Warner keeps it realistic

Kurt Warner, if anyone, understands the fairy-tale possibilities of the NFL.

His career path -- from supermarket bag boy to Super Bowl star, and beyond -- underscores how the wildly improbable can sometimes become reality.

But Warner, now quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals, also understands those grocery bags-to-riches stories don’t come easily, and they don’t come often. So he’s heading into today’s divisional playoff game against the heavily favored Carolina Panthers with that in mind.

“Very seldom do teams that are in the playoffs for the first time in a long time just run the table and win the Super Bowl,” said Warner, whose Cardinals beat Atlanta last Saturday in their club’s first home playoff game since 1947. “It’s always a process and you’re always growing and learning.

“The one thing we’ve learned this year is that even though we’ve played really good at times and have beaten some really good teams, we haven’t been a great football team all year long.”

The Cardinals, who won the NFC West but staggered into the postseason having lost four of their last six games, played a tremendous defensive game in the 30-24 victory over the Falcons, and saw a flicker of life from their 32nd-ranked running game. Arizona’s Edgerrin James rushed for 73 yards in 16 carries, proving that his 100-yard rushing performance in the finale against Seattle wasn’t a fluke.

“Hopefully, after the last two weeks, we’re a little more balanced,” said Warner, who directed the league’s second-ranked passing attack. “We can do more things in the course of a game to keep teams off-balance.

“The big thing is that we needed a boost to our running game. To feel confident that we could do that and take chances handing the ball off and not feeling like it was going to hurt us. The way that [James] has played, and the veteran he is, and his understanding of the game, all of that, has been huge for us.”

Arizona will need all it can get from James today, especially because the Cardinals could be without star receiver Anquan Boldin, who sat out of practice all week because of a sore hamstring. He scored two touchdowns and tore off a 30-yard run in a 27-23 loss at Carolina in Week 8.

But it’s not as if the Cardinals absolutely need Boldin for a chance to pull off an upset. After all, they were 3-1 when they didn’t have him this season. The Cardinals say they will make a decision on him within a couple of hours of kickoff, and Coach Ken Whisenhunt told reporters that if Boldin is ready, the Cardinals will have to be careful about how they use him.

“The issue you have is if he’s able to contribute, then you are going to have to make sure [his hamstring] stays warm, and you’re not just getting him one play here and one play there,” Whisenhunt said.

On paper, at least, the advantage leans sharply in Carolina’s direction. The Panthers, favored by 10 points, are 8-0 at home this season and, as a franchise, are 3-0 in divisional playoff games. The Panthers scored at least 28 points in each of their last seven games and boast the league’s No. 3 ground game, featuring the one-two punch of running backs DeAngelo Williams (1,515 yards) and Jonathan Stewart (836).

Williams finished third in rushing this season, 245 yards behind Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson, who won the rushing crown. The player between them was Atlanta’s Michael Turner (1,699) -- a player the Cardinals essentially shut down last weekend.

Although he scored a touchdown, Turner ran for only 42 yards in 18 carries, tying his low for the season. It was an outstanding performance by an Arizona defense that finished the regular season a middle-of-the-road 16th against the run.

That was further evidence that the playoffs are a new season, and not always reflective of what happened during the 17 weeks before.

That said, Warner says he thinks the Cardinals still have a lot of room for growth.

“Yeah, I’d like to win every game, but we’re not there as a football team,” he said. “We’re not a great football team yet. But that’s what we’re working toward, and that’s what we have to understand.”

So, as he heads into today’s game, hoping to string together consecutive playoff victories in the same Cardinals season, he has his eyes just the way he likes his receivers.

Wide open.

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sam.farmer@latimes.com