Whisenhunt has Cards flying high above past

 The walls are tumbling down. Almost since the moving vans hit the Arizona state line on their way from St. Louis in 1988, the Cardinals have been associated with losing.

Believe it, Cards fans!

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Sure, they won some games that first year. Then star quarterback Neil Lomax got hurt toward season’s end and — with the exception of the Jake Plummer-led playoff run of 1998 — they’ve pretty much been losers ever since.

But under coach Ken Whisenhunt and his staff, the culture is changing.

The Cardinals have run up their best record through 10 games since the move. Players say the change goes beyond the playing field to the ways they act, even the ways they think about themselves and the team.

How has this happened?

“We’ve built the team-first concept, and our players have bought into it,” Whisenhunt said.

He sensed that when the Cardinals won two games to close last season and finish at 8-8, his players started to believe that his system — everything from how the team practiced to how it traveled — could work.

He also believes players have accepted the coaching staff’s message that, “We’re going to play our best players who put us in the best situation to win games. We’ve created a sense of competition, but fair competition. Our guys have a tremendous amount of belief in each other.

“We’re growing as a team. You can see it on the sideline. There’s no panic. Guys enjoy being around each other. That’s a very important part of winning in situations where it gets tough.

“You have to be to be able to count on each other. To me that’s the biggest thing that’s happened here. We’ve become a much closer team.”

Whisenhunt said he can’t evaluate what happened before he arrived.

But the players can.

Quarterback Kurt Warner, a former league and Super Bowl MVP, said, “A team always leans on the guy next to him. That’s what I’ve seen happen in two years.

“Guys are starting to lean on the guys around them. If they don’t pull their weight in one game, somebody else is going to make up for him. And their job is to do it the next week.

“I think that’s what’s really helped separate us from where we’ve been in the past.”

The team-first concept has been pushed along by Whisenhunt’s flexibility, Warner said.

“That could be anywhere from training camp schedules to adjusting things throughout the week, to listening to player input when it comes to game planning.

“They’ve allowed players to take more ownership of this thing. That’s the bottom line. When players feel it’s their responsibility and have ownership in something, you can weed out the ones who want to be great and want to be successful from the ones who don’t.

“I think we have a lot of guys here who want to be successful. Because he’s pushed some of that ownership onto us, guys have responded in a favorable way.”

“Everything is clicking now,” defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said. “We go into each and every game humble, but with the expectation to win. We don’t go out there just to compete.”

In years past, “You’d line up and (think), 'Hope we can keep the game close?’ or 'Let’s not make mistakes,’ or 'Uh, oh, three turnovers, we’re down 14. Let’s get ready for next week.’

“Now we line up and no matter what happens, we expect to win. That’s what good teams do.”

Safety Adrian Wilson also took note of the team-first approach by Whisenhunt.

“That’s something he’s stressed. Last year it was about the team and this year more so.

“What’s best for the team — that’s what everybody in the locker room understands. We’re going to win as a team, we’re going to lose as a team.”

The Cardinals’ low point — you could almost hear the “same old Cardinals” whispers — came in a loss at the New York Jets on Sept. 26 that dropped them to 2-2.

They’d gone to great lengths to prepare for the game, spending more than a week on the East Coast so they didn’t have to make a cross-country trip to New York (they’d played in Washington the previous week).

Yet, with Kurt Warner suffering a dizzying series of turnovers, they fell behind by a staggering 34-0 margin by halftime.

But they at least partially recovered, scoring three straight touchdowns after the break to at least make the game competitive.

They haven’t had a similar pratfall since.

“To be honest, sitting in the locker room at halftime ... we didn’t feel the Jets were a better team,” Wilson said.

“We just felt we didn’t execute and made mistakes. We came out and scored three touchdowns in 10 minutes.

“That goes to the confidence of the coaches and players.”

They’ve had a few disputes. But even here, the Cardinals haven’t seem distracted.

In the off-season, Dockett and receiver Anquan Boldin — unhappy with their contracts — stayed away from the voluntary workouts.

Boldin squawked about the situation in training camp, though not since.

Now Edgerrin James, unhappy with a lack of playing time, has asked for his release. He has said he’ll keep working, and the Cardinals seem to think this will be the case.

Dockett, though not talking about anybody specifically, seemed to have a message about this sort of thing:

“That’s the off-season. Right now, when I come to work, guys don’t want to hear about your personal issues you’ve got with the team, or your contract issues and all that. That’s irrelevant right now.

“When you come to work, you’ve got guys that depend on you to do a job and get ready for Sunday.”

That’s what they’ve been doing, and figure to do even into January.