The Arizona Cardinals are good enough 6-3 with a stranglehold on the NFC West to make the Valley of the Sun forget about former coach Dennis Green's "They are who we thought they were" rant, the one he spewed after a 2006 "Monday Night Football" loss to the Chicago Bears . In that game, the Cardinals blew a 20-point lead on the night they were showcasing their shiny new stadium in prime time.

They have come quite a ways since that debacle. They fired Green after that season and brought in Ken Whisenhunt, who has led the transformation. They have the NFL's most accurate and highest-rated quarterback in Kurt Warner, a 37-year-old veteran whose best years were already behind him, many thought. Their offense leads the NFL in points per game at 29.2 and the Cardinals have scored 20 or more points in 16 of their past 17 games.

Maybe more important, the Cardinals have learned to overcome adversity and win games in which they don't play that well. Case in point, Monday night's win over struggling San Francisco that ended the Cardinals' six-game losing streak on Mondays. The Cardinals gave up a game-opening 104-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, committed 10 penalties, allowed two more touchdown passes to raise the season total to 19 and had a defensive touchdown nullified by an offside penalty. But they got a huge stop at the end of the game to survive, 29-24, and take a four-game lead over the three other teams in the NFC West.

Now Arizona, in its 21st season in the Phoenix area with only one postseason (1998) and three .500 or better campaigns, is poised to win its first division title.

"This team has not been in this position before, and whenever you are faced with that you have concerns about how you're going to handle it," Whisenhunt said. "There have been a number of years where a lot of players on this team, and they've said this, where they've been out of it at this time of the year. They're excited that we're in the position that we're in, but I think we're also not losing sight of the fact that it's not over by any stretch."

The Cardinals found a way to win. They didn't panic or point fingers as they might have done in the past. They didn't have to rely on just a prolific offense.

"Maybe there was a tendency by our players to maybe think that something was going to go wrong, almost `waiting for that other shoe to drop' mentality," Whisenhunt said. "That's where we've made progress as a team. Returning the opening kickoff against us for a touchdown in the Monday night game is something that's very hard to overcome. I don't know that necessarily we could have done that last year."

Warner is one major reason why there is a resurgence in the desert. The former arena Football quarterback-turned-two-time NFL Most Valuable Player with the St . Louis Rams began the 2007 season as Matt Leinart's backup. But he ended up starting 11 games when Leinart was lost to a season-ending injury. Warner lost his first three games but rallied to lead Arizona to an 8-8 finish and had four 300-yard games.

When the Cardinals won their final two games last season, Whisenhunt knew they were on track to continued improvement. Warner won the starting job out of the exhibition season, and all he has done is put up numbers worthy of MVP consideration five 300-yard games (three in a row), 19 touchdowns to only six interceptions, a 70.7 completion percentage and nine straight games with two or more touchdown passes.

Warner, not exactly fleet afoot, has also displayed a knack for getting rid of the ball before the pass rush gets to him, putting the ball in a place where his big targets Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Steve Breaston and Jerheme Urban can go up for the ball.

Warner said he thinks he can play at a high level for two more seasons after 2008 and wants to finish his career with the Cardinals. But fans in Arizona are grateful for this year there's a buzz about the team that has never been there before.

"We've been trying for so long to get these fans really behind this team and excited about what we're doing," Warner said. "It's neat to be a part of that, to see the change that has taken place here in the community."

Jos? Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com

Sunday

Arizona Cardinals @ Seahawks,

1:05 p.m., Ch. 13