Forget the fact that they're two games up on the up-and-down Seahawks.
The high-flying Arizona Cardinals (6-2) know that their early-season success will be thrust under the microscope on Sunday night against Seattle (4-4).
"Those guys are kind of in our way,"Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu said of last year's NFC champions, per the Associated Press. "We want to go somewhere, and we have to go through those guys."
Coach Bruce Arians is 1-3 against Seattle after topping the 'Hawks 10-7 in a bruising, white-knuckled affair in 2013. Arizona dropped both bouts last season without Carson Palmer in the lineup.
The Cardinals quarterback is now healthy and playing the best football of his career, but doubters point to Arizona's fast start and note that none of their victims own a winning record.
But first comes Sunday night, leaving Arians to tell reporters this week that "you'll have two teams with their chests sticking out."
Mathieu disagreed with his coach, saying: "We're 6-2, so we should be the more confident team."
