Arizona Cardinals facing tough decisions during bye week

Let’s face it the Arizona Cardinals are in serious trouble! Five straight losses and the Cardinals next game is against the undefeated Atlanta Falcons.

Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said he’ll make changes if changes are necessary and said his staff will spend this bye week evaluating every single player and decide if they need to replace anyone with the next guy on the depth chart.

Harsh words from the head coach, especially given who he has on the roster. The reality is there are a number of starters who just aren’t playing up to their potential, but the question is: “How do you get them to perform at a higher level?”

The problem is, he doesn’t have anyone on the roster that’s going to play any better than the guy who’s ahead of him. The resources are limited, and there’s only so much you can do with guys who are on the practice squad. So who’s he going to replace them with?

Like I said, there’s nobody better on the sidelines! But then again, perhaps benching a player or two this next week would send a very important message to all the guys, and the ones who aren’t living up to expectations would get that message!

The bottom line for me this bye week is having the coaches spend a whole lot of time on figuring out how to get the guys on the field to simply play at a higher level, because it’s clear they’re not doing that right now!

With the current losing streak at five games and counting, the Cardinals have now had a five or more game losing streak in each of the last three seasons: a seven game losing streak in 2010, a six game losing streak in 2011 and now, possibly another six game (or more) losing streak in 2012.

Those are the things that get coaches fired long before they should! And frankly, I like this head coach and this coaching staff, so to me, it’d be a shame to see them lose their jobs! Let’s hope not!

That’s Fouhy on Sports!