The Arizona Cardinals sit atop the difficult NFC West and lead the NFL with a 6-1 record. Larry Fitzgerald believes the best is still ahead for the team from the desert, and the wide receiver had an interesting comparison for the Cards' penchant for winning close, scrappy games.
"We're a blue collar, grind-it-out team right now," Fitzgerald told The Arizona Republic. "We're the San Antonio Spurs. We're not flashy. We'll take all those ugly, nasty, sloppy wins. But we're not even close to fulfilling our potential on offense. And it would be nice to put it all together."
We'll attribute the stretch comparison to the multiple-champion Spurs to Fitzgerald catching NBA tip-off fever.
The more nuanced point that Fitzgerald is trying to make is well-taken. The Cardinals are finding ways to churn out wins with a cast of mostly unknowns or aging veterans on defense, while the offenses has a host of different players who step up each week to make plays.
Like the yearly chorus of people calling each new season the end of the Spurs' run, some are waiting for the Cardinals to fall off the proverbial cliff with a rough schedule down the stretch of the second half of the 2014 season.
There are also those waiting for Fitzgerald -- who had an 80-yard catch-and-run score last week -- to slow down. However, the 31-year-old isn't worried about the noise.
"I'm squeezing all the juice out of the proverbial lemon," Fitzgerald said. "I've always been the best at what I do, even from high school. People will always nitpick. They said LeBron James couldn't make jump shots. When Sammy Sosa was hitting 60 home runs, they said he couldn't hit curveballs. People always find things to say about you. I don't listen to that. I work hard on my strengths and harder on my weaknesses."
The latest Around The NFL Podcast breaks down the league at the midway point and previews Saints-Panthers. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.
