Cardinals hoping road trip pays off against Jets

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - There’s more than a game on the line when the Cardinals visit the New York Jets. There’s credibility as well. The largest single task in changing the franchise’s losing culture is playing better on the road.

Read Mike Tulumello's blog, 'Bird Watching'

Cards notebook: Team not in rush thanks to staying in East

From 2000-06, the Cardinals’ road record was an embarrassing 11-45. In coach Ken Whisenhunt’s tenure, the mark is 3-7, including 1-1 this season.

The importance of winning today’s game is ramped up for two reasons.

• A win gives them a 3-1 mark at the season’s quarter pole, including a 2-1 road record and the NFC West lead.

“We want to win every quarter (of the season), every four games,” cornerback Eric Green said. “You do that, you’re a playoff team.

“This game is really important. It will bring momentum back on our side and get us back where we started (at 2-0).”

• The Cardinals drew added attention to the past game at Washington and today’s game at the New York Jets by spending a week in the East between games. The reason: to get acclimated to the three-hour time change and avoid a cross-country trip on the back end.

This is unusual, though certainly not unprecedented. The New England Patriots may do the same thing on the West Coast twice this season.

But a loss today, and skeptics will wonder if the Cardinals outsmarted themselves.

“We got to get this one by any means necessary,” defensive tackle Darnell Docket said. “We can’t come out here for a whole week and go back with nothing.”

In truth, they appeared to be dealt poor luck late in the week.

After enjoying nearly injury-free times through training camp, the exhibition season and the first three games of the season, a number of Cardinals were ailing late in the week.

Safety Adrian Wilson sat out Friday’s practice with a sore hamstring.

Tight end Leonard Pope suffered a foot injury. Receiver Anquan Boldin also was hobbled with a hamstring problem. The team had already lost defensive end/linebacker Bertrand Berry with a groin pull.

“I think some of these guys, when you’re used to practicing in the heat and when you come to where it’s cooler and wet … some of them were a little tight,” Whisenhunt said. “But that’s normal.”

The Cardinals are in an unusual position: They lingered for a week in the same area — just outside Washington D.C. — where they were tied late, then suddenly faded to a disappointing loss last Sunday.

Quarterback Kurt Warner did a couple of days of soul searching and said, “You’ve got to let this one go. We’re still disappointed; there was a lot of stuff we could have done differently.

“That’s the hard part. We had a chance to win that game and put ourselves in a great position. Now, you feel you really need to get this one before you go home. It would have been really nice to be 3-0 instead of 2-1.”

Today’s game “is huge from a lot of different standpoints,” Warner said.

The Cardinals set themselves up for a run at their best season since they moved to Arizona by winning their first two games. Now, after last week’s result and the travel experiment, “It’s important for us to go back home with a winning record,” Warner said.

“It’s important for our development, and to get where we want to be, we’ve got to find a way on these road trips to come out and play good football.”

The same way the Cardinals now are routinely playing at home.

“It’s critical … definitely,” Warner said.

If the Cardinals lose today, there’ll be plenty of squawking and second-guessing about their extended road trip,

If they win, most everything will be seen through Cardinal-red vision. The plan to raise up the franchise’s culture will seem on track.

So there’s plenty of incentive for the players.

Then add into the mix this idea pushed by Green, who enjoyed the extended Eastern trip:

“We got to win so we can do this again,” he said.

EXTRA POINT: The Cardinals added Pope to the injury report with a lower leg injury. He is listed as questionable for tomorrow’s game. Pope suffered the injury in Friday’s practice.

Cardinals at Jets
When: 10 a.m. today
Where: East Rutherford, N.J.
TV/Radio: Fox/KTAR (92.3 FM)