Cards stay low key after 2-0 start

Cards stay low key after 2-0 start
by Bob McManaman - Sept. 15, 2008 08:09 PM
The Arizona Republic

There was good news on the Cardinals' injury front after their 31-10 victory Sunday over the Miami Dolphins: Nobody broke an arm patting himself on the back for the team's first 2-0 start since 1991.

The players' postgame reactions in the locker room were mostly tempered. Words were chosen carefully. Celebrations were mild. And it was the same way Monday when they met at their Tempe training facility to watch game film.

That kind of attitude is new to this franchise under second-year coach Ken Whisenhunt and his staff. In the past, a 2-0 start would be cause for reckless boasts and party planners.

But this Cardinals team is acting like it has been there before, even if it hasn't. It starts with Whisenhunt and has filtered down to every player on the roster.

"We still have a lot to prove," offensive lineman Levi Brown said. "We still have 14 games left, and anything can still happen. There were teams that started off 2-0 last year and didn't make the playoffs."

True, but since 1978, of the 232 NFL teams that began a season 2-0, 153 advanced to the postseason. That's a 66 percent reason to like the Cardinals' chances.

"We haven't done that in a long time, and there's reason to be proud of our accomplishment," linebacker Chike Okeafor said, "but it's just two games. It's just a start.

"Look, football is a game of 'forget.' You forget about what you did last week or yesterday, and you just move on. We're moving on to the Redskins next Sunday in D.C. That's where our focus is."

Beating the 49ers on the road in the opener and the Dolphins at home was encouraging, if for no other reason than it was expected. Theoretically, they should be 2-0.

And they should be able to squash the life out of a weaker opponent, like they did in pounding the Dolphins.

"We talked about that during the week, that it's important to finish off an opponent," Whisenhunt said. "If we want to become a team that has a chance to win the division and get into the playoffs, you're going to have to finish off some teams. That's what the good teams do.

"That was our focus (Sunday) going into that game, especially when we got up. The message our team has right now, the message we're living by, is we're going one week at a time, we're going to play hard every week, and if we don't make mistakes, we're going to have a chance to win."

The Cardinals have won four games in a row, dating to last season. This is also the first time since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger that the franchise has played the first two games of a season without a turnover.

But it's no time to throw a parade. The Cardinals merely are making progress, building on last year's 8-8 record, and focusing on the now - not what-ifs or what-could-have-beens.

"When people start talking about the prosperity of being 2-0 it almost makes me laugh," quarterback Kurt Warner said. "To me, prosperity is continually winning and continually playing at a level where you deserve something to come out of it, to have an expectation that comes with that. I don't think we're anywhere close to that right now."

That's what Warner thought for the first month of the 1999 season until he suddenly found himself leading the St. Louis Rams to a Super Bowl. Early on, the Rams didn't know how good they could be, either, he said.

The Cardinals, at least, know they are headed in the right direction.




http://www.azcentral.com/sports/cardinals/articles/2008/09/15/20080915cardslowkey0916.html