Arizona Cardinals' Road To Elite Status
As we prepare for the Cardinals-49ersMonday Night Football matchup, with a chance for Arizona to claim its second NFC West crown in a row with a win, lets take a look back at the season to date to see what we have learned. In the name of reader enjoyment, I'll start with my synopsis, with a skimming of the surface breakdown to follow.
What have we learned? I don't have to tell any of you that we can all watch every snap and come away with very different versions of what we saw. So maybe it is more appropriate to say, what have I learned?
I have learned that the 2009 Cardinals are a new improved version of the 2008 Cardinals. Sounds simple enough doesn't it?
More precisely, the 2008 model was good enough to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in team history, but inconsistent and unreliable, especially at the most inopportune times such as the excruciating
Steelers' game winning drive.
Last year, the teams primary weaknesses, arguably of course, were giving up the big play way too often, not winning on the road, and general inability to run the ball.
This year the Cardinals are not giving up nearly as many big plays on defense, are 5-1 on the road, and have increased their team yards per carry average from 3.5 last year to 4.1.
But it goes further than the numbers.
