Cardinals ignoring Lions’ record in preparation for matchup

TEMPE, Ariz. — Back in 2008, the Detroit Lions failed to win a game.

Zero wins. Sixteen losses.

Through four games this year, they are on the same pace. Detroit is the only team in the NFL without a victory, but to hear the Arizona Cardinals tell it, they are nothing like the 2008 squad.

“They’re 0-4 but I always think about that Detroit Lions team from last year, or the game that they just played against Seattle,” linebacker LaMarr Woodley said. “They were one fumble away from actually winning the game.

“So you can’t really base it off 0-4 because it’s just mistakes here and there. The few mistakes that we had, we could have been 4-0. The records could easily change based off one minor mistake.”

Last year’s Lions went 11-5 and were a questionable call away from knocking off the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs. They’re a different team this year, of course, but the point remains the same. While the Lions may have the record of a winless team, their roster belies their rough start.

“You forget, they’ve got Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson, [Amir Abdullah], I mean, this is a talented team,” linebacker Kevin Minter said. “And you watch those games, they’re a few plays away from being almost undefeated. They were in almost every game.

“Last week, I feel that they got cheated. So I won’t sleep on the Lions — I know we’re not. We’ve just got to come in Sunday and just try to keep them from hitting that gear and all of a sudden being the team that we think they can potentially be.”

There you go.

Former NFL coach Bill Parcells is known for saying, essentially, that a team is what is record is. It’s a simple concept, really, and it’s one that makes a lot of sense. You may think you have all the talent in the world, but if it doesn’t show up on the field then what does it matter?

But maybe the Lions are a different kind of cat. Their minus-30 point differential is a better mark than five teams, three of their four games have been played on the road and three of their opponents — the Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks — are expected by many to be playoff teams this season.

And it was their most recent defeat, which came Monday night in Seattle, that especially caught the Cardinals’ attention. It was not a pretty performance by any means, but the Lions went into Century Link Field and were in position to take the lead with under two minutes remaining. Then receiver Calvin Johnson fumbled the ball at the one-yard line, where it was illegally batted out of the end zone  by Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright.

The play led to controversy as a penalty should have been called, which would have then given the Lions the ball at the one. However, no flag was thrown and the Seahawks took possession and were able to run out the clock. That’s why Woodley said they were a fumble away from winning, why Minter said he thought the Lions got cheated and it’s why when looking at their next opponent, the Cardinals do not see a team that is incapable of winning –especially at home.

“Anybody that looks at Detroit and says they’re not a good football team, we know,” receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. “I’ve played in Seattle 12 times in my career, I don’t care if they were ‘Legion of Boom’, before ‘Legion of Boom’, they were always tough to play in that building. That place is the toughest place to play in football, and for them to go out there and be a foot away from winning that ball game says a lot about that team, the character about that team.

“Nobody in the world gave them a chance, so we know exactly what we’re going to get. We’re going to get their best shot. They’re back at home working on a short week, so there’s a heightened sense of dedication they’re going to put forward this weekend, we understand that.”

The main point from everything the Cardinals have said is that they will not be underestimating their opponent. In fact, Fitzgerald said like the Lions, Arizona is entering this game with a sense of desperation, too.

Coming off a 24-22 home loss to the St. Louis Rams last week, if the Cardinals didn’t previously know they cannot afford to overlook a team, they do now.

“Yeah, absolutely,” safety Tyrann Mathieu said when asked if coming off a loss helps to make sure the Cardinals will be focused against a winless team. “Especially us losing that game, losing the past game, you definitely want to be focused on what you have to do.

“Like coach always says, you never want to lose two games in a row. And for us, we dropped one at home so now we’ve got to win an extra one on the road. And it’s an NFC opponent also, so we don’t want this game to come back to bite us later in the season.”

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