Cards go back to drawing board

Nobody else is going to feel sorry for the Cardinals. So they shouldn’t, either.

That was coach Ken Whisenhunt’s message Monday after his team played its worst game this season, a 25-10 home loss to Carolina Sunday.

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The pratfall was accompanied by the loss of quarterback Kurt Warner to an elbow injury.

The Cards have lost their top two quarterbacks in two weeks.

“I’ve never been around a team where that’s happened,” Whisenhunt said.

Even so, “It’s not going to change. There’s not a team feeling sorry for us.

“I feel good we have Tim (Rattay), and we have quality receivers. We’ll go forward.”

They will go forward almost certainly without Warner this week.

He has said he hopes to miss just this Sunday at Washington as the Cardinals then have a bye week.

The Cardinals are expected to sign Tim Hasselbeck, who has experience as an NFL backup in case Rattay goes down.

Rattay will have one thing going for him — he’ll be able to call a play and be more than “80 percent sure” — as he said he was Sunday — that he knew what he was doing.

“I felt comfortable once the game got going,” said Rattay, who signed last Tuesday and started practicing Wednesday.

“The guys did a good job of helping me.

“… I was calling plays a little better toward the end.”

Rattay said his pace has to be on fast forward as he continues to learn.

“I’ve got to keep putting the pedal to the metal. That’s the only way I can get up to speed.”

Rattay is enthusiastic about his teammates, as Larry Fitzgerald made “great plays” catching the ball and Edgerrin James “was running really well.”

In addition, “The offensive line did a great job. There was hardly any pressure against a very good defensive line.”

“So there’s a ton of talent on this offense, obviously. For me it was fun.

“My job is to keep trying to learn this thing as fast as I can.”

Considering the quarterback injuries and how poorly the Cardinals played, “where you make those mistakes and essentially give the game away, you worry about the psyche of the team,” Whisenhunt admitted.

The Cardinals “played physical and hard” and — until the final minutes of the game — “the defense did a great job.”

So the Cardinals have to emphasize what they’ve been done well, including details such as finishing their blocks and holding onto the ball.

“In a weird way, maybe that’s good because it will give us a chance to refocus on some of the things we need to do.

“We won two games in a row.

“We were feeling good about ourselves. …

“As much as anything, we let a few of the small details slide. The good teams can’t do that.”