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Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner tries to fight off the sack of Ray McDonald of the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night.

And before we go celebrating a Cardinal renaissance, let’s see this most star-crossed of franchises beat a couple of elite teams. The Giants at home next week would be a good place to start. And if not them, then the Eagles in Philadelphia the following week. But failing to beat either of those teams, forget it.

There’s good reason to be skeptical of this peripatetic team that began life in 1920 in Chicago and spent a generation in St. Louis before moving on to Phoenix and Arizona. In 88 seasons, they’ve compiled a record of 470-670-39. To get to .500 for the life of the franchise, they’d have to go undefeated for the next 12.5 years.

In all of those seasons, they’ve been to the playoffs just six times. The first time was in 1947, and they actually won the NFL championship, beating the Eagles. They returned the following season and lost to the Eagles. They had back-to-back appearances in 1974-75, losing in the wild-card round both years. And since then, they’ve been to the playoffs just twice more, in 1982 and 1998. In that final appearance, they beat the Cowboys in the wild-card round for just their second playoff victory ever, then lost the following week to the Vikings, 41-21.

That’s their playoff history: 88 years as a franchise, six playoff appearances, two playoff victories, one title — 61 years ago. By comparison, the Chicago Cubs are a dynasty.

It’s not a case of “What have you done lately?” It’s “What have you done ever?” And when that’s the burden of history you carry, you don’t get a pat on the back for getting a gift victory over a bad team on Monday Night Football.

You can make excuses for them. The 49ers played with passion if not total precision under new coach Mike Singletary. But San Francisco’s determination didn’t make the Cards commit a host of really dumb penalties down the stretch. And there’s no explanation for what looked like a panicked defense that couldn’t stop the Niners on what should have been the winning drive.

The Cardinals never did stop San Francisco. The 49ers stopped themselves. And when you’re the Cardinals, historically the worst franchise in football, you’ve got to do more than that to make anyone believe in you.

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