Cardinals Still Doing It Their Way

When Justin Tuck showed up to watch film of the Arizona Cardinals this week, he was fired up. He knew what he was going to see -- Cardinals QB Kurt Warner sitting behind his line, taking forever to get rid of the ball while a swarm of receivers ran their routes downfield.

"I was licking my chops," said Tuck, the Giants' defensive end. "But then I went in there and...he's not holding the ball as long as he used to. We're looking at an average of 2.2 seconds, which is a drastic change."

You wouldn't think the Cardinals would have to change much, playing in the weak NFC West and coming off a season in which they represented the NFC in the Super Bowl. But starting with an opening-week loss to the surprisingly game division-rival 49ers, the Cardinals found life as defending conference champs to be tougher than they thought it would be.

"The hardest thing that we have had to deal with is expectations," Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt said Wednesday. "Not necessarily from outside sources, but from our own guys trying to live up to the reputation of an NFC champion. I think that caused us to press a little bit too much early in the season, play a little too uptight."

That was Whisenhunt's message to his team during their Week 4 bye, when they were 1-2 and coming off a Sunday night thrashing by the Colts on national TV. The Cardinals came out of the bye and beat the Texans in a shootout, then went to Seattle last week and posted their most impressive victory of the season so far. Now, as they ready to face the 5-1 Giants on Sunday night in the Meadowlands, the 3-2 Cardinals look a lot more like the team that left the rest of the NFC in the dust last January.

"After our bye week, we've just been trying to get back to playing the way we played last year in the playoffs," Whisenhunt said. "That is with a little more looseness, a little more excitement."

Excitement is, of course, the Cardinals' specialty. They run as pass-heavy an offense as there is in the league, relying on the arm of the veteran Warner and the downfield skills of receivers Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston. They rank sixth in the league in passing yards per game and dead last in rush yards per game, and they make no apologies for the discrepancy.

"You have to play to your strengths," Warner said. "If we go into a game and we're having trouble running the ball, we feel good about throwing. It puts more pressure on that part of the game, but we feel we're pretty good at it."

The Giants are coming off a game in which the Saints threw all over their banged-up secondary and kept pressure off quarterback Drew Brees with a variety of play-action calls. But when asked if playing New Orleans can get you ready to play Arizona, they all said the Cardinals' offense is unique. And the main reason it seems to be unique, as simple as this sounds, is the quality of the athletes it uses.

"When they get in their rhythm, honestly I think it's just the receivers that they've got," Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka said. "A lot of times, when they throw the ball up there, they're covered. And they just make the great plays on the ball. So when you've got guys you can trust like that with a good quarterback, that makes it tough on a defense."

The Cardinals come into this weekend banged up. Boldin is struggling with an ankle injury and didn't practice Wednesday. Breaston has been fighting a knee injury all season. But don't make the mistake of thinking they're going to show up on your TV on Sunday night and start running the ball into the line with Tim Hightower and Beanie Wells. The Cardinals are what they are -- they throw the ball. And then they throw it some more.

"It's a different style, no doubt," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "All four receivers are involved. The tight end is involved. The backs -- Tim Hightower is their third-leading receiver. They have excellent distribution. The ball is spread around real good."

Oh, and there's that little detail about how much quicker Warner is getting rid of the ball than he did last year. An idea at which Warner laughed.

"It goes year to year," Warner said. "If I'm successful, people say I'm getting the ball out quick. If I'm not successful, people say I'm holding the ball too long. I don't feel that I'm doing anything better. Maybe our scheme, maybe the way our receivers are playing helps me get the ball out quicker. I don't have any evidence to say one way or the other."

What Warner and the Cardinals have is a 3-2 record and a level of confidence that is moving in the right direction -- from where it was after the Colts beat them up in Week 3 and headed back toward where it was when they had a lead on the Steelers in the final minutes of the Super Bowl. Will it get all the way back there? No way to know. But one thing's for certain. If they do get back there, the Cardinals are going to do it by throwing the ball.