NFL Blitz: Can the Cardinals Repeat In the NFC?

[brandies]

http://www.redskins.com/gen/articles/NFL_Blitz__Can_the_Cardinals_Repeat_In_the_NFC__44986.jsp

The Arizona Cardinals dreamed the impossible dream last season.

Never before had they been to a Super Bowl. Hadn’t won a playoff game since the 1998 season. Hadn’t won a championship since 1947, when they were the Chicago Cardinals. Hadn’t won a division title since 1975.

Nearly pulled off the upset of the Pittsburgh Steelers, too. Led after a late touchdown. Then they gave one up with less than two minutes to play and the Steelers got their fifth Super Bowl title and the Cardinals slipped into the history book as one more Cinderella with broken glass between the toes.

The natural expectation, then, as NFL training camps get rocking this weekend, would be to look for the Cardinals to build upon their surprising successes and keep moving forward. Perhaps they took two steps a year ago when few people truly expected one but now they’ve showed what they can do and must not retreat into their clumsy and generally awful past.

This is far easier said than done. Winning in the NFL isn’t easy. Winning consistently is exponentially harder. Who ever thought the Cardinals would be providing that case study?

Not long after their 27-23 loss to the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII, the Cardinals began an offseason of tumult and turmoil, of defections and dopey deeds. Since 2001, only one Super Bowl loser has made the playoffs the following season (the Seattle Seahawks in 2006) and Arizona’s off-season is the generalized cautionary tale.


The Redskins beat the Cardinals 24-17
last year. (Getty Images)Did the Cardinals keep the program together?

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[MissU28]

I hope not. I have no compassion for those dirty birds

 

[Henry]

The Cards were an above average team that peaked at just the right time last year. That sort of thing rarely repeats itself, especially with very old QBs at the helm.

 

[Henry]

i dont see why they couldnt. weak division...great key players. They have as good of a shot as anyone else.

Personally I would like to see them make the playoffs and go far. Lose to US of course but I would like to see them do well. They were our doormat for so long I felt bad for them..

I feel bad for their fans (the ones who haven't defected to the Cowboys) but Bill Bidwill is a terrible owner and I don't feel bad for him one bit.

 

[Chris]

The Cardinals earned a soft spot in my heart when they crushed the Eagles fans Superbowl dreams.