Entering Sunday, the biggest knock against the Cardinals
this season was that none came against playoff teams.

That’s no longer the case.

The Cardinals beat the Cowboys 19-13 in overtime,
improving their record to 5-7 this season.

On Sunday the Cards looked like the team many expected to
see at the beginning of the season. Kevin Kolb was mobile,
accurate and mistake free, Andre Roberts proved to be a
legit number two receiver, and the 3-4 defense showed what
it could do, sacking Tony Romo five times.

Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt says now the whole
team must build off the strong performance, including the
quarterback.

“I think there were a number of things that we saw in the
second half that I really liked,” Whisenhunt said. “[Kevin
Kolb] got a better feel for the game as it went on, it was
really nice for him to make those strides as far as the
way we’re running our offense, and that will give us
confidence going forward — especially if we can continue
to run the football.”

On the other side of the ball, Whisenhunt attributes the
defense’s improvement to defensive coordinator Ray Horton.

“This is Ray’s first job as a defensive coordinator and to
come in here with no offseason with a bunch of new guys
and get them all on the same page, it’s tough,” Whisenhunt
said. “It was a tough stretch for us early, but Ray is a
very disciplined, good teacher, understands the scheme,
does a great job communicating with our players and I
think they believe in what we’re trying to get done.”

Whisenhunt said the defense is finally playing together,
which allowed the team to get pressure.

Looking forward, the head coach just wants to take it one
game at a time.

“The important thing for us is to keep our focus like it’s
been the last five or six games and that’s just one week
at a time,” Whisenhunt said. “We want to make sure that we
focus on trying to get better each week and we’re starting
to see progress with that.”

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