E: Cardinals win unconventionally

Conventionally speaking, Sunday's win over the defending Super Bowl champs couldn't have been more unconventional.

Congrats if you started Levi Brown on your fantasy team as the short yardage specialist near the goal line.

How about the fact New Orleans nearly doubled the Cards in total yards and the Red Birds rushed for a mere 41.

Even worse, Arizona was just 4-15 on third-down conversions.

30-20 Arizona.

Yep, just what we thought all along.

It was far from perfect and not always pretty, but it's awfully nice going into the bye all by yourself atop the NFC West.

Maybe we all should have seen this coming on 10-10-10.

On a day when all eyes at the University of Phoenix Stadium (including those of some guy named Kurt Warner) were on Max Hall, Big Red's defense stole the show playing easily their most complete game of the year.

You win with defense in the NFL and the Cardinals could not have picked a better time to put it all together, at least for a week.

It's apparent something just isn't quite right with Drew Brees and the Saints' offense (four trips to the red zone, only one touchdown), but nobody around here has forgotten New Orleans 45-14 "Big Red Beat Down in the Bayou" back in January.

Sunday Bill Davis' defense was focused, aggressive, and most importantly opportunistic scoring twice (a fumble recovery by Kerry Rhodes and pick-6 by DRC) and putting Hall in position for success, not one-dimensionally swimming upstream like he was last week in San Diego.

His first regular season start was a case of good (seven completions to Larry Fitzgerald for 93 yards), bad (a forced 1st-quarter interception and two fumbles), and at times ugly (nearly getting his head ripped off by Anthony Hargrove trying to scramble near the goal line).

When they raised the curtain just after 1:00 Sunday in Glendale, the local kid from Mesa re-energized the crowd, but may have done something much more important: jump-started his team and possibly saved a season which looked to be spiraling out of control.

Whatever Hall is selling, his teammates are certainly buying.

After the game Ken Whisenhunt agreed. "Our team was excited to see what Max could do. I think he answered the bell...we all have belief that he's going to continue to improve and get better. We're excited about that right now."

Trust me, after watching Derek Anderson the first four weeks, you're not the only one Whiz.