Winning with the Indianapolis Colts was just a warm up for Coach Bruce Arians. He brought that team to win in a city that was used to winning. Here in the desert it is another story entirely. The futility of a franchise that only two or three other fan bases know of (I am looking at you Browns and Lions fans). Coach Arians has seemingly done the impossible. After taking the team over and changing almost half of the roster he has created a winner.
You can see the changes all around. He has taken a rag-tag offensive line, a cast-away quarterback in Carson Palmer and made use of the future hall of famer that is Larry Fitzgerald. Centering all of these pieces around a monster defense and made them winners.
Last year the Cardinals had a losing streak of nine games. That's three straight years with losing streaks of six games or longer. To take a team with the reputation for losing and turn it around in one fell swoop is nothing short of amazing.
Coach Arians won last year's coach of the year award simply because he kept the Colts alive while Chuck Pagano battled cancer. He led them to a 9-3 record. With three games left to play a lot can still happen in determining his and the teams fate. The coaching job he has done only rivals that of Ron Rivera and his miracle Panthers and that of Chip Kelly and their "great college offense."
Not since 1966. When Charley Winner was coaching the Cardinals has this team seen a coach win seven of his first eleven games. That's 14 coaches, and only Bruce Arians has completed this task.
With Arians offense the Cardinals have scored 305 points through 13 games. That's 55 points more than all of last season. The offense has scored 34 touchdowns which is nine more than all of last season combined. Many of the other major categories have been passed or are close to being overtaken within a game or two.
This season is certainly turning out special, and that can all be credited to Bruce Arians and the decisions he has made. This man deserves another coach of the year award in his trophy case.