Cardinals still transitioning, season not over yet
Oct 3, 2011, 8:55 PM | Updated: 11:37 pm
Different week, same result.
The Arizona Cardinals found themselves with yet another chance to take the lead on the final drive for the third straight week, and for the third straight week the team stumbled.
The Cardinals could easily be 4-0 at this point, but are instead 1-3.
“The bottom line is this, we’ve had a chance the last three weeks to win games and we didn’t get it done at the end,” head coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “What we’re going to do is continue to work on improving and we’re going to win one of those and turn it and that’s our goal.”
Of the three losses this one is probably the toughest to swallow for the Cardinals. The team had a 27-17 lead with just over five minutes left in the game but two Eli Manning touchdown passes gave the Giants a 31-27 lead, the eventual final score.
Even though the team is struggling, Whisenhunt and players believe they can still turn the season around.
“I think the way our guys are working right now they believe that we have the right guys that if we do it the right way we’re going to be successful,” Whisenhunt said. “I think we’ve shown glimpses of that and I think they certainly believe that.”
The Cardinals have had to learn a new defensive scheme, welcome in plenty of new players, as well as adjusting to quarterback Kevin Kolb’s playing style, so the team is still in transition.
“It’s a growing process that we’re going through with this team,” Whisenhunt said. “We’re better than we were last week, we’ve got to stay the course and continue to work that way. We know it’s going to turn for us if we continue to work the way were doing.”
Kolb, who was 20-34 for 237 yards and an interception, has now spent two months in the Cardinals offense, but Whisenhunt knows the QB is still learning.
“Well Kevin [Kolb] missed some things which that happens with quarterbacks,” Whisenhunt said. “But he’s working through running our offense and getting comfortable with that.”
Although the Cardinals can place the team’s struggles on the relative youth of the team, rookie cornerback Patrick Peterson knows what the Cardinals must do to start winning games.
“At the end of the day a football game is four quarters,” Peterson said. “We have to give four quarters just like we play in the first three quarters relentless effort and play fast so we just got to finish our game.”
