Biggs: Cardinals hope to regroup quickly

The decade has not been kind to Super Bowl losers, and if the Arizona Cardinals had any doubts about whether it’s a jinx, a trend or something in between, they’ve now at least got an idea.

Get this: According to the team’s Web site, safety Adrian Wilson has already proposed that some of the team’s leaders have a meeting to map out a strategy to regroup. If that’s not a signal from within that things aren’t right in the desert, I don’t know what is. They lost their opener on Sunday 20-16 to the San Francisco 49ers at University of Phoenix Stadium. The high-flying offense that guided the Cardinals to the Super Bowl last season was grounded. Who didn’t see this coming?

APSafety Adrian Wilson is calling for a team meeting.

Of the last eight Super Bowl losers, only the Seattle Seahawks in 2006 rebounded to make the playoffs the next season, and that’s only because they’re in the NFC West where no other team was worth a darn. Of those eight teams, only that Seattle bunch (9-7) and the New England Patriots (11-5) last season posted winning records the following year. The Oakland Raiders have yet to come out of the spiral they plunged into after losing Super Bowl XXVII. They were 4-12 the next year, and that’s about been par for the course for Al Davis since. The team of the decades would rather forget most of this one.

But let’s get back to the Cardinals. It’s just one game, but they travel to Jacksonville this week and then host Indianapolis before a bye week that is probably too early to be very beneficial. Arizona was sloppy in the preseason and came out sloppy against the Niners with 12 penalties for 82 yards. The defense played well, holding running back Frank Gore to 30 yards on 22 rushes, but let’s be clear about one thing — this club is not going to win because of its defense. Missing former coordinator Clancy Pendergast doesn’t seem to be a significant blow. Losing offensive coordinator Todd Haley is a big blow. If Haley was there, the Cardinals wouldn’t be blaming ineffectiveness in the opener on the loss of third receiver Steve Breaston to a swollen knee before the game. He’s the third receiver. Ken Whisenhunt is calling plays again, and that’s a significant burden for a head coach.

The Cardinals’ offensive line has questions about it entering the season, and those were not unfounded. Parys Haralson used right tackle Levi Brown as a turnstile. He sacked Kurt Warner only once but hit him four other times. The Niners got to Warner with a four-man rush, and Warner looked 38, not like the energized MVP candidate he was a year ago. Old habits don’t die, either; the running game was nonexistent. Afterward, Warner said he couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong.

“I think they understand what happened to us was self-inflicted,” Whisenhunt said. “I’m not taking anything away from San Francisco. They certainly won that game. (But) hopefully we are mature enough as a team we will understand that we can handle and deal with that correctly.”

There’s dealing with an issue and then there is the idea of a team meeting. That sounds like at least Wilson knows something isn’t right. Recent history ought to tell him as much.

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