Things don’t get any easier as Cardinals prepare for Eagles

Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt said Sunday’s 19-13
win over the Rams will do a lot to lift the team’s spirits
and get them to believe in what they’re doing.

It’s a good thing they feel better about themselves,
because next week’s opponent is just a little better than
the one the team just beat.

“This week’s going to be a stiff challenge for our guys,”
Whisenhunt said of facing the Philadelphia Eagles. “We’ve
got to play disciplined defense, we’ve got to play good
offense.

“We’ve got to move the ball.”

The coach did say he’s much happier planning for the next
game after a win, so at least the team’s mood will be up
this week. However, heading on an East coast trip presents
its own set of challenges, as the Cardinals have struggled
in such games.

“We felt like we made this trip a week ago to play a very
good team in Baltimore,” Whisenhunt said, “and we handled
that pretty well.”

That, Whisenhunt said, should help them this week as they
prepare to head to the City of Brotherly Love to play an
Eagles team that seems to have found itself and is finally
playing up to expectations. Of course, those expectations
are that of a Super Bowl contender, and the team will look
for any edge it can get.

“Having played them before and from knowing a lot of their
players, they’ve got some talented football players,”
Whisenhunt said. “I know Coach Reid is an outstanding
football coach and they do a nice job.”

So, the Cardinals will turn to a couple of guys who played
for the Eagles last year for a little guidance.

“Anything that we can get from Stewart [Bradley]…and Kevin
[Kolb] as well, we’ll certainly use to try to help us.”

The Cardinals are hoping, at least in Kolb’s case, that he
can also help the team on the field. The QB missed
Sunday’s game against the Rams with a turf toe injury, and
Whisenhunt said he’s not sure if his starter will return
for the next game.

“It sounds cliché but we just have to see how it
progresses,” he said. “It’s a very painful injury,
something that’s very difficult – especially for a
quarterback – to be able to drop and push off of, run out
of the pocket, escape things.

“He made a lot of progress last week; hopefully he’ll do
the same this week.”

Arizona Sports’ Kyndra de St. Aubin contributed to this
report

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