Look, the Cardinals are a division leader with a challenging-but-not-overwhelming remaining schedule. Their wins have been generally decisive and the roster has no real significant holes. When they play well, they win. When they don’t, they lose (or almost lose). From a fan perspective, that’s fine. From an entertaining post perspective, I’ve been dreading this piece knowing it’s gotta show up alongside reactions from fanbases such as WAS, PHI, and DAL.

At 6-2, Arizona has been out of the ‘Best Team in the NFL’ conversation for weeks now. With four undefeateds and a one-loss team at midseason, the only sure thing in power polls these days is the mention  of Tom Bra(PED)y going for a 19-0 season. Frankly, when the only company that ARI is keeping at 6-2 is the Atlanta Falcons, I don’t blame anyone for looking right past them. Most years, the Cards are not-sexy bad. This season, they are not-sexy good.

“Oh!” Fans will say, “Didn’t you see them against the Browns!”

Yeah, well, everyone looks good against the Browns.

“Oh!” They’ll continue, “How about the beating they put on Detroit that was so bad that Stafford got benched?”

In a season of bad football teams, this Lions team is straight up horrible.

“Oh!” Yet again, “How about Kaep throwing pick-sixes on his first two possession against us?”

A brief side note about SF: I get the NFL is a business and all that but Is there not a more corporate-America team than the 49ers over the last two years? Excellence in management, coaching, development, and scheming kept them at the top of the league for a couple seasons with a positive outlook for years moving forward. But when spoiled, entitled, psychopathic upper management (frankly, I was surprised to find out Jed York doesn’t have an MBA) is upset that the skilled talent responsible for their success isn’t sucking them off, they decide to burn the whole fucking thing down rather than show the slightest bit of humility. Seriously, who the fuck can be a fan of that franchise with that little shit at the top?

Also, double-patriotism points for landing a taxpayer-funded stadium just before lighting the match, Jed.

However, they also lost to the Rams at home in Gurley’s coming out party…

…as well as to PIT in a Landry Jones orchestrated second half comeback.
They also fell behind to the Browns in the first half last week and let the Ravens hang around on a home MNF game that should have been a complete thrashing.

Returning from the bye, Arizona has only one more division home game (SEA) and travels to the rest of the division plus PHI. Their other remaining home games are CIN, MIN, and GB. At SF is the only true gimmie on that list.

I wrote in the Buzzsaw’s preseason piece that I feared injuries and scheduling would be the downfall of this 2015 team. So far, injuries have been basically a non-issue (as far as the NFL season goes) and, while the Cards did statistically succeed against the first half of their schedule, they were favored in every game and lost two. It’s a significant blemish to have two losses on their schedule at this point.

Say what you will about ARI “not playing their best football” and needing to “put together a complete game” — this Cardinals team controls their own destiny. Out of the bye at SEA and hosting CIN on SNF are games that previous coaches would have wilted under the pressure and lost. Or the potential for their two game lead on the Rams to go zero (on account of head to head) with a loss at STL. So that is what I am bracing myself for. But with the mighty Bruce Arians at the helm, I’m going to stick with my preseason prediction with one slight comic sans change.