly easy thing to do. For most Arizona Cardinal fans the trip may be a little more difficult. Contrary to some naysayers, the trip will not be wholly unpleasant. It’s just that facing reality often hurts a little.

ike the last few seasons, the Cards are a team of potential stars with a very thin surrounding cast. Until they find a way to build depth into this roster and plug some obvious holes, consistency will remain a problem. Along the same lines, when a team depends on its stars to carry the load, a key injury or two can easily derail any unit.

Sunday the sins of their past came back to haunt the Cards. The band-aids that were obtained this past off-season proved insufficient to hold the team together when injury struck. There are really two issues here: can this season be salvaged and what is needed to move this team dramatically forward. It would take another article to answer the second part, so let’s focus on the immediate future. Normally I would agree with the pessimists that this season is lost. However, the extreme weakness of the schedule means making the playoffs is still possible. Therefore the season is neither over, nor a total disaster. The Rams, Falcons, Niners Lions and Browns offer a pretty soft home agenda. No one on the list of road games looks frightening, though the Skins will likely hit the Cards at the right time. However, keep in mind that winning 4 of 5 at home and two on the road would not seem implausible. Also winning the division is a distinct possibility. Nonetheless, the Cards will need a little luck if they are to put a winning team back on the field.

It is difficult to assess how bad the situation is, because of limited injury information. How bad was Warner hurt? It looks like he should be out a few weeks even since the favorable prognosis. He’ll say he can play through it, but this guy already has trouble holding the ball. Make no mistake NFL defenders will target that arm and twist it, ram it or simply knock Warner down on it. It shouldn’t take much to knock him out if he tries to play through it. Dansby would seem to be hurt more than the injury reports would lead us to believe. When will Brown return? We keep hearing he is at this practice or that, but he isn’t on the field come Sunday. It’s become fashionable to under-report injuries in the NFL, so team will have to prepare for players who won’t be on the field, so perhaps we’ll only know after they return.

Assuming Brown or Dansby can play regularly; this team still has numerous players capable of impacting the outcome of a game. Fortunately the Cards now possess a creative offensive coaching staff who are capable of finding ways to compete with damaged goods. Face it; the Cards never had much of a deep passing threat. So replacing Warner/Leinart will not require a big arm, just a solid contributor. Someone who won’t lose the game would be the likely choice. The Cards don’t need a quarterback capable of winning games with superhuman effort. I think they are correct that buying into Warner’s early return still doesn’t answer issues about his durability; it looks like they finally got the extra QB signed. It’s too bad they weren’t thinking this clearly in the summer or we might be looking at a 4-2 team.

While Warner is out, the hurry-up is out. No one else is capable of reading the defense well enough to run it. The play book will also have to be scaled back big time with Rattay at QB. I know Rattay looked bad last week, but with a little more protection and a little more help from the receivers and running game, he should be decent.

I am concerned about the O-lines ability to run block when the chips are down. The Panthers were a tough test, but we will now truly see how far this line has advanced, now that they can’t count of the passing game to stake them to leads. If they can’t start putting consistent 100 yard ground games on the board, the Cards are in trouble. It would be nice to see the Cards add another veteran tackle. Numerous teams are already running up the white flag and could offer up one, but the Cards showed little interest as the trading deadline came and went.

So still working with a thin red line and a hobbled or inexperienced QB, the Cards will attempt to put enough points on the board to avoid entering the bye week with a losing record. The Cards should be in this game, but can’t afford to be playing from behind and needing to win the game in the last two minutes. A win here would be a huge step to making the playoffs. A loss certainly doesn’t end the season. To win this game the Cards will have to show more character than the Skins. It will be a good test to see if Whisenhunt has achieved the attitude adjustment he sought when taking the job. Should the Cards fail, it may be an indication that there is more work to be done than the Pollyanna’s would lead us to believe.

Posted in tim rattay, karlos dansby, levi brown, matt leinart, kurt warner, football, nfl, arizona cardinals