Cards answer wake-up call

TAMPA, Fla. -- Even the weather in Arizona was gloomy in the aftermath of the Cardinals' 47-7 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 on 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."

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 workouts in a chilly rain on Christmas Eve day. Christmas morning was the same.

Usually low-keyed, Whisenhunt let his team have it. He told the players that anyone who didn't give it his all would not play in the playoffs.

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. 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.

Whisenhunt's team, which had started 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.

"He was real disappointed in the fact 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 awful defense.

The following week the lowly St. Louis Rams came to town, and Arizona clinched the NFC West with a 34-10 win. 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 in Arizona, the Cardinals lost to Minnesota 35-14, allowing Tarvaris Jackson to throw for four touchdowns.

"Those games shocked us a little bit," Warner said.

Whisenhunt said he put the players in full pads over Christmas 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.

"We're a young football team," assistant head coach Russ Grimm said. "They're learning as they go, so we just have to see if we can put together one more."