TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -Kurt Warner is having a hard time shaking off his disgust about his Arizona Cardinals’ punchless effort at Tampa Bay.
“There’s not too many games that I’ve thought about more for as long as I have this one,” the 36-year-old quarterback said after Wednesday’s practice. “It was disappointing. We didn’t come out and perform well. We’ve got to get better, and it’s tough to handle.”
The Cardinals lost 17-10 to drop to 3-5 going into Sunday’s home game against the Detroit Lions.
“It’s something that bothered me the day of the game, the night of the game, the last couple of nights,” Warner said. “I’m trying to let it go now so we can get on to the next one.”
Warner’s feelings seemed to spread throughout the Arizona locker room, especially among the offensive players.
“All of us really as a team felt his frustration,” starting right guard Deuce Lutui said. “I guarantee you not one person was pleased with what they had done in the game.”
Even though Arizona had a chance to tie at the end, the overall performance by the offense was by far its worst of the season.
The Cardinals managed 195 yards, 23 on the ground. Edgerrin James gained 15 yards in nine carries. Warner was 10-of-30 for 172 yards with two interceptions, although the second pick was dubious.
Replays showed Jermaine Phillips only got one foot in bounds after the interception, but Arizona had no timeouts so could not challenge the call.
No matter. The Cardinals knew they did not play well enough to deserve victory.
“I don’t think Kurt was the only one upset,” wide receiver Bryant Johnson said. “I think a lot of people were upset. Last week was probably our best week of practice since the season started, so it definitely was a mystery how we played in that game.”
As always, nobody was pointing fingers, but Lutui, himself in just his second season, talked about a lack of maturity.
“I think it’s time to wake up,” he said, “and a lot of us have got to grow up.”
Warner, playing with a torn tendon in his left (non-throwing) elbow, talked about attention to detail, a subject brought up repeatedly since the arrival of coach Ken Whisenhunt.
“We’ve been hearing about physical talent here for a long time because we’re very talented physically,” Warner said. “But this game is won mentally. I will never say anything but that. This game is won mentally, doing the right things, knowing how to create things for yourself.”
Whisenhunt is portraying the game as an aberration.
“Once again, I don’t want to overreact to one game,” Whisenhunt said when asked if the offensive line had taken a step back from its earlier efforts. “The bottom line is we didn’t play good enough to win. If we play like that, we’re not going to win games.”
Whisenhunt prefers to point to the first seven games, which he said were well-played even though Arizona lost four of them.
“We have to win a game. This perception that close is good enough is not,” he said. “Three-and-five in the first eight games is not where we want to be. We feel like we’re a better team than that. We were in a position in a number of those games to win, and we didn’t get it done.
“If we can make a few more plays in those situations, we can win some of those games.”
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