Mexico, beware: Cardinals no bueno

JOHN MCGRATH; THE NEWS TRIBUNE

This Sunday night, in Mexico City, the Arizona Cardinals will make pro-football history by serving as the “home” team for the first regular-season NFL game ever played outside the United States.

They might consider staying there.

Remember when the Cardinals, who won their most recent division title 30 years ago, were seen as the trendy pick to finish first in the NFC West? The high hopes – and we must emphasize the word “high” – were based on a defense that became respectable last year, an offense built around a trio of rangy receivers, and head coach Denny Green’s knack for turning around dormant teams.

Most of all, there was the sense the Cardinals’ time had come because, hey, anybody can have a bad century.

Arizona will not win a division title this season. It’s usually unwise to write off a team three weeks into a 16-game schedule, but these guys are a special case.

A week after an illegal procedure penalty cost the Cardinals a chance to rally for a last-second comeback victory against St. Louis, they put on a show of ineptitude at Qwest Field that bordered on the comical.

They couldn’t slow down the Seahawks’ rush. During the first half, Seattle defensive end Bryce Fisher ran past Leonard Davis, the Cardinals’ 6-foot-6, 366- pound tackle, as if he were standing still. (Come to think of it, he was.) Quarterback Kurt Warner was the lucky stiff who got to resemble a tackling dummy for Fisher, until the former league MVP strained a groin muscle scrambling out of the pocket and was replaced by Josh McCown.

Meanwhile, Arizona was disinclined to pressure Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, failing to register a sack or even a hurried pass. No wonder they couldn’t force a turnover.

What the Cardinals did do was stop the clock, redefining the definition of “flag football.” They were charged with four false starts, two face-mask grabbings, and enough other violations to fill the glossary of an official’s rule book.

Flags were dropped on the visitors for encroachment. For delay of game. For offensive holding and for defensive holding. For illegal motion, and illegal use of hands, and illegal touch of a pass.

As if to underscore the totality of the team effort, the Cardinals also were penalized for 12 men on the field.

Had the Seahawks not declined four of the penalties, the Cardinals would have tied the franchise record for penalties in a game: 16, set against Green Bay in 1936.

“It’s just stupid penalties,” said second-year wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. “We’re moving the ball, then there’s an offsides here, a holding there, a dropped pass, a missed block. It’s a cumulative effect, and everyone has to be accountable.”

The buck, of course, stops with Green.

“It’s not working,” the coach said after the 37-12 defeat left The Trendy Pick To Win The NFC West at 0-3. “Clearly, it’s not working.

“When I say it’s not working, I’m talking about the strategy that I put forth. The job I thought I could do, I am not able to do right now, and I’m not happy about it.”

Wideout Anquan Boldon, two seasons removed from a rookie campaign of unprecedented productivity, pondered the thought of 0-3.

“I’ve never been 0-3 my life,” said the former Florida State star, “so this is new territory for me.”

Really? The Cardinals haven’t gotten off to an 0-3 start since way back in, uh, 2004. Boldon can’t be faulted for disregarding his association with that dubious achievement, as a knee injury suffered in training camp kept him on the sidelines until midseason.

Still, you’ve got to wonder about the team-first commitment of somebody so cavalier in dismissing the facts.

Just as you’ve got to wonder how Chike Okeafor – the ex-Seahawks defensive end signed by the Cardinals as a free agent – appeared to skip off the field Sunday, evidently unfazed by the 25-point thumping.

“The game is supposed to be fun,” said Okeafor. “It’s supposed to be happy. That’s joy. That’s happiness coming out of me. If I didn’t give that back, I wouldn’t be appreciating the gift that I’ve been given.

“It goes back to why I had to leave: I wasn’t happy here. I owe it to myself to be happy.”

Yikes. Here’s the hoss the Cardinals brought in to beef up their pass rush, and he sounds like he finds motivation from the kind of sorority-house wall poster that typically portrays snuggling kittens.

“They didn’t deserve to have me here, know what I’m saying?” Okeafor continued. “I took myself elsewhere. I’ve got to be happy every day.

“It’s a game. We’re just big kids blessed to still play a game. That’s why I call it ‘recess,’ just going out there and having fun. If it’s not fun, it isn’t worth it. That’s the day I’ll hang it up, when it’s not fun anymore. Of course we like to win, but there’ll be a time for that.”

The grittiest face on the Arizona sideline Sunday? That would be the red bird on the team’s redesigned helmet. According to the NFL, “the Cardinal has a sleeker, tougher appearance.”

A crowd of 110,000 is expected to show up next week to watch the Cardinals take on the San Francisco 49ers at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Chike Okeafor has his work cut out for him.

He’s got six days to learn the Spanish word for “recess.”

© Copyright 2005 Tacoma News, Inc. A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company