The latest edition of Cardinals Flight Plan 2021 recapped the first portion of the season that saw the Arizona Cardinals get out to an NFL-best 9-2 start.
Beginning the season in Tennessee against the Titans, the Cardinals recognized that the doubters were out there.
Safety Budda Baker was asked how many people believed in the team.
“I feel like not a lot of people,” Baker said. “Last year, I mean, we knew we kind of lost in a fashion where we thought we could have won and it was just a matter of coming out in Week 1 and showing the world.”
The Cardinals earned a convincing 38-13 road win in Nashville to start the season.
From that point until Week 8, the Cardinals were unstoppable.
“There have been times that we’ve bent a little bit, but at critical moments we’ve stepped up and made big plays” general manager Steve Keim said.
The turning point for Arizona came after the first loss of the season to the Green Bay Packers.
That’s when the injury bug struck the Cardinals and they were forced to turn the reigns of the offense over to backup quarterback Colt McCoy.
However, the team didn’t miss a beat without Kyler Murray, picking up two wins over division opponents in his absence.
“Best record in football, which is what we’ve got, and undefeated in the division,” head coach Kliff Kingsbury said to the team after beating the Seattle Seahawks in Week 11.
With six games remaining in the regular season, the sky is the limit for the Cardinals this year.
“I’m just asking everyone just take 10 seconds a day in the morning and just think about that feeling of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy up,” vice president of player personnel Quentin Harris said.
“Because positive energy is infectious, its infectious and its going to permeate throughout the building and throughout the Valley.”