Tough Christmas week marked the turning point for Cardinals

January 29, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Even the weather in Arizona was gloomy in the aftermath of the Cardinals’ 40-point loss to New England.

One game remained before the playoffs began, and coach Ken Whisenhunt was mad.

“That was the first time I ... saw him really upset,” nose tackle Bryan Robinson said.

The grueling Christmas week of practice that followed somehow transformed these NFL chumps into NFC champs who face Pittsburgh Sunday in the Super Bowl.

“I think it’s easy to look back on it now and say that it was the turning point,” Whisenhunt said on Wednesday. “Obviously, I was very upset with the way we were playing. I also was concerned about a playoff game being two weeks away and the style of football that we were playing.”

Concerned is way too mild a word. He was as embarrassed as he was angry, and he apologized to the community.

“We’ve worked hard to create something here, to gain the trust of a lot of our fans,” he said at the time, “and we feel like we’ve let them down.”

Whisenhunt then issued a public warning to his players.

“We’ve got a few guys that need to pick up their game,” he said then. “If they don’t, they’ll be some other guys playing.”

Whisenhunt put the team in full pads for heavy workouts in a chilly rain on Christmas Eve day. Christmas morning was the same; the weather even more miserable for a team accustomed to sunny workouts with temperatures in the 70s.

Usually low-keyed, Whisenhunt let his team have it.

“He said, ‘You know what? Bring the big-boy pads,” Robinson said Wednesday. “That’s the only way I know to basically show I’m not lettin’ up, that I’m keeping my foot on the gas pedal. We’ll see what happens.”’

Whisenhunt told the players that anyone who didn’t give it his all would not play in the playoffs.

“It made us wake up and realize the playoffs were coming and if we were going to keep playing like we did, we would have a short playoff run,” defensive end Bertrand Berry said.

The Cardinals had surrendered without a fight in New England; they trailed 28-0 at the half and 44-0 after three quarters.

The Patriots rolled for 514 yards, 183 on the ground and 331 through the air. Kurt Warner completed 6 of 18 passes for 30 yards. The players seemed more interested in huddling around the sideline space heaters than in playing football.

Then there was the trip home.

Bad weather kept the team charter on a Providence, R.I., runway for 21‚Ñ2 hours. Once airborne, the plane ran into severe headwinds, forcing a refueling stop in Minneapolis.

All through the 14-hour journey, Whisenhunt simmered. His team, which had started the season 7-3 and ran away with the weak NFC West, had lost four of five. A defeat in the season finale against Seattle would send the Cardinals into the playoffs at 8-8.

“I think he was real disappointed in that he felt like he’d taken care of us all year, taken care of our bodies, being healthy, cutting down reps in practice,” Robinson said, “and then we go out there and lay an egg.”

Make that eggs.

The first fell in a 48-20 blowout at Philadelphia in front of a national television audience Thanksgiving night. Brian Westbrook ran over, through and around the defense.

The following week the lowly St. Louis Rams came to town, and Arizona clinched the NFC West with a 34-10 victory. It was a bit of fool’s gold for Cardinals’ fans. When the competition got tough again, Arizona folded like a cheap tent.

In its worst home performance in Whisenhunt’s two seasons, the Cardinals lost to Minnesota 35-14, allowing Adrian Peterson to rush for 165 yards and Tarvaris Jackson to throw for four scores.

“Those games shocked us a little bit,” Warner said. “We were playing good teams, and it was like, all of a sudden, a cloud moved over us and said, ‘Hey, this is what it is going to be about. These are what the teams are like in the playoffs. You better show up.’ “

Whisenhunt put the players in full pads to get their attention.

“I think our players essentially bought into that,” Whisenhunt said. “There was a sense of urgency that we recaptured that week.”

Arizona is 4-0 since then.

The Cardinals beat the Seahawks 34-21 in Seattle’s final game under coach Mike Holmgren. They opened the playoffs by beating Atlanta 30-24, then stunned the Panthers in Carolina 33-13 before beating Philadelphia 32-25 to win the NFC championship.

Few sports turnarounds have been more dramatic.

“We kind of had an up and down year where there were times we weren’t prepared for and we didn’t handle very well,” assistant head coach Russ Grimm said. “But we’re a young football team. They’re learning as they go, so we just have to see if we can put together one more.”