With a month left in the regular season the defending NFC West Champion Arizona Cardinals find themselves facing more questions than solutions in a year which hasn’t followed the script many expected.
At 4-6-1 Bruce Arians’ team is still alive for a trip to the playoffs but saddled with a two-game losing streak and black cloud hovering a franchise whose “All or Nothing” mantra has taken a turn for the latter, expectations have been tempered if not extinguished.
Still, there is hope and with said hope, an opportunity to continue writing this dis-jointed chapter of 2016.
“You’re better off winning as many games as you can, especially while you’re still in,” SI.com Senior NFL Writer Peter King told Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat earlier this week. “I would want to play at the least the next couple of games full-speed ahead like you never can tell what might happen.”
There have been whispers the Cards may want to dial back the carries for second-year star running back David Johnson whose high production has coincided with a large number of hits.
Maybe by the middle of December the post-season picture for Arizona will be more in-focus one way or the other but, at least for now, there’s still reason for slight optimism moving forward, regardless of what has happened the first three months of the season.
“I think you have to play the next two weeks like the games have real playoff significance,” King said.
The Cards host the Redskins (6-4-1) Sunday afternoon in Glendale.
