As the Vikings prepare to host Arizona on Sunday at Mall of America Field, we asked Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic to give us his up-close-and-personal scouting report on the 1-3 Cardinals. Here are four things you need to know … 1) Like the Vikings, the Cardinals think they are close to turning a corner and becoming a dangerous team. Unlike the Vikings, Arizona plays in a division that seems to present a greater opportunity for a resurgence.At 0-4, the Vikings are a full four games back of two teams in their division – Green Bay and Minnesota. The Cardinals, meanwhile, at 1-3 are just two back of San Francisco in the NFC West. It's also worth pointing out that the Seahawks won that division last season with a 7-9 record. Translation: Arizona can eye a run at a playoff berth much more realistically at this point than Minnesota. Said Somers: "The division is a big part of that. They've had three losses by a total of eight points. So the feeling in the locker room is pretty good. It's a more veteran team than people realize. So you have guys on the team who realize they've blown a couple of great opportunities. And sometimes it's hard to make those up later in the year, because their schedule gets much tougher. After the Vikings and the bye, they have the Steelers and Ravens beyond that. So it's certainly not going to be easy to get on a run. " 2) After an injury-plagued 2010 season, Beanie Wells had a career-game in last Sunday's 31-27 loss to the Giants.Wells had 27 carries for 138 yards and scored three touchdowns, providing the kind of ground-game punch that the Cardinals have lacked forever. When healthy, Wells' power can prove dangerous. In the three games he's played this season, he's averaged rushing 107 yards and 5.4 yards per carry. He did, however, miss Arizona's Sept. 25 game in Seattle with a hamstring injury. Still, Somers believes last week's explosion was not a tease. "Wells is legitimate," he said. "This is a much better team when he's healthy. If he had been healthy in Seattle, they likely would have won that game. They had a lot of third-and-short problems there. But Beanie has been very physical. He finishes guys off at the end of runs. He has some breakaway speed. They've done a good job of giving him room to run. But he's also found ways to make something out of nothing numerous times. He's 225 pounds and he's fast. So he'll be a load for anybody to handle." 3) Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald continues to draw double teams. The Arizona offense continues to look for ways around that."Fitzgerald is getting doubled almost all the time," Somers said. "He's getting bracketed or defenses are rolling coverage that way. But the Cardinals have been able to get the ball to him though. He's caught three or four long passes. He scored on a 73-yarder against the Redskins. You can't double him the entire game. The whole key is finding spots where he is singled up. Last week [against New York] they hit him up with shorter passes. They worked the slant quite a bit. He's so big and physical that he can catch that in front of most defensive backs and make plays from there." The real difficulty with the Cardinals is that the supporting cast hasn't been able to make plays consistently with so much attention paid to Fitzgerald. 4) The Cardinals have lost three consecutive games thanks in part to a shaky defense that hasn't been able to make big plays down the stretch of games.Remember Cam Newton's dazzling rookie debut when he threw for a rookie record 422 yards? Yep, that was against Arizona. (Though the Cards did rally to win that game.) In Week 2, the Cardinals gave up 10 points in the final 5:30 of a 22-21 road loss at Washington. And last week in the fourth quarter, the Giants racked up 177 yards and 21 points to rally for a 31-27 win. "They don't have a premier pass rusher or a pass rushing threat at all," Somers said. "That's not Darnell Dockett's game really. They're trying to get by at outside linebacker with Joey Porter and Clark Haggans. They're both 34 years old. So they're without a Jared Allen or Dwight Freeney type to put heat on quarterbacks. And at the end of games, other teams move the ball pretty easily. Plus, the Cardinals have two young cornerbacks in Patrick Peterson and A.J. Jefferson starting for the first time. So those guys look good at times. And they do some head-scratching things and get beat on decisive plays at other times."