PHNX DAILY
The PHNX Daily brings you the top sports stories in Arizona every day, delivered right to your inbox! Follow along with all of your beloved AZ sports teams as we bring unique, free content featuring your favorite players, coaches and personalities from throughout the state's sports scene. You can also catch up on the most recent stories from your favorite PHNX writers, check out the most recent podcast from our vast offering of shows, and find all the information needed to see which of your teams are playing on any given day, what time they start, and where you can watch or listen to them. It's all free, delivered to you bright and early each and every morning!
Nov 21Β β’Β 8 min read
How the Cardinals can Win the West
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π GOOD MORNING Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024 -- Is it fun to be a football fan in The Valley, or what? The Sun Devils have surprised scores of people en route to their 8-2 start (more on that tomorrow), and the Cardinals have been just as exciting to watch. That's where we find ourselves today. Is Arizona a contender, or a pretender? 10 games into the season the Cards lead the log-jammed NFC West with a 6-4 record, ahead of three 5-5 teams. Buckle up. So, what has been the key to the Cardinals' sudden resurgence, and can they maintain their momentum heading to a division rival's stadium following a bye week? Our most recent Q&A series chats with PHNX Cardinals beat reporter Craig Morgan, who shares his experience with the team, from its 2-4 start to its current four-game winning streak. On to the show! π° LEADING OFF Q&A With PHNX Cardinals Reporter Craig MorganWelcome to the PHNX Daily's weekly Q&A session! This week we're catching up with PHNX Cardinals beat reporter Craig Morgan, who has been connecting fans with their favorite Arizona sports teams for decades. With the Cardinals currently two games over .500, leading the NFC West race and coming off a bye week, we wanted to get a better idea of what fans should expect heading into the waning moments of the season, and more importantly, what the Cardinals are capable of. PB: Craig, thank you so much for taking some time out to chat today. Let's start with the most obvious question: Are you surprised by Arizona's success so far this season? CM: I am definitely surprised. I don't think expectations externally were this high. When you look at their performance in Green Bay when they fell to 2-4, I thought that might be the start of the slide, but they have righted the ship in spite of a lot of injuries and a lot of deficiencies on defense. Whether they can keep this up, I think we're going to have a really good indicator of where this team is coming out of the bye, going to Seattle against another team that has seemingly righted its ship. This division is wide open, there are four teams within a game of one another. I think everyone assumed that San Francisco would win this division, and the Rams would be right there with them. Well, San Francisco has struggled. The Cardinals already own two wins in the division. We're going to find out a lot in the Seattle game, we're going to know a lot about their fortunes. If they can go to 7-4 and 3-0 in the division, they certainly have a leg up on the rest of their field. β±οΈ BECOME A DIEHARD TODAY!
All Sides of the Ball Stepping UpPB: When looking at their wins this season, they haven't been against the absolute best in the league. But is a win still a win? CM: All you can do is take the teams on your schedule. I think there's a lot of mediocrity in the NFL, to be honest. If you're supposed to beat those teams, and you beat them, that's a good sign. I just look more at some of the indicators within those wins. Kyler Murray is playing at an elite level, and has for most of the season. This offense has found different ways to beat teams, whether it's through the run game led by James Conner, or when that's taken away on rare occasion, beating them through the air. And the defense, I don't know how much more you can say about the job Nick Rallis has done as a defensive coordinator. They've lost a bunch of guys to injuries, there's already talk that this unit was deficient in terms of talent along the defensive line, on the edge, maybe at cornerback, and yet here they are, playing their best ball of the season not having allowed a touchdown in three straight home games. I think there are a lot of good things happening with this team right now, and football is an emotional game. This team is feeling it right now. We'll see if they can sustain that emotion, that vibe that they had going into the bye, but there are a lot of good things happening with this football team right now. PB: You mentioned Kyler Murray playing at an elite level -- what has helped take him to the next stratosphere in the league? CM: You can't just say it's one thing. Yes, his relationship with Jonathan Gannon matters. Yes, his relationship with Drew Petzing and Israel Woolfork matter. All of that is coming into play, but we had a sense at the start of the season that Kyler Murray was just exhibiting a different kind of maturity. With all the trials he had been through. The injury that he had to come back from, he's learned a lot. He's coming of age. Look at him in terms of years of age right now. This is where guys mature. He's an adult now, and he understands things a lot more. He's playing like it. He's not turning the ball over. Ball security is so important. He's just making really good decisions, most of the time, on the field, to put his team in a position to win. They talk about playing complementary football, where the offense is complementing the defense. Kyler Murray is not putting his defense in bad situations, and that's helping the team win, as well. He just looks like a mature, complete, elite quarterback right now. I don't think he's going to win the MVP because Lamar Jackson is having an unbelievable season, but he is in that conversation, and he belongs in that conversation. Swagger is Real, and the Cardinals Have it Right NowPB: You've seen this team from summer camp to where it is now. How would you describe the bond the Cardinals share? CM: Bond is a really good word to use, actually. When you've been around this industry for a long time, you know when it's just words and you know when it's real. With this team, it really feels real. That has to start with Jonathan Gannon. He's created a culture -- we hear that word so much in professional sports -- and it's a clichΓ© and it's often not true. You really feel like it's true with this team. Now, it's the NFL, things can change week-to-week, as we know, but this team really seems to believe in his message and they're living it. When I talk to players in the room, you'll hear something that Gannon says in a news conference, and then you'll go into the locker room and the players are repeating the words verbatim. It's not just that they're saying it -- you can feel it. They have bought into what he is preaching right now. Again, things can always change in this sport in particular, it can change in a heartbeat, but this team has bought into Jonathan Gannon right now. Phoenix is Transforming into a Football TownPB: OK, the question we all want to know - can this team make the playoffs, especially considering the final two games of their schedule are against division opponents? CM: This next five-game stretch decides it. In an ideal world, the games against the Rams and the 49ers to end the season won't mean anything. They have one team that currently has a winning record on their schedule over their next five games. If they can take care of business, and I'm not talking about a sweep, but if they can do really well in this stretch, they can put it away and get into the playoffs, which is crazy to talk about. They can also win their first NFC West title since 2015, and just the fourth in franchise history. PB: How much would that division crown mean to this community? CM: This has always been a Phoenix Suns town. I thought there was opportunity for other teams to step into the fold, but if there's one team that can take that mantle away from the Suns, it's the Cardinals. This is the NFL. The NFL is king in America. It's king just about everywhere in this country. If they have any sort of sustained run of success, or if they win the division title and get into the playoffs this year, they have the chance to be the crown jewel of The Valley. They've had that opportunity for a very long time. It would mean a lot to this community if the Cardinals won the division and got into the playoffs. It would mean a lot more if this was just the start of sustained success, which GM Monti Ossenfort is trying to build through the draft, and through having a quarterback in his prime under contract for a while that you can build around, rather than stopgaps like Kurt Warner or Carson Palmer. Editor's note: Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up for the FREE PHNX Daily here, and don't miss out on free, exclusive content about The Valley's top sports stories every morning! ποΈ ABOUT LAST NIGHT... β½ CIRCLE K CIRCLING BACK π¬ THAT'S WHAT THEY SAID
(results to be posted in Friday's newsletter) π GEAR UP π» DON'T MISS OUT |
The PHNX Daily brings you the top sports stories in Arizona every day, delivered right to your inbox! Follow along with all of your beloved AZ sports teams as we bring unique, free content featuring your favorite players, coaches and personalities from throughout the state's sports scene. You can also catch up on the most recent stories from your favorite PHNX writers, check out the most recent podcast from our vast offering of shows, and find all the information needed to see which of your teams are playing on any given day, what time they start, and where you can watch or listen to them. It's all free, delivered to you bright and early each and every morning!