FOXBOROUGH - The Patriots can try to downplay the advantage the weather will give them today against the Arizona Cardinals, but even if meteorology is not an advantage for them, geography is.

The Cardinals are 0-4 this season in games played on the East Coast, losing to Washington, the Jets, Carolina, and Philadelphia. The NFL's five westernmost teams - Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, and Arizona - are 1-15 in games on the East Coast this season. The only victory was the 49ers' 10-3 win over Buffalo Nov. 30.

All but the Eagles game, which was on a Thursday night, were 1 p.m. EST starts for the Cardinals, who made like the Patriots and stayed on the East Coast between games when they played the Redskins and Jets back to back in September.

While Arizona is on Mountain Time, the state does not observe daylight saving time, so the Redskins, Jets, and Panthers games were 10 a.m. starts for the Cardinals. Today's game at 1 will be an 11 a.m. start for the Cardinals, since daylight saving time has ended.

"It's a tough challenge, just from the standpoint of the effect on your body and playing the 1 o'clock games," said Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt.

"It's very difficult. We've done a number of different things and finally settled on leaving Friday afternoon, which gives us a day to acclimate. The last time that we did it was against Carolina, and we played the best that we've played on the East Coast, so we're hoping that our routine and how we do it will help us in this game."

Despite the snow, Arizona was able to get in on Friday. The Cardinals touched down in Providence just before 10 Friday night.

Whisenhunt, who was the Steelers' offensive coordinator before becoming Cardinals coach, said teams that have to go East to West like the Patriots, who played four games on the West Coast this year, aren't at quite as big a disadvantage as teams traveling from West to East.

"I've done it many times going East to West and it's not as difficult, in my opinion, going that way," said Whisenhunt. "It was very new to me, being here in Arizona and having to come back East. We've played a number of games - five this year and three last year - so it's always going to be something that we're faced with.

"It was tough for me, just from the standpoint of mentally and physically what it does to you when you get there and having to adjust to the time. The thing that we found was a lot of times we started very slowly in those games because we were sluggish starting out. Hopefully, coming in a day earlier and acclimating ourselves has helped us."

Glitch in system

Patriots coach Bill Belichick is not a big fan of the league's defensive coach-to-player communication system, which was implemented this year, but the Patriots have used it in every game, according to linebacker Mike Vrabel.

"Yeah, I think it's helpful," said Vrabel, who wears a helmet with a green dot on the back signifying it carries the communication device. "The coaches can tell me things. I can't say anything back. I wish it was a two-way. I could say some things back to them, `Quit yelling in my ear,' stuff like that. We're still working with it, just like I'm sure when the offense started with it they were working through some glitches."

The Patriots have used the system in rain but not in snow. Regardless of the weather, Belichick said the Patriots have to be ready to play without it.

"I mean, it's not a very consistent operation, period," said Belichick. "So, I think we go into every game [thinking] if it works, it works, if it doesn't, we're prepared for that.

"I would venture to say probably in 80 percent of our games this year at some point it hasn't functioned correctly, or we got into a situation the last two weeks where Mike was out of the game. It didn't have anything to do with the operation, but he was out of the game, so then we had to go back to another method of communicating the defenses."

Faulk a team player

Running back Kevin Faulk needs just 12 rushing yards today to pass Corey Dillon (3,180) for seventh place on the team's all-time list.

That seems likely to happen, considering Faulk is averaging 6.2 yards per carry, the most in the NFL of any player who has gained at least 500 yards - Faulk has 506 yards on 82 carries.

"Somebody told me [that] a couple of weeks ago, but, hey, that's not helping anything in the team stats," said Faulk.

Boldin makes trip

Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who did not practice all week because of a shoulder injury and is listed as questionable for today's game, made the trip. Boldin is the Cardinals' leader in receptions with 89 for 1,038 yards. His 11 touchdown receptions are tops in the NFL ... The Patriots are 9-0 all time in Foxborough when snow has fallen during the game. They are 23-4 since 1993 in games in which the kickoff temperature is 34 degrees or colder ... The Cardinals will make their first appearance at Gillette Stadium. The last time they played the Patriots in Foxborough was Sept. 15, 1996, a 31-0 New England victory. Only two teams haven't played at Gillette since it opened in 2002, the Panthers and Falcons. Both play at Gillette next season.