TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -The Arizona Cardinals are 2-0 for the first time in 17 years. Big deal, say two of their players who know what it’s like to achieve real NFL success.
“We haven’t played nobody,” running back Edgerrin James said. “We’ve got to keep doing it. A lot of teams are 2-0. Detroit was 6-2 last year.”
Quarterback Kurt Warner scoffed at being overly impressed by the fast start.
“When people are talking about prosperity at 2-0 it almost makes me laugh,” he said. “… Hopefully we have the mind-set in here that this is where we expected ourselves to be, so why are you getting excited about something you expect?”
Asked if he thought this year’s Cardinals realize their start is no reason for jubilation, James said, “We’ll see how we come off this road trip.”
ic University before playing at the New York Jets the next weekend.
Coach Ken Whisenhunt said Monday that he decided staying in the East was the better option.
“The one thing I know is it saves us a thousand miles of travel and it saves us 10 hours in an airplane, which to me is a big difference,” he said. “When you travel that long in an airplane your body suffers the effects of it.”
The Cardinals were awful in the games in the East last year, Whisenhunt said, referring to losses at Washington, Tampa Bay and Baltimore.
“We’re trying to put this team in the best position that we feel can give us a chance to win,” he said. “We feel like this does that for us, staying on the East Coast.”
The Cardinals will hope their high-powered offense makes the trip intact.
Warner was 19-of-24 for 361 yards and three scores in Sunday’s 31-10 romp over Miami. Pro Bowl receivers Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald were at the top of their game. Boldin caught six for 140 yards and three touchdowns. Fitzgerald had six catches for 153 yards. It was the sixth time the talented duo had both topped 100 yards receiving in the same game.
Warner, meanwhile, had a perfect quarterback rating for the third time in his career, matching Peyton Manning for most in NFL history.
isco that featured Arizona grinding out the clock in the second half, mostly on the ground, to preserve a 23-13 win.
“What I hope that the league sees is that after two weeks we’re versatile, we can do a little bit of both,” Whisenhunt said.
Dating to last year, Arizona has won four in a row, the franchise’s longest streak since 1999. The Cardinals’ 54 points in the two games are the most to open the season since they scored 68 in 1985. The 23 points allowed are the franchise’s fewest to open a season since 1977.
The team has gone consecutive games without a turnover since 2001. The Cardinals had not opened the season with two turnover-free games since the NFL-AFL merger of 1970.
All of those statistics speak volumes about the sad history of the Cardinals, a reputation this team thinks it can bury once and for all.
“It’s a great way to start the season out 2-0,” Fitzgerald said, “but it would be even better to go 3-0. That’s what my mind-frame is.”
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