The Arizona Cardinals are a very bad football team. Or are they? Sorry if you’re still laughing. Yes, they are a bad team. Their offensive line is pathetic. But the rest of this club isn’t that bad. They’re just undisciplined. At -3 against the San Francisco 49ers this week, you’ve got to be thinking an upset is a distinct possibility. I don’t think so.

The Cardinals played the Leftwich-Taylor-less Jaguars tough last week, and really took their 7-point loss badly. Anquan Boldin was ready to strangle Donovan Darius, and Kurt Warner looked about as peeved as I’ve ever seen him.

The Cards go into San Francisco at 3-8. They’ve got the 23rd ranked D, the 32nd ranked rushing attack, and the #2 pass offense in the NFL. Kurt Warner was 29-46 for 315 yards and 2 TDs against a good Jaguars’ pass-defense. San Francisco, last in the league with 400.7 yards allowed/game, surrender an average of 281 through the air on any given Sunday.

I wonder what’s going to happen?

Alex Smith gets the start for San Francisco and Ken Dorsey goes to the bench. Smith, the #1 overall pick in the 2005 draft, looked anything but good in limited action this season. I don’t know how you can expect him to do anything but get killed leading the league’s 32nd ranked offense. He has duck-and-cover Lloyd at WR, and a couple of decent options at RB in Gore and Barlow. Well, the Cardinals sure aren’t a smart football team, but I’m guessing even they’re bright enough to know that you bring pressure against this guy every down.

Can Smith lead the Niners to an upset? Considering Kurt Warner probably finishes with 300+ yards passing, I’d say a San Francisco win/cover is highly unlikely. They’re a different team at home, but they’re still not good.

Expect the Cardinals to employ the gameplan they used to score 38 in St. Louis. They’ve already beat the Niners 31-14 this year (Week 4), and there’s no reason why their terrible O-line and penalty-prone D can’t pull it together and make a decent stretch-run.