(My Sportsbook) - On Sunday it looked as if that maybe, just maybe, the Arizona Cardinals were starting to turn the corner. Granted it was the hapless San Francisco 49ers they were playing, but through three and a half quarters they seemed well on their way to their second consecutive victory.

However, after Larry Fitzgerald's 24-yard touchdown reception with 8:19 left in the game gave the Cards a 28-12 advantage, the wheels fell off. San Francisco reeled off two touchdowns with two, two-point conversions to send the game to overtime, then won the game, 31-28, early in the extra session on a 32- yard field goal.

"I've been in worse losses and I didn't like any one of them," head coach Dennis Green said. "But that's just the way it is when you're in the National Football League. Psychologically, I think the team has to understand one thing: when you play 60 plus minutes and you play more than our opponent plays, you can beat him. If you don't, he can beat you."

Green breaks the season up into four, four-game phases and Arizona came out of the first phase with a 1-4 mark. A win on Sunday, though. would have put the Cards at 2-3, and only one game back of the NFC West division leading Seattle Seahawks, who they play in two weeks.

"We are finishing up this phase very disappointingly because we expected to be a lot better than 1-4," said Green. "We have a lot of work to do this week."

Josh McCown threw for 231 yards and three touchdowns on 19-of-34 passing for the Cardinals, who suffered their 16th consecutive road loss. Emmitt Smith contributed 63 yards and a score on 16 carries for Arizona, which was trying for its first road win since October 6, 2002 at Carolina

The Cards' offense, though, netted only 10 yards on its final two fourth- quarter possessions. Even with the horrible loss, Green does not want to hear that these are the "same old Cardinals".

"If you only love football when you win, that is not a good deal," said Green, who was 11-5 in his first year with the Vikings and endured one losing season, his last, in Minnesota. "If you only love football when you are not disappointed, that is not a good deal other. Winning going into the bye was a critical part of us rebuilding this program. That is irritating. Having a lead and closing a team out is a critical part of turning around this program."

The Cardinals will have an extra week to get over Sunday's collapse, as they have a bye this coming Sunday. No truth to the rumor that the bye is a three- point favorite.

"We've got a lot of issues that have to be solved," said Green. "We've solved some of them but a lot of them we were putting band-aids on. This bye comes at the right time. I think we'll solve a lot of our issues, do some surgery, not band-aids and I think we'll emerge stronger."

INJURIES: Arizona will only have two practices this week which allow players like Bertrand Berry, Duane Starks (shoulder), Smith (groin), McCown (hand) and James Darling (calf) to recover from injuries.

"This bye week will give us a chance to rest, physically and mentally, try to get some of our stamina back and be in a position to be at full strength, rest some guys who are nicked up here and there and just get close to 100% as we can going into Seattle," said Berry.

UP NEXT: Arizona has a bye this week