Arizona Cardinals are looking for a little respect
Dec 12, 2014, 10:59 PM | Updated: 10:59 pm
R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.
Aretha Franklin’s iconic song is applied in many instances, and it’s about to be used once more.
Respect would mean a lot to the Arizona Cardinals. But the way they see it, they’re not getting enough.
And really, have you ever seen an 11-3 team doubted as much as this one?
To wit: heading into Thursday night’s game against the Rams, most pundits felt the Cardinals would leave St. Louis with a loss.
“We came out here and played like we should,” Cardinals defensive lineman Tommy Kelly said after his team came out on top by a 12-6 score. “They said that we couldn’t even score against these boys and all that, and it feels good to whoop them in their own place.”
And prove those who spent time lauding St. Louis’ defense, rather than Arizona’s, wrong.
“But their defense is 6-8,” Kelly said. “And this defense is 11-3. That’s all that matters, baby. That’s all that matters.’
Or, to put it more concisely, scoreboard.
Of course, the lack of respect is not because people just don’t like the team; rather, it’s because, whether you’re using stats or the eye test, their offense isn’t exactly striking fear into anyone.
Over the team’s last 19 quarters of football, the offense has reached the end zone twice. And with Drew Stanton possibly set to miss games due to an injury suffered Thursday night, a struggling unit does not figure to improve much.
But even with all that has gone against the Cardinals this season — and plenty has — they’ve still found a way to win 11 games and put themselves in position to win their division as well as earn the top seed in the NFC.
It has rarely been pretty, but the only thing that matters is winning. And the Cardinals have done as much of that as anyone in the NFL, no matter who they’ve lost.
As it stands, Thursday will stand as just another message for a team that keeps sending them.
“That we’re here to play,” cornerback Patrick Peterson said of what the win says to others. “A lot of teams say, ‘Oh, they’re going to start out hot and take a nose-dive.’ We’re still playing football, baby. We just want to continue playing together as a team, make sure we stay focused throughout the week.
“Got another boo-boo with our quarterback; hopefully he’s not out for long. But it just goes to show the work that we put in each and every week to come prepared to these games on Thursday night or Sundays.”
Even with their victory over the Rams, there will still be plenty of folks around the league who expect the Cardinals to stumble down the stretch. Perhaps that will come in their next game, a showdown with the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks on Sunday Night Football, which is a game Cardinals coach Bruce Arians expects his team to be underdogs in. Then, the following week, Arizona will travel to the bay to battle the San Francisco 49ers, a team Arizona hasn’t knocked off on the road since 2008.
Lose both games, and the doubters will have some ammunition. Win one — or even both — and maybe, just maybe, people will start buying into what’s happening in the desert.
But until then, the Cardinals have certainly done enough to warrant a little more credit than they’ve received up to this point.
“I don’t see why not,” Arians said when asked if his guys deserve more attention on a national level. “I think right now we’re the No. 1 team in the National Football League. You should get some respect with that.”
