"Bye" the Way, No Cardinals Football This Week Sucks!

There seems to be a general consensus around Cardinal-land that, while early in the season, this week is a "good," or even "great," week for the struggling Cardinals to have their Bye Week.

The Bye Week, of course, is that NFL’s annual reprieve from the weekly grind. That once a season opportunity to heal minor wounds, rest strained hammies, and/or fix what otherwise may be ailing a player...or a team.

In the Cards' case, it’s both. Anquan Boldin will get to rest that hamstring. Kurt Warner will get some relief to his surgically repaired hip pain, shoulder stinger, and assorted other bumps and bruises. Steve Breaston’s knee, Darnell Dockett, Levi Brown, and Rashad Johnson’s aching ankles, Early Doucett and Sean Morey’s ribs, and other players' nicks and scratches, will get a break.

Team-wise, the Cardinals clearly need to do something to emerge from their current funk. According to head coach Ken Whisenhunt, that includes going back to the basics and working on fundamentals. And there’s little doubt that he’s on to something.

The pass blocking fundamentally stinks. Not on every play, but in general, they are playing worse than they were last year. Same five guys, same OL coach Russ Grimm. But they aren’t playing “on the same page.”

The running game basically stinks. Much of that has to do with the fundamentally under-achieving OL, but it may be a good time to work on those sub-receiver packages that kept Beanie Wells on the bench in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Colts pasting.

There are a multitude of reasons why, when someone says that its a "good" or "great" week, they are right.

But that doesn’t make the Bye Week suck any less for your average fan. It doesn’t make it suck any less for the football junkie that needs his fix. And it certainly doesn’t make it suck any less for those of us who write about our team, but find a dearth of news and info to chew on, and through our tireless fingers, spit back out for the masses to chew on.

And spit back out, as the case may be.

This is the weekend that you told yourself (and/or your significant other) last weekend (and all previous weekends) that you would take advantage of, and accomplish otherwise unaccomplished chores, projects, or honey-do’s around the house.

This may be the weekend that you finally take the kids on that long promised trip to the zoo or the park, instead of sitting down in the Lay-Z-boy at 10 a.m. with remote in hand, ready for your 10 straight hour football-fest.

This Bye Week may be "good" or "great" for all kinds of reasons. Most of them legitimate.

But it’s only Tuesday. Wednesday is generally the day that the coaches introduce a new game plan for the coming Sunday’s opponent. Instead, my team will go through very light practices tomorrow, maybe watch some film, and basically saunter around in sweats. They may do the same on Thursday. Or not.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday they won’t work at all. They will rest, relax, convalesce, and maybe actually do a few of those long promised honey-do’s themselves.

But not me. I’ll be in my Lay-Z-boy, remote in hand, watching football teams play that I don’t really care that much about, for 10 hours. And regardless of the positives, I'll be thinking how much the Bye Week sucks.